0Welling

Areas of Expertise:

• Access to medicines and health care services during disaster
• The importance of medical aid deliveries in the developing world
• AmeriCares aid deliveries to more than 3,000 health care facilities in the U.S. and abroad
• AmeriCares gift-in-kind model – partnerships that provide access to critically needed medical aid in times of crisis; how corporate and nonprofit partnerships contribute to improving global health
• What nonprofits and for profit businesses can learn from one another; as a “recovering investment banker” Curt can speak to how he parlayed his corporate experience into nonprofit leadership

Curt Welling joined AmeriCares as President and CEO in 2002. Under his leadership, AmeriCares has become the world’s leading humanitarian aid organization for delivering donated medicines and supplies. Committed to helping more people live longer, healthier lives, Curt has guided AmeriCares in the distribution of $9 billion in aid to people in need worldwide. Since its founding in 1982, AmeriCares has delivered $11 billion in aid to 164 countries.

Among his many accomplishments, Curt directed AmeriCares relief efforts for several large-scale disasters, including the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2008 Myanmar cyclone and China earthquake, the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami, and both Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005. At the height of the Darfur crisis in 2004, Curt launched a program that delivered more than $11 million in medical aid to clinics serving displaced people in Sudan and neighboring Chad. 

Curt has predicated AmeriCares growth on developing strong working relationships with 200 product donors, including pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers in the U.S., Europe and India which supply AmeriCares with the resources to fulfill health care needs around the world. Under his guidance, AmeriCares has been a founder and active participant in the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD), an alliance of nongovernmental organizations and pharmaceutical companies committed to advancing effective medical donation practices.

Prior to joining AmeriCares, Curt had a successful 25-year career in the investment banking and securities industry in senior executive roles, including president & CEO of SG Cowen Securities Corporation and senior managing director of global equity capital markets at Bear Stearns. He currently serves as a director of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc., as chairman of the Board of Visitors at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy at Dartmouth College and as a director emeritus of The Adirondack Council. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

His past leadership roles include board chairmanships at Spence Chapin Services and the Donaldson Adoption Institute. Curt received both his Master of Business Administration and bachelor’s degrees from Dartmouth College and earned his Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University Law School.

He has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg TV and WABC-TV. Curt has also been interviewed by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Associated Press, Forbes.com, CNNMoney.com and WCBS radio in New York.

03Bia

Areas of Expertise:

• Medical issues challenging global health: cholera, malaria, HIV, etc.
• Disaster relief and medical issues during emergencies
• Medical conditions among refugees and in camps
• Neglected tropical diseases
• History of medicine and tropical diseases
• U.S. medical education and international health training programs

Dr. Frank  Bia is an expert in infectious diseases, medical microbiology and tropical medicine. He joined AmeriCares in 2008 as medical director following more than 30 years as a member of the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine.

As medical director, Dr. Bia oversees the planning, assessment, resourcing and clinical operations of the organization’s Global Programs as well as the AmeriCares Free Clinics and their volunteer physicians in Connecticut. His medical team reviews all donations of prescription and over-the-counter medicines delivered to AmeriCares network of more than 3,000 health care institutions in the United States and abroad. Additionally, Dr. Bia provides medical care to uninsured patients as part of his internal medicine practice at the AmeriCares Free Clinic in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

During his tenure at Yale, Dr. Bia served as a professor of Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Laboratory Medicine. He was also co-director of Yale’s highly successful International Health Program providing collaborative training experiences though the Yale/Johnson & Johnson Physician Scholars in International Health Program. He remains an active emeritus member of the Yale faculty. 

Dr. Bia is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a longstanding member of both the American Society of Tropical Medicine and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, in addition to the International Society of Travel Medicine. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed medical journals and has contributed to several books and professional conference symposia. For 20 years he edited Travel Medicine Advisor,  a monthly publication for health providers in travel medicine.

Dr. Bia received his bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College followed by his Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. He honed his expertise in the areas of infectious diseases, tropical medicine and international health while working abroad in Haiti, China, Colombia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Iran and Thailand. His work with AmeriCares has taken him to Cambodia, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Malawi and Tanzania.

Dr. Bia has appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Good Morning America,” Fox News and has been interviewed by Travel Weekly. A profile of his work also appeared in the British medical journal, The Lancet.  He is the recipient of the Benjamin Kean Medal for excellence in the teaching of tropical medicine, awarded by the American Society of Tropical Medicine.

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07Ingoglia

Areas of Expertise:

• Delivery of emergency medical aid and relief supplies in response to natural disasters, civil conflict and disease outbreaks around the world and in the United States
• Immediate and long-term needs of disaster survivors
• Disaster preparedness planning and best practices
• Aid efforts in the U.S. after tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other natural disasters

Garrett oversees AmeriCares response to more than two dozen earthquakes, floods, famines, hurricanes and other humanitarian crises every year. He deploys emergency response teams into the field in response to both international and domestic emergencies, coordinates large-scale deliveries of medicines and relief supplies to disaster survivors and implements disaster preparedness initiatives.

His team recently responded to the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel region of Africa, coordinated aid shipments for Syrian refugees seeking shelter in Jordan and provided medical aid for deadly cholera outbreaks in Somalia and Sierra Leone. In addition, Garrett’s team of relief workers distributes aid for emergencies such as wildfires, hurricanes and massive floods in the United States. In 2012, he oversaw AmeriCares Hurricane Sandy relief program, assisting hundreds of thousands of survivors in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He also launched AmeriCares first Disaster Recovery Grant Program in 2011, awarding $600,000 in funding to help more than 62,000 people recover and prepare for future emergencies.

Garrett came to AmeriCares in 2011 after more than a decade in the field of emergency preparedness, response and recovery. His experience includes managing the delivery of disaster grants to New York City after the 9/11 attacks, evaluating FEMA recovery efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and designing emergency response plans for the city and county of San Francisco. Garrett earned a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School and a bachelor’s degree in English and history from Williams College.

Garrett has been interviewed by Sky News, WCBS Radio in New York and New England Cable News, among other media outlets.

Areas of Expertise:

• Health care reform and the uninsured
• Health care needs of the uninsured
• Free clinic management and best practices
• Community engagement and volunteerism
• Partnerships to provide for the uninsured

Karen Gottlieb is an expert on the health care crisis in the United States and free clinics serving the uninsured. As the executive director of Connecticut’s largest free clinic program and a board member of the National Association of Free & Charitable Clinics, she can speak to the issue of health care reform on both a national and a local level.

Karen joined AmeriCares in 1994 and started the organization’s first free clinic in Norwalk, Connecticut to meet the growing health care needs of the working poor. She was named executive director in 1996. Under her leadership, AmeriCares opened two additional clinics in Connecticut – one in Danbury and another in Bridgeport. To date, the program has provided more than 20,000 patients with $44 million worth of high-quality medical care.

Karen oversees and directs all activities of the three clinics, including program development, recruitment of staff and more than 200 volunteers, training, community awareness and fundraising. She also develops the strategic vision and plan for overall growth and development for AmeriCares Free Clinics. Prior to joining AmeriCares, Karen served as a critical care instructor, established and directed a multidisciplinary cardiac rehabilitation program and started a cardiac rehabilitation association for the state of Connecticut.

She earned a nursing degree from Russell Sage College as well as a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University. Karen has appeared on CNN, Fox News, News 12 Connecticut, WTNH – TV in New Haven, Connecticut, WSHU radio in Fairfield, Connecticut and WLAD Radio in Danbury. She has also been interviewed by The Associated Press, the Hartford Courant, The Connecticut Post, The (Danbury) News-Times, The (Norwalk) Hour, and The (Stamford) Advocate.

Areas of Expertise:

• Aid deliveries during disasters
• Long and short-term needs of disaster survivors
• Long-term recovery and humanitarian relief
• Disaster aid delivery and coordination in complex emergencies

Rachel Granger oversees AmeriCares long-term responses to all major disasters including the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. She is an expert in developing multi-year aid progams for survivors left homeless and in need of medical care.

Rachel was among the first relief workers on the ground in Sri Lanka in the days after the Boxing Day tsunami, coordinating emergency airlifts for survivors in the region. In the years following, she spearheaded the distribution of $50 million in aid, including rebuilding hospitals and schools. In 2010, Rachel headed one of the first teams of relief workers to arrive in Port-au-Prince, Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake. One year later, she was designing AmeriCares long-term recovery plan for survivors of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan – a plan that includes mental health and counseling services, rebuilding dental clinics and restoring hope for survivors.

Rachel has slept on airport runways awaiting the arrival of critical aid and relief supplies in the immediate aftermath of disasters, and has overseen aid distributions to hospitals and clinics treating the injured. She has also designed comprehensive, multi-year recovery programs that care for the unmet medical and mental health needs of disaster survivors.

As vice president of Post-Emergency Programs, Rachel oversees AmeriCares field offices in Sendai, Japan, Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Colombo, Sri Lanka. She also oversees the AmeriCares India team based in Mumbai. Since joining AmeriCares in 1996, she has traveled to dozens of countries including Bolivia, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Niger, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Vietnam.

Rachel earned a bachelor’s degree in French and Spanish from Franklin and Marshall College and a Master of Business Administration degree with a focus on International Development from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.