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Priya Nanda is group director for reproductive health and economic development at the International Center for Research on Women's (ICRW) Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India. In her role, Nanda oversees research, policy and programmatic work on issues related to gender equality and poverty reduction, witha focus on the intersections between economic and health issues. Her work includes research, measurement and evaluation of women’s economic empowerment and access to health services, including reproductive health and HIV.

Prior to joining ICRW in 2006, Nanda was a consultant to the World Health Organization for the global data analysis of equitable access to antiretroviral drugs. During her consultancy, she also developed an evaluation framework for Avahan, the India AIDS initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nanda also was the director of research for the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), where she was responsible for monitoring HIV/AIDS policy and programs, and providing technical guidance to program staff for research and advocacy on PEPFAR-funded programs in Africa. Nanda is well-recognized for her seminal report on the gender impact of health sector reforms in Africa and Asia.

Katherine Fritz is director of global health at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Fritz oversees ICRW’s portfolio of research and program work in reproductive health, gender and HIV, and stigma.

Fritz brings to ICRW 10 years of international experience as a social scientist and public health researcher, with expertise in developing, implementing and evaluating behavior change interventions for HIV prevention. Prior to joining ICRW in 2008, Fritz was an assistant professor in the department of international health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also spent five years at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was a researcher and assistant professor in the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies. Fritz is a former social worker and Peace Corps volunteer in Kigali, Rwanda. Her additional field experience includes work in the Gambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand and Zimbabwe.

Rekha Mehra is director of economic development at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW).  As director, she leads ICRW’s research, program and policy work on agriculture, employment and enterprise development, and property rights. 

Mehra has more than 20 years of international development programmatic and research experience in 15 developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Prior to joining ICRW in 2008, she was a senior gender specialist in the World Bank’s Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Group. Mehra also served as a program officer for economic development at the Ford Foundation in New Delhi, India, where she was responsible for the development finance portfolio. Her current post marks her return to ICRW; from 1989 to 2000, Mehra served in various positions at the organization, including four years as vice president.

Ravi Verma is regional director for the International Center for Research on Women's (ICRW) Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India. In this role, Verma leads ICRW’s local and regional efforts to conduct research, provide technical support, build capacity and partake in policy dialogue on an array of issues, including adolescent girls, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, engaging men and boys and economic development.

Verma brings more than 25 years of programmatic research experience in reproductive health, gender mainstreaming and HIV in South Asia. Prior to joining ICRW in 2007, he was a program associate with Population Council/Horizons, where he collaborated with partners to design, implement and evaluate innovative operations research projects on gender and HIV. For more than 20 years, he was a professor in the department of population policies and programs at the International Institute for Population Sciences in Mumbai, India. While there, Verma managed multi-faceted, collaborative intervention research projects and conducted national studies on reproductive health, fertility, family planning and sexual behaviors.

As the President of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), Dr. Sarah Degnan Kambou leads a global research institute that focuses on realizing women’s empowerment and gender equality to alleviate poverty worldwide. Her expertise centers on sexual and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS and adolescent health and livelihoods.  Dr. Degnan Kambou has served as a technical advisor to multilaterals, leading corporations and governments seeking to integrate gender into policies, programs and services that will advance the status of women and girls around the world.

Dr. Degnan Kambou is a development practitioner, who believes that research is in and of itself a parallel process of social change. Under her leadership, platforms such as ICRW’s Site for Intensive Learning and Action in Mumbai, India, leverage research as a means to foster local ownership, harness local capacity, and ultimately reposition women and youth in community development efforts.

In December of 2012, President Obama named Dr. Degnan Kambou to the President’s Global Development Council. Also in 2012, Dr. Degnan Kambou was named by former President Clinton as an Advisor to the Clinton Global Initiative. In 2010, Dr. Degnan Kambou was appointed by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to represent ICRW on the U.S. Commission to UNESCO. She was honored in 2010 with Boston University's School of Public Health's Distinguished Alumni Award for her contributions to the field of public health, and in 2011 as an Ashoka ChangemakeHER, Changemakers's inaugural celebration of the world's most influential and inspiring women.

As a development professional, Dr. Degnan Kambou has worked for more than 27 years in Asia, Eastern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. For more than a decade, Dr. Degnan Kambou lived in sub-Saharan Africa, managing signature programs for CARE.  Through her work, she focused on addressing social and economic vulnerability of marginalized populations, strengthening civil society in post-conflict settings and participatory development of underserved urban and rural communities. Prior to her work in Africa, Degnan Kambou managed the Center for International Health, which she co-founded in 1987, at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Degnan Kambou lives in Maryland with her husband, a senior economist at the World Bank.  They have two children, aged 19 and 22.