Soros Reproductive Health and Rights Fellowships2005-2006 Soros Reproductive Health and Rights Fellows
Diane Cooper
Diana Cooper
is currently the executive director of the Women's Health Research
Unit in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of
Cape Town (UCT) in Cape Town , South Africa . She has been involved in research
in women's health and reproductive health in South Africa for the past 15 years.
Her areas of research interest include the social determinants of women’s
health; HIV and gender; contraception; transformation and integration of reproductive
health services in South Africa; risk factors for female cancers; and termination
of pregnancy. She also teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at
UCT in women’s health and in gender and health. Since 1994, Dr Cooper
has acted as an advisor on various national and local government health committees
reformulating women's health and reproductive health policy and service provision.
In addition, she has been involved over the past decade in grass-roots community
health and women's wellness projects in informal settlement suburbs of Cape
Town . Dr Cooper's holds undergraduate degrees in the Social Sciences and she
has a PhD in Public Health.
Jocelyn DeJong
Jocelyn DeJong lectures in social policy and social development at the Institute
for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester, UK.
She is currently conducting research on the application of Amartya Sen’s “capabilities” framework
to reproductive health in developing countries and on the relationship between
Development Studies and Middle East Studies, particularly as it applies to
health and gender issues. From 1992 to 1999, she directed a program in reproductive
health supporting advocacy, service and research programs in the Middle East
and North Africa region for the Ford Foundation in Cairo . During that time,
she was closely involved in the International Conference for Population and
Development and in initiatives to eradicate female genital mutilation in Egypt
. She holds a B.A. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University , an M.Phil.
in Development Studies from the Institute of Development Studies, University
of Sussex, and a Ph.D. in Health Policy from the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine.
Joan Kaufman
Joan Kaufman is Senior Scientist at the Heller School of Social
Policy and Management of Brandeis University, founding Director of the AIDS
Public Policy Project at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
, and Lecturer in Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School . She was the Ford
Foundation’s
Gender and Reproductive Health Program Officer for China from 1996-2001. She
was a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard University from 1001-2002, and a Visiting
Scholar at the East Asia Legal Studies Program of Harvard Law School from 2002-2003.
She was the first international UNFPA program officer for China from 1980-84.
She has been researching, writing, and working on the China population and
family planning program for nearly 30 years. Her book, A
Billion and Counting: Population and Family Planning Programs in the People’s
Republic of China, published in 1983, was one of the earliest histories
of China’s
population policy. While at the Ford Foundation in China , Joan supported early
responses to China’s AIDS epidemic, China’s population policy
reform, reproductive health and gender impacts of health privatization in China,
and support for China’s women’s movement especially for the
new dynamic women’s NGO community. Since 2001, her work has mainly focused
on HIV/AIDS and public policies. Joan has published widely on reproductive
health, AIDS, gender and international health topics.
Iulia Shevchenko
Iulia Shevchenko holds
a PhD degree in Political Science and is currently a Research Fellow at the
European University at St. Petersburg ( Russia ), where she specializes in
political and institutional development in the post-communist world, including
issues related to women’s rights and political participation.
She is the author of a book, The Central Government of
Russia: From Gorbachev to Putin, and many articles published in leading
academic journals, such as Europe-Asia Studies, and edited volumes. Iulia Shevchenko
is a recipient of fellowships from the John W. Kluge Center at the Library
of Congress, U.S. Social Science Research Council, and MacArthur Foundation.
Serra Sippel
Serra Sippel is director of the international program at Catholics for a Free
Choice (CFFC), based in Washington , DC . She has worked with scholars of religion
and ethics from the world’s major religions to ensure that
positive and progressive religious perspectives are included in public discourse
on women’s rights and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).
She has led delegations of religious leaders to United Nations’ meetings
that address SRHR and women’s rights and has participated on panels,
in conferences and trainings with Catholic women in Latin America and Africa
, and with Buddhist women in Asia . She has had numerous articles published
on issues around religion, SRHR and women’s rights. Ms. Sippel holds
a master’s degree in religion with an emphasis on peace and justice.
Anjali Widge
Anjali Widge is a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine. A sociologist based in New Delhi , she has worked with non-government
organisations, CARE and Population Council where her work involved research
and advocacy on reproductive health, livelihood and population policy related
issues. Her doctoral work focussed on the socio-cultural implications of infertility
and new reproductive technologies. Currently, she is exploring women’s
experiences with and providers’ perspectives on infertility services
in India . She has published on issues of women and development, infertility
and assisted reproduction and is working on a book entitled Seeking
Conception: Stories of Barrenness.
