Deborah O’Dowd MSN, RN, CCRN is a neonatal intensive care nurse and nurse educator with 12 years of experience in global health nursing in a variety of settings including the Caribbean, West Africa, and southern Africa. Deb has 22 years of clinical experience and is a content expert in neonatal critical care nursing. She additionally serves as full time nursing faculty at Mass Bay Community College, where she teaches multiple courses for the licensed practical nursing program. Deb is also a doctoral candidate in the Doctor of Nursing Practice – Public Health Nurse Leader program at U Mass Amherst. Deb has partnered with international non-government organizations on neonatal care systems strengthening as well as other public health initiatives. 

Deb is a current Maggie Ryan Global Health fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her focus is improvement of neonatal nursing care systems in a variety of settings.   

Ashley Birch, RN, MSN, CPNP earned both her BSN and MSN at Regis College and has​ been a nurse practitioner at Boston Children’sHospital (BCH) since 2015, where she has worked in both inpatient and out patient neurosurgery. Prior to that she worked in stroke research at Massachusetts General Hospital and in Rhode Island in Pediatric Sedation. As a nurse practitioner at BCH Ashley has focused her practice on caring for patients with Hydrocephalus and Spina Bifida and has been privileged to work in the multidisciplinary Spina Bifida clinic. She serves on the board for the Spina Bifida Association of Greater New England (SBAGNE) and is a founding board member of the Non-Profit NeuroKids. Ashley has had 5 years of experience in Africa, South America and the Caribbean working with children with neurosurgical conditions, focusing mainly on children with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. Much of this work was accomplished as part of her Global Nursing Fellowship.

Currently Ashley is working with both NeuroKids and the Caribbean Neurosurgery Foundation to improve care of children with neurosurgical conditions.

Dr. Alexis Schmid DNP, MPH, MSN, CPNP-PC/AC, 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.  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, pediatric nursing, health needs of children and their families in humanitarian crises, and the development of emergency care and trauma systems.  

During her time as the Maggie Ryan Global Health fellow from 2017-2022, Alexis assisted with Global Health Program’s strategic planning, coordination, daily operations, and programming. Alexis also led or supported the implementation of programs, research, education, and policy initiatives both locally and internationally in the AFRO, EMRO, EURO, and SEARO regions with global partners.