Senior Management

Who We Are › Staff Directory › Senior Management

AIHA is proud of its staff, their many and varied accomplishments, and their ongoing commitment to improving public health around the world. Each member of our team—whether they work directly with partners and government officials to design and implement health programs or behind the scenes managing a broad range of support and information services—plays a critical role in our success. Their work is supported by a dedicated core staff and expert consultants.

Nata Avaliani, MD, MPH
Regional Director, Caucasus

A public health specialist with extensive experience in the areas of health promotion, epidemiology, and disease prevention and management, Dr. Avaliani is responsible for overall management of AIHA’s activities in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Prior to serving as regional director, Dr. Avaliani served as program coordinator and then deputy director in AIHA’s Tbilisi office.

Before joining AIHA in 1999, Dr. Avaliani held a dual position as Deputy Director of the Department of Public Health and Health Promotion Component Coordinator for the WB Georgia project. In this capacity Dr. Avaliani led efforts to develop national health policy and strategy in the areas of health promotion, epidemiology, and disease prevention, as well as to develop training programs in the field. Her clinical experience includes an internship in cardiology and a position as a nurse in the Cornary Unit at City Hospital No. 1 in Tbilisi.

Dr. Avaliani serves as an expert on Council of Europe’s health committees and is a co-author of publications on health promotion, healthy life-style choices, and chronic disease epidemiology and prevention.

Dr. Avaliani earned her MPH from the Netherlands School of Public Health in Utrecht, and her MD, with a specialty in internal medicine, from Tbilisi State Medical University.

Sally Chalamila
Tanzania Interim Country Director

Amanda Gibbons, PhD, MPH
Director, HIV/AIDS Twinning Center

With more than 10 years of experience in international development work in Latin America and Africa, Dr. Gibbons provides leadership in shaping and implementing the strategic direction of the HIV/AIDS Twinning Center. She is also taking the lead in establishing and implementing the Voluntary Healthcare Corps (VHC), an integral component of the Twinning Center.

Prior to joining AIHA, Dr. Amanda Gibbons served as the Director of Operations for Axios Foundation in Tanzania. In this position, she managed the technical teams for HIV care and treatment, voluntary counseling and testing, prevention of mother to child transmission, and orphans and vulnerable children to ensure quality and rapid implementation of innovative programs and methodologies.

Before coming to Axios in September 2004, Dr. Gibbons was the technical advisor for Mother to Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS and HIV/AIDS Care and Support in the Office of HIV/AIDS at USAID. In this role, she provided support to USAID’s implementation of HIV interventions. She also served as liaison for the Office to MTCT and Care and Support partners at the White House, Department for Health and Human Services, Office of Management and Budget, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization.

Dr. Gibbons earned a PhD in epidemiology and a master’s degree in public health, both at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her doctoral research focused on maternal behaviors contributing to HIV MTCT. While collecting data for her dissertation, she was the research project coordinator for the Johns Hopkins Research Project in Blantyre, Malawi, where she commenced and coordinated several studies on HIV acquisition and transmission, including a study using microbicides to inhibit heterosexual transmission and studies using short-course antiretroviral prophylaxis to lower MTCT.

Prior to returning to academics for her doctoral degree, Dr. Gibbons worked as a fellow with the National Immunization Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the Kentucky Department for Public Health, she was responsible for training TB nurses throughout the state, providing TB resources to local health departments, and translating for Spanish-speaking TB clients. She began her public health career by joining the Peace Corps in 1993 where she initiated a community nutrition project to combat malnutrition in Nindiri, Nicaragua.

Inna Jurkevich, MD, MS
Program Officer, Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia

As program officer for Russia and Ukraine, Dr. Jurkevich’s activities focus on curricula development and organization of capacity-building training programs for the Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia.

Dr. Jurkevich has more than 10 years of international health program management experience in the United States and Eastern Europe managing medical programs with a focus on primary healthcare, reproductive health, the development of clinical practice guidelines, risk reduction, emergency preparedness, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.

During her professional career, Dr. Jurkevich served as a medical doctor at Grodno City Hospital in Belarus; medical coordinator of UNHCR’s medical program in Moscow, Russia; and director of the representative office at Magee Women’s Hospital in Moscow. More recently, she held the position of health delegate for the Regional Delegation of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Central Asia.

Dr. Jurkevich earned her MD at Grodno Sate University in Belarus and an MS in emergency health services management, with a specialization in disaster management, from Maryland State University in Baltimore.

Arsen Kubataev, MD, MS, MBA
Regional Director, Russian Federation

As regional director for AIHA programs in Russia, Dr. Kubataev is responsible for the overall management, leadership, and direction of AIHA’s activities throughout the Russian Federation. He has extensive experience in the areas of international healthcare development, health services management and administration, and public health.

Before re-joining AIHA in his current role, Dr. Kubataev attended Duke University, where he pursued an MBA, concentrating on health sector management. He began working for AIHA in 1994, in the Russia office as educational program coordinator. In that position, he helped to develop health services management capacity within the NIS/CEE healthcare systems, focusing on financial management, cost accounting, and cost-benefit analysis. Following that, Dr. Kubataev served as regional director for AIHA’s programs in the Caucasus, leading the health partnership programs in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan from 1998 to 2002.

Dr. Kubataev holds his MBA from Duke University (Health Sector Management), an MS from New York University (Public Administration), and an MD from Saint-Petersburg Medical Academy (Epidemiology/Infectious Disease). He practiced medicine for two and one half years immediately after finishing medical school in 1989.

John Capati
South Africa Interim Country Director

Kate Schecter, PhD
Program Officer-Caucasus partnerships; Mother-to-Child-Transmission (MTCT) of HIV

As program officer for the Russian Federation and the Caucasus Region, Dr. Schecter is responsible for health reform activities in Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia; she previously served as the program officer for West NIS and continues to assist with the prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS project in Ukraine. She has been with AIHA since 2000.

Before joining AIHA, Dr. Schecter worked as a consultant for the World Bank (1997-2000), specializing in healthcare reform and child welfare issues in the NIS and CEE, and taught political science at the University of Michigan (1993-1997). From 1999 to 2003 she was also a principal investigator for the Carnegie Corporation's Russia Initiative where she researched the issue of social cohesion in Russia.  She is the co-author and editor of Social Capital and Social Cohesion in Post-Soviet Russia (M. E. Sharpe, 2003).

She has written extensively about the Soviet socialized healthcare system including a recent encyclopedia entry on Chernobyl for Scribner’s Encyclopedia of Europe, 1914-2004 and a chapter in Freedom House's Annual Report, Nations in Transit in 2000. She also co-authored a report for the Carnegie Corporation's Russia Initiative titled, Social Cohesion, and wrote a chapter in Russia's Torn Safety Nets: Health and Social Welfare in Post-Communist Russia (St. Martin's Press, 2000). In addition, Dr. Schecter has received a grant from the National Council for Soviet and East European Research to research the politics of healthcare reform in Russia; has made three documentary films for PBS about the former Soviet Union; and is the co-author of Back in the USSR (Scribner's, 1988) and An American Family in Moscow (Little Brown, 1975), two journalistic accounts of living in the USSR.

Dr. Schecter holds a PhD in political science from Columbia University and an MA in Soviet studies from Harvard University.

James P. Smith, MA
Executive Director

James Smith is a respected expert on health policy, planning, and administration, with more than 25 years of senior public and private sector experience. As a co-founder and AIHA's chief executive officer since its inception, he is responsible for providing leadership, policy development, and strategic planning for the organization, as well as for overseeing and directing its programs and activities.

Mr. Smith's work in international health and foreign assistance has been widely recognized. He was presented the Medal of Honor of the Republic of Georgia by President Eduard Shevarnadze for his contributions to the health and welfare of the people of Georgia-the only American to receive the Republic's highest civil honor-and he has been recognized by Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society for his leadership in developing the nursing profession in Eurasia through the establishment of the first four-year baccalaureate degree programs in seven countries, as well as the establishment of nursing associations and leadership programs throughout the region.

Mr. Smith holds honorary degrees and professorships at a number of the leading academic institutions in the region including: the Kyrgyz State Medical Academy in Kyrgyzstan; the Moscow Medical Academy in Russia; Odessa State Medical University in Ukraine; Palacky University of Olomouc in the Czech Republic; and the Second Tashkent State Medical Institute in Uzbekistan.

He has also been an active participant in a number of key US and international task forces and advisory groups that have addressed issues related to the transition of the former communist states to independent nations, including the Health Committee, US-Russia Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation, which was chaired by the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation.

Prior to co-founding AIHA in 1992, Mr. Smith held a number of senior policy-making and advocacy positions in the US health sector. He served as vice president for federal government relations and public policy for Hospital Corporation of America; as special projects director with the National Association of Public Hospitals; as vice president of National Health and Hospital Services; as deputy director and COO for the US Government's Inter-Agency Task Force on Cuban-Haitian Refugees; as chief of staff to the under secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services; and as senior health policy coordinator in the Executive Secretariat of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under Secretaries Califano and Harris. Mr. Smith was also a co-founder of the Washington-based Real Estate Tax Institute and of Automated Dispatch Services.

He holds a BA from the University of Akron and an MA in political science from the University of Florida.

Etsehiwot (Mamae) Teklemariam, MPH, MSW
Ethiopia Country Representative

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