Chair Committee

Dr Takeshi Arimitsu is a neonatologist in the Department of Pediatrics at the Keio University Hospital School of Medicine. He was the attending physician for the baby boy weighing just 268 grams at birth. The infant left the hospital in February 2019 in good health and without serious complications. Dr Arimitsu integrates all possible strengths in treatment including the patient’s family to support infants and their future lives. He has started a project to build a nationwide network for babies and their families in Japan. He has authored textbooks on developmental care and publications on non-invasive functional neuroimaging. He has delivered numerous lectures on neonatal medicine and developmental care. Additionally, he has served various roles on medical committees in Japan; including the Japan Society for Neonatal Health and Development and the Japan Society of Perinatal and Neonatal Medicine. Over the past decade, he has been awarded several research grants by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.

Selina is a mother of a surviving preterm child in Africa, an advocate for Maternal and Newborn Health and the Founder and Executive Director of the African Foundation for Premature Babies and Neonatal Care (AFPNC). Selina is a Human Resource Professional with over 10 years’ experience in working on local and international human capital development projects.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration (Human Resource Management), certificates in Strategic Planning, Project Management and Communication and is also training to be a Lawyer. In August 2016, the Ghana Health Service appointed her as a member of the Advocacy & Communication Sub-Committee for National Newborn and Child Health. She was featured and contributed to a 2018 joint report by World Health Organization and UNICEF titled ‘Survive & Thrive: Transforming care for every small and sick baby’.
In Africa, she has pioneered several intervention initiatives, policy, research projects and is a sought after conference speaker in her capacity as a Parent Representative and the Executive Director of AFPNC. Selina received a prestigious award in January 2019 from EFCNI for her outstanding work.

Ilein Bolanos, a certified corporate lawyer, became a mother of premature twins, at 32 weeks of pregnancy in 2007. After this experience, she became a passionate advocate and a voice for premature and sick babies, with the goal to give every child the chance for the best start in life. She founded the first support group in a hospital with the largest private NICU in Mexico as well as the first virtual community in Spanish, on Facebook for parents of preemie babies and multiples in 2010.
In 2011 she became Co-founder and General Director of CON AMOR VENCERAS, A.C. A parent organisation of premature and ill babies, based in Mexico, but with influence in all Americas. In 2016 she received the EFCNI “We Care” award for her outstanding work with her organisation in Mexico.
Ilein has participated in different national projects like “Genomic of Premature Birth”, “RSV infection in Mexico, reflections on the Immunological equity”, “The Manual for Parent or Premature Babies” and “Prematurity and challenges, prevention and management”, among others.
Internationally she was featured and contributed to the 2018 joint report by the World Health Organization and UNICEF titled ‘Survive & Thrive: Transforming care for every small and sick baby’.

Paula Guerra is one of the founders of the Portuguese preemies association XXS – Associação Portuguesa de Apoio ao Bebé Prematuro, being an executive board member of XXS since the creation of the association in November 2008. She has two daughters, one born in 1993 as a term baby and a second one, an extremely preterm born girl, born in 2001 with 26 weeks of gestation and 615g of weight.
Since 1993, Paula worked in IT development departments of three diferent Portuguese banks and she is since 2010 the Head Talent Management of the IT Department in one of the biggest banks in Portugal. She is also a Certified Coach ACTP by ICF. Paula Guerra is a member of the Parent Advisory Board of EFCNI.

Juliëtte Kamphuis obtained in 2003 her Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry/biotechnology at the Saxion University of Applied Sciences. She is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
She was born premature in 1980 after 28.5 weeks of gestation and as a young adult she was diagnosed with a chronic lung disease (bronchopulmonary dysplasia). This experience has led her to raise awareness for respiratory diseases and premature birth beside her daily work. Since 2009 she supports the patient voice in several research projects, healthcare-related initiatives including patient participation policies, and she collaborates with national, European or worldwide organisations.
Juliëtte was a member of the patient advisory board of the 5-year European clinical research study U-BIOPRED (Unbiased BIOmarkers in PREDiction of respiratory disease outcomes). For 4 years she has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Lung Foundation Netherlands. She was also involved in the European Respiratory Society Task Force “Guidelines on Long-term management of bronchopulmonary dysplasia”.

Gigi Khonyongwa-Fernandez, is the mother of four angel babies and a surviving twin born at 24 weeks. She is both an International Coach Federation (ICF) accredited Professional Coach and a Trauma-Informed Certified Coach, and founder of GKF Coaching and Consulting. Her niche areas are leadership and organisational wellness, NICU leaders/community, diversity, empowerment, and wellbeing. She is passionate about imbedding joy and clarity within leaders in any sector and throughout the workplace culture. Gigi’s clients range from individuals and professional teams to medium to large-size organisations across the healthcare, education, faith-based, government, industry, and corporate sectors. She also partners with several consultancy groups to help them deliver on a range of leadership, diversity, and organisational development initiatives and is a vocal advocate for equity in the healthcare and educational realms.
Gigi holds a BSc in Occupational Therapy (USA), MSc in Health, Population and Society (UK) and a Diploma in Personal Performance Coaching (UK/USA). She has almost 20 years of international clinical, strategic and project management experience within the healthcare sector both in the USA and UK health systems and holds global board appointments in the maternal-infant health sector. Gigi currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors for NICU Parent Network (NPN), a Parent, Patient, Public Advisory Board (PPPAB) member for European Foundation for the Care of Newborn Infants (EFCNI) and the European Standards of Care for Newborn Health (ESCNH), and a Chair Committee Member for the Global Alliance for Newborn Care (GLANCE). She is an experienced international speaker and presenter.
A native of the USA, Gigi currently resides in London, England.

Mary Kinney is an Advisor for Newborn Health Evidence and Advocacy with Save the Children US’s Saving Newborn Lives programme, based in South Africa, providing technical analysis and writing support to global initiatives and to country teams in the African region. She is also a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Western Cape’s School of Public Health researching the implementation of Maternal and Perinatal Death Surveillance and Response. Her research interests include health system and policy research and implementation of maternal and newborn health interventions.
She is passionate about using evidence in global and national advocacy efforts and enjoys working with large global teams to translate evidence into policy action. She serves on a number of global advocacy and technical working groups including the Every Newborn management team, the Stillbirth Advocacy working group, and Countdown to 2030 Drivers group. She also serves on the editorial board of BMC Reproductive Health. She has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and has been an author or editor on several global high-impact publications, including the Survive and Thrive: Transforming care for every small and sick newborn, the Every Newborn Action Plan, The Lancet Ending preventable stillbirth series, The Lancet Every newborn series, Born Too Soon: The Global Action Report for Preterm Births.

Senkyire Ephraim Kumi is a registered general nurse with a Bachelor of Science in nursing in paediatrics from the University of Ghana since 2014. He had more than 3 years of clinical experiences in various aspect of nursing especially in child health and more than 4 years experiences as a teaching assistant. His scientific interests are child and maternal health, family centred care, healthcare education and other allied health-related topics. He is a member of the following international professional groups namely: neonatal care academy(nca), Africa palliative care association (APCA), and sigma theta tau international (STTI). Currently Mr Kumi had two articles published in the journal of health education research & development and international journal of educational research & development. His future research will centre on using a mixed methodology in exploring women experiences with preterm infants with a focus on Kangaroo mother care (KMC). The intention is to gain an in-depth understanding of mothers’ experiences in providing KMC. Senkyire Ephraim is member of the network: Towards Unity for Health (TUFH).

Satoshi Kusuda, MD, PhD is Visiting Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Kyorin University. He graduated medical school in Osaka, Osaka City University. After completion of residency in pediatrics, he started speciality training at Children’s Hospital at Osaka City and completed his training at Osaka City General Hospital. He is on the Bord of the Japanese Society for Perinatal and Neonatal Medicine. He is also an elected President of the Federation of Asia and Oceanian Perinatal Societies. His primary research interests include network database and neonatal respiratory care. The number of very prterm infants registered on the network database of Japan reached around 67.000 and more than 50 peer reviewed papers analyzed using the database were pubished

Jos M. Latour is Professor in Clinical Nursing at Plymouth University in Plymouth, UK and at Hunan Children’s Hospital, Changsha, China. His clinical post is at University Hospital Plymouth and Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, UK, where he is leading the Clinical Schools aiming to drive clinical research forward.
The research lines of Jos Latour are related to family-centred care, empowerment and involvement of parents in healthcare, end-of-life care, and paediatric sepsis. His major research programme is called the EMPATHIC study (EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care) and is currently implemented in NICUs and PICUs in > 40 countries around the world. Jos is actively promoting evidence-based and evidence-informed care. His vision is to narrow the gap between research and clinical practice.
Jos has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, books and chapters. He is associate-editor of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine and editorial board member of several other international peer-reviewed journals and contributes to the Scientific Advisory Board of EFCNI.

Daniel Nuzum is a healthcare chaplain, Clinical Pastoral Education supervisor & educator with a specialist interest in perinatal care and pregnancy loss at Cork University Maternity Hospital Ireland. Daniel received his PhD from University College Cork in 2016 where his thesis was ‘The spiritual and professional impact of stillbirth’. Daniel is an active member of the Pregnancy Loss Research Group at University College Cork and an adjunct lecturer in the College of Medicine and Health, University College Cork. Daniel has published and presented on the areas of perinatal bereavement, communication, stillbirth and spiritual care.
Daniel’s research interests are in the area of care following stillbirth and neonatal bereavement, spirituality in specialist palliative care, pastoral education and healthcare ethics. Daniel is also a parent of twin boys who spent their early months in a neonatal unit and serves on a neonatal Developmental Care Committee at Cork University Maternity Hospital. Daniel is an avid twitter fan at @danielnuzum

After 22 years of professional life in major local and international companies as a mid level manager, Ilknur dedicated her career to work for the good of humanity. She obtained CTI professional coach certificate from the USA, also becoming an ACPI certified parent & family coach. Ilknur obtained an MSc degree in Psychology along with a certificate in Interpersonal Theraphy. She is a trained conflict management coach as well.
She is the co-author of two published books : The 1st one is for the families of multiples “Life with Multiples : From A to Z” and the 2nd is for families of premature babies “From Incubator to World”
Coming from a diverse culture and wide experience in working with different cultures and backrounds, she has good understanding of needs of people and families most of whom are less priviliged and have pressing needs. She has been proudly advocating for premature babies and their parents since 2008 in Turkey with campaining, petitioning, presenting in medical congresses, setting psycho education models, training parents and much more.

Dr Julia Petty, RGN/RSCN, BSc, MA, EdD, is a senior lecturer in children’s nursing at the University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England, UK. She has been an educator in the field of neonatal and children’s nursing for over 16 years, both clinically and University based.
Dr Petty’s field of research focuses on exploring the parent experience of neonatal care and the development of digital educational resources, informed by parent and staff narratives to enhance learning. She has published in this area in many neonatal, child health and educational peer-reviewed journals and has presented at numerous national and international conferences. She has authored and edited leading neonatal nursing textbooks that are widely used.
Dr Petty is an Executive member of the UK Neonatal Nurses Association and is on the Board of Directors for the Council of International Neonatal Nurses (COINN) where she contributes to discussions and strategic developments in enhancing neonatal education for the benefit of staff, students, babies and families.

After suffering a miscarriage and losing twin babies at 16 weeks, Kylie gave birth to her daughter Madeline at 30 weeks and was diagnosed with Cervical Incompetence. Two years later, following a further miscarriage, Kylie delivered twins at just 25 weeks. Sadly Kylie’s son Marcus passed away due to complications from his extreme prematurity. Her daughter Scarlet was discharged home just before her due date, 4 months later. Kylie’s son Liam was born at 38 weeks through planned c-section following a trans abdominal cerclage.
Kylie Pussell co-founded Miracle Babies Foundation in 2005. She is CEO of the foundation and passionate in driving the expansion of services and resources across Australia for all families to be supported, educated and empowered. Kylie, a qualified counsellor, has played an integral role in the expansion of the foundation’s program NurtureTime, the introduction of Miracle Babies Foundation to hospitals nationally and the development of national resources. She developed and implemented Miracle Babies Foundation’s successful volunteer program, designing National Volunteer Induction and Training with TAFE NSW. Kylie was selected in the inaugural The Growth Project in 2015.
Kylie delivers presentations and forums on the Foundation to community and corporate, both nationally and internationally and shares her personal journey with her children, delivering parent support and positive change for premature and sick babies. Kylie leads support for bereaved families and assists families and educational institutions in the learning, social and emotional challenges some of these miracle babies experience in the early years, school aged years and adulthood.
Kylie is a Co-Investigator on the POD Study, POD 2 and a previous member of the PSANZ Perinatal Palliative Care Special Interest Group.

PD Dr Dietmar Schlembach (MD) is an expert in Maternal-Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics. Since May 2014, he is Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vivantes Clinic Berlin-Neukölln, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
PD Dr Schlembach addresses the specific problems and treatment of pregnancy complications (such as hypertensive disorders and intrauterine growth restriction) as well as prenatal diagnosis and therapy. His clinical and research focus is screening, diagnosis and treatment of hypertensive disorders and intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth and prenatal diagnosis and therapy of fetal abnormalities.
He is currently secretary of the Working Group Obstetrics and Prenatal Medicine of the German Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He’s also secretary and incoming president of the German Society of Prenatal- and Obstetric Medicine. Since 2015, he is a member of the Trustee Board of EFCNI.

Dr Eleni Vavouraki is a pulmonologist with a PhD in pulmonary rehabilitation; she is also specialised in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. After becoming an aunt of triplets, that were born very prematurely (26+4), she together with the triplet’s parents co-founded the association Ilitominon, of which she is the President since 2011.
She has a wide teaching experience as a professor at Faculty of Health and Caring Professions of the Technological Educational Institute of Athens for 23 years. She is now working as a medical advisor in a Natural Products company, meanwhile she is teaching postgraduate courses in the Medical School of the University of Thessaly.
In the past and for a long period of time, Eleni had co-ordinated and led European projects in several countries targeted to multinational groups of youngsters at risk of social exclusion; she is also member of Therapeutic Riding Association of Greece, a NGO where children with disabilities (mainly due to prematurity) are helped to cope by improving their physical and psychological condition. Dr Eleni Vavouraki is a member of the Parent Advisory Board of EFCNI.

Dr Salimah Walani is Vice President of Global Programs at March of Dimes. She leads the organization’s global initiatives by working with international public and private partners. Her work focusses on advancing the health of women and girls in low and middle-income countries and improving prevention and care for premature birth and birth defects. Dr Walani serves on numerous technical advisory committees, including WHO Technical Working Group on Birth Defects. She is a known leader in birth defects advocacy and has played a key role in the World Birth Defects Day Movement.
Salimah joined March of Dimes in 2012 after having worked in a variety of healthcare and academic settings, including the New York City Department of Health as an epidemiologist and as director of a New York University operated mobile health clinic that provided healthcare to immigrant children in Brooklyn, NY.
Originally from Pakistan, Dr Walani acquired her nursing and midwifery education from Aga Khan University in Karachi. She now holds a PhD from New York University, a Masters of Public Health from Harvard University and a Masters of Nursing Science from Simmons College in Boston. She has held academic positions at Aga Khan University (Pakistan) and Felician University, Pace University, University of Connecticut in the United States.

Karen Walker, is a Clinical Associate Professor and the current President of the Council of International Neonatal Nurses (COINN), past president of the Australian College of Neonatal Nurses and a founding member of the Alliance for Global Neonatal Nurses in the USA. Karen has been a neonatal nurse researcher for over 30 years with extensive state, national and international collaborations and is a co-editor for a book on global neonatal care to be published in 2021. Karen is passionate about the role of neonatal nurses in providing quality care to the small and sick newborn, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and advocating for strengthening the health workforce. She is committed to promoting the powerful role of parents as partners in health and is delighted to work with the new Global Alliance for Newborn Care. She is also committed to the empowerment of women and girls, ensuring equitable access to universal health care across the lifespan and ensuring health policy focuses and supports disadvantaged and vulnerable populations.

Dr Björn Westrup is a senior consultant in neonatology and in 1999 founder of the Karolinska NIDCAP Training & Research Center at Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, Karolinska University Hospital and Karolinska Institute.
Dr Westrup is since the beginning of 1990s one of the pioneers in scientific evaluation and dissemination of Infant- & Family-Centered Developmental Care – IFCDC. His focus has been clinical randomized controlled trials of the newborn on effects of parental involvement in the care; effects of family centred supportive hospital systems and architectural design of nurseries. Dr Westrup is one of the principle investigators in the WHO iKMC Study – a large multicentre trial in low-income countries on very low birth weight infants with immediate skin-to-skin contact and couplet care – a care model that minimises the separation of infant from its mother by providing medical care also for the mother in the neonatal unit. He has a long and close collaboration with parental organisations and serves in the Scientific Advisory Board of EFCNI.

Dieter Wolke (PhD Dr rer nat h.c.) is Professor of Developmental Psychology and Individual Differences at the Department of Psychology at the University of Warwick. He leads the Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Group.
His research focuses on developmental pathways leading to developmental psychopathology. He studies biological at risk children (very preterm children), school and sibling bullying, infant regulatory problems (crying, feeding, sleeping) and parenting. His particular interest is of how preterm birth affects brain development and psychological development and quality of life. He is involved in a range of follow-up studies of preterm children in the UK and Germany including the EPICure Study, the Bavarian Longitudinal Study and in the Scientific lead of RECAP-preterm, a EU Horizon 2020 project with 20 partners.
Professor Wolke has published over 350 research papers (#HighlyCited2019 @Clarivate @WebofScience), and is on the editorial boards of a number of journals and several scientific boards, e.g. of EFCNI’s Scientific Advisory Board. He has been named the 2020 British Psychological Society’s winner of the award for Distinguished Contributions to British Developmental Psychology.