At the Boston Children’s Hospital Margaret C. Ryan Global Health Program, we drive impactful change by collaborating with local partners to enhance access to safe, quality pediatric healthcare. From research, to education and capacity development, we deliver scalable and sustainable solutions in development and complex humanitarian settings worldwide.
We build collaborative relationships with local partners to ensure our interventions are culturally relevant and locally driven.
We design and implement health interventions tailored to local needs, testing solutions on a smaller scale to refine strategies.
Once proven, we work with local partners to scale up, reaching more children by integrating solutions into existing health systems.
We sustain impact by empowering local partners via long-term collaboration, capacity building, and knowledge exchange.
We replicate successful models, adapting them to other local contexts to maximize our global impact on child health.
Where we focus our resources to make the greatest impact.
Dr. Niescierenko is a Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Public Health physician and founding Chair of the Global Health Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. The Boston Children's Global Health Program is partnership-based, working to improve child health through research, program implementation and education globally. She has experience in pediatric care, public health and health systems building with host country governments in more than 30 countries, on 5 continents as well as with the WHO, the World Bank, US CDC, USAID and various global non-governmental organizations. Her career focus is on building sustainable systems in fragile economic, humanitarian and conflict settings. Most recent work includes Liberia, Nigeria, Ukraine, Iraq, Palestine, Indonesia and India.
Dr. Alexis Schmid DNP, MPH, DTN is an emergency nurse, pediatric trauma and critical care nurse practitioner, and project manager with over 13 years of humanitarian and development experience in the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, and West Africa. Alexis has 18 years of clinical experience and is a technical expert in emergency care, trauma, general pediatrics, and neonatal and pediatric critical care nursing, as well as nursing education. Alexis has worked for national and international non-government organizations, UN agencies, governments, and universities on child health, infectious disease, emergency care system strengthening, and other national-level public health initiatives. Currently, Alexis is the Assistant Director of the Global Health Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Co-Director of the Children in Crisis Program, which works to address critical health needs of crisis affected children and youth in humanitarian contexts in collaboration with Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. Alexis manages national and international programs throughout the project cycle, including design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation and reporting, as well as provides technical and mixed-methods research expertise. Alexis’ areas of research and work focus on conflict-affected children, trauma and emergency care of children in disaster or war, health needs of children in humanitarian crises, and the development of emergency care and trauma systems.
Mirona is an attorney with nearly 15 years of experience specializing in international operations, health policy, and nonprofit project management. She is a NY Bar-admitted attorney, fluent in Spanish and Romanian, and began her career working to increase access to medicines in Latin America. In her role at BCH as the Director of Global Operations for the Global Health Program, Mirona oversees the operational framework for BCH's global health portfolio, providing cross-functional support on global operations matters, including budgeting, finance, compliance, and administrative considerations, legal/regulatory frameworks, and safety and security abroad. When she’s not contributing to global health initiatives, Mirona enjoys exploring new places with her husband, three little ones, and furry friend.
Carolyn Baer is an experienced Global Health Specialist in development and humanitarian assistance response with extensive field experience in East and West Africa, and Middle East. Over 15 years of experience in designing, implementing, and managing international health and crisis programs throughout the full project cycle management. She started her career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Burkina Faso working on community health projects and has since worked with CDC in Kenya managing their infectious disease program, Northwestern University’s Center for Global Health, and with USAID leading their humanitarian response efforts in South Sudan. She is the Director of Partnerships and Planning at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Global Health Program and enjoys hiking in Europe each summer.
Dr. Russ is a pediatric hospitalist who aims to advance pediatric care domestically and in global health through improving pediatric education, with a focus on workforce. She has led global pediatric workforce studies in collaboration with the International Pediatric Association, and participates in international working groups on workforce for WHO Partnership in Maternal and Neonatal Health as well as the International Pediatric Association. She recently coordinated a United States and China Commission on Pediatric Education and Workforce. Domestically she has collaborated with the Association of Pediatric Program Directors on curriculum development and setting standards for global health tracks, and founded the Boston Combined Residency Program Global Health Pathway and Academy. Her clinical focus is on pediatric intermediate care units, improving care for patients with intensive nursing needs due to acute or chronic conditions who can be safely cared for outside the ICU.
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Elisha Siegel joined Boston Children’s Hospital in 2019. He is an operations specialist with experience supporting vaccine clinics and COVID-19 testing sites throughout the BCH system. Elisha’s current work includes assisting the GHP partnership with Indian Health Services, Global Health Equity initiatives, and the Global Pediatric Innovation Scholars program.
Inna has a diverse educational and professional background, with degrees in Linguistics from National Linguistic University (Ukraine) and International Studies from university in Japan, which provide her with a unique global perspective. Throughout her career, Inna has been dedicated to the non-governmental sector. She served as a Change Agent for the YMCA World Alliance from Ukraine and worked as an International Coordinator for the YMCA Ukraine Headquarters, where she developed expertise in international communication, collaboration, and project management. Her efforts in these roles contributed to fostering understanding and cooperation across different cultures and communities. Inna also has experience with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), where she co-led translation and interpretation services for a diplomatic mission. In 2020, Inna joined Boston Children's Hospital, where she continues to apply her skills to support various strategic initiatives within the Global Health Program, positively impacting the lives of children and families.
David is a Biostatistician with a passion for child health. He began working at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2018 and joined the Global Health Program in 2023. He has a diverse range of interests in the global health space, and this is reflected in the work done by the GHP. Some projects he has collaborated on include implementation and evaluation of trauma care education in Ukraine and logistic regression modeling of predictors of pediatric hypertension and diabetes in Liberia. The goal of his work is to help create sustainable solutions to complex problems in the lives of children across the globe.
Karen’s role with the Global Health Program is to provide support on global operations matters including contract review and budget management, while liaising with members of the Boston Children’s Hospital community and the GHP’s global partners. Karen has over 10 years of experience in research and contract management including proposal development of research grants in the pre-award phase to negotiating intellectual property rights and budgets in the post award space. Prior to her role with the Global HealthProgram, Karen worked for the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the University of Queensland, Australia, and was the Finance Advisor to Medical Herstory, anon-profit that aims to eliminate sexism, shame and stigma from health experiences. Karen has a BA in Anthropology from McGill University and an MA in Medical Anthropology from SOAS University of London. She has lived and worked in the Philippines, Canada, South Korea, Tanzania, the United Kingdom and Australia, and now calls Boston home.
Natalie Ospeck joined Boston Children’s Hospital as the Administrative Assistant of the Global Health Program in 2023. In her role, she works on project administration, schedule management, and event planning to support the program’s mission of developing sustainable solutions to address global child health needs. She studied at the University of Southern California, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Global Health and focused her studies on health innovation and maternal and child health.
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In 2022, the Grousbeck-Fazzalari Chair in Global Health was launched to enhance our ability to address critical global health challenges, ensuring sustainable and impactful solutions for children worldwide. This prestigious chair will be held by the Director of the Global Health Program, with Dr. Michelle Niescierenko serving as its inaugural holder. We are deeply grateful for the generous support that makes our work possible.
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