Project Muso is a partner organization of
Our Team
Project Muso is a community-led organization in Yirimadjo, Mali, registered with the Malian government. We are also registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and in the UK as a registered charity.
Our team includes 82 staff and volunteers who bring to Project Muso their expertise as healthcare professionals, educators, activists, economists, businesspeople, researchers, and community leaders. The Project Muso community also includes the hundreds of individuals and organizations that contribute resources to make our work possible.
We share a common conviction that human life is sacred and that human dignity for all is possible. Guided by local communities and by leaders in global health and development, we bring together local wisdom and international expertise.
Our teammembers include:
Health Care Delivery
Kadidia "Mah" Sounfountera (Community Health Worker Team Leader) has been working with Project Muso since its inception in 2005. She is a powerful advocate and activist, and is talented at mobilizing the women of her community around women's causes in particular. In addition to other CHW duties, Kadidia assumes the additional responsibilities of providing administrative and programmatic support to the entire CHW team. She assists with day-to-day troubleshooting and performance improvement and coordinates logistical and scheduling issues for the CHW team. In 2007, she traveled to Senegal with Moise and Ari to learn about the revolutionary grassroots community mobilization techniques of our partner Tostan.
Djoume Diakite, MD (Community Based Malaria Program Manager, founder) has a diploma in primary care and surgery from the University of Bamako-FMPOS. Dr. Diakite has worked with Project Muso since 2005 as a founding member of the organization. He previously served as Medical Director of a local health center "Cabinet Médical de la Mosquée au Badialan 3 Bamako" and as a clinical telemedicine specialist with the International Institute for Communications and Development (IICD). Dr. Diakite facilitates weekly group supervision and weekly ongoing clinical training of Project Muso’s Community Health Workers, and provides one-on-one clinical supervision to the CHW team. In addition, he is on call to CHWs 24 hours/day for clinical backup and assistance with referrals, triaging, and medical and social emergencies. He works closely with our public sector partners at the Yirimadjo Community Health Center to ensure high quality care and effective health care financing. He oversees monitoring, evaluation, and ongoing quality improvement for Project Muso's health care delivery activities.
Amber Gladney 
is the technical assistance fellow for our Community Based Malaria Program. She has been living in Mali since July 2008 as a Peace Corps Health Education Volunteer. Prior to working with Project Muso she founded and coordinated Peace Corps Mali’s Gender and Development Committee. She graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in Political Science from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. While at Gonzaga she coordinated a community-based HIV/AIDS awareness and advocacy program, volunteered with the Spokane Regional Health District’s Outreach Center, and worked at the House of Charity, an overnight shelter and outreach center.
Bedi Cissé is our Referrals and Emergency Accompaniment Coordinator. Bedi does whatever it takes to ensure patients who need secondary or tertiary care at national hospitals are able to effectively navigate the healthcare system and access the care they need quickly and efficiently.
Sangeeta Tripathi is a Masters in Public Policy student at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and she works as a Sub-Saharan Africa consultant with Unicef. From 2004-2009 Sangeeta worked with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) in West Africa focused on strengthening national pediatric AIDS treatment programs. Sangeeta graduated from Brown having concentrated in international development, has taught in NYC public schools, and has spent a good bit of time working in Mali and throughout the region. Sangeeta has provided crucial advice and support to Project Muso's efforts, particularly in the realms of health care delivery and public sector advocacy, since our founding in 2005.
Joia Mukherjee is a the Medical Director of Partners In Health. At Project Muso, Joia serves as a Senior Advisor for health care delivery systems and public sector advocacy.
Community Health Workers
Kadidia "Mah" Sounfountera
Fatoumata Sanogo
Jeneba Ture
Rokia Kamate
Bintu Diko
Zenevieve Dako
Rosali Danbele
Assoumao Ye
Adama Diabate
Djeneba Konate
Salimata Kamara
Mamu Gindo
Fatumata Jabate
Mamu Kone
Alima Kamate
Sira Tarawele
Nia Maiga
Jelika Konate
Education and Community Action
Moise Samaké (Educational Program Coordinator, founder) works closely with the Tostan and Project Muso teams to coordinate Project Muso's non-formal education program, providing ongoing support to our program supervisors and facilitators. Moise has traveled to Senegal three times for training with Tostan in non-formal education and human rights-based consciousness-raising education modalities. He has a degree in Education from the University of Bamako-FLASH School of Education, where he produced a thesis about the decentralization of non-formal and basic education in Mali. Moise previously founded AJRSBS, a community-based organization that provides books to primary school students in his village and its surrounding areas in rural Mali. He lives in a Project Muso community in Yirimadjo with his wife and daughter, where he enjoys raising rabbits, chickens, and growing a vegetable garden.
Korotoumou Diarra (Field Supervisor) provides logistical and programatic support to our non-formal education program facilitators and participants. She was previously an education program facilitator for Project Muso's training class in Bakorobabougou, and prior to that, she was an education program participant in Project Muso's education program herself. Korotoumou lives in Yirimadjo. She loves teaching and discussing health themes from Project Muso's education program with her 12 children and her grandchild, as well as farming peanuts and raising animals, including sheep, chickens, and an eagle.
Fousseni Traore, (Field Supervisor, founder) provides logistical and programmatic support to our education program facilitators and participants. He is passionate about women's rights and democratic activism. He formerly served as co-director of a local youth action organization and the former president of a local women's advancement association. Fousseni recently organized a conference in Bamako about the role of women in traditional education. He is a member of the National Congress of Young Malians and of the Congress of Young People for Development. Fousseni has a PharmD, from the University of Bamako-FMPOS.
Mohamed Lamine Traore (Community Mobilization Supervisor) provides logistical and programmatic support to the Community Management Committees. He is a community member from Yirimadjo, where he lives with his wife and four children. He has served as an illustrious member of Project Muso's orginal Community Action Committee in Yirimadjo since 2005. Thanks to in large part to Mohamed Lamine's persistence and motivation, the Water Committee of this original Community Action Committee was able to effectively galvanize the local municipality to extend the municipal tap water system into Yirimadjo in 2010, providing safe public potable water to the community for the first time.
Education Program Facilitators
Hawa Coulibaly was one of the top graduates from Project Muso's 2007 Women's Education program, and she has always dreamed of being a healer.
Djeneba "Muy" Koité was one of Project Muso's top graduates in February 2007. She is particularly passionate about clarifying health issues for others, such as the difference between hepatitis and malaria.
Yamoussa Toure is a facilitateur in the village of Bakorobabougou. He studied telecommunications at ITO in Oran, Algeria. His previous non-profit experience includes work as an animator and coordinator with the NGO AES in Mali, in the field of socio-sanitary development, and with the NGO ADES (Action for the Right to an Education and to Health), where he was in charge of the Environmental Impact program.
Minata Koté was a Health Educator for Project Muso's training site in Yorojanbougou. Minata, another former top graduate from Project Muso's education program, was so dedicated to her job as a Health Educator that she walked five kilometers each day to teach her class in Yorojanbogou (whose name literally means "the neighborhood that is in a far away place"), until she could save up enough from her salary to buy a motorbike.
Oumou Coulibaly teaches in Kadobougouni, a community on the outskirts of Yirimadjo.
Mariam Doumbia completed the Women's Education Program, where she learned to read and write in Bamanankan and to make traditional mud cloth, called bogolan. Mariam wanted to become a facilitatrice so that she could help others learn how to read and write in their native language.
Djeneba "Nene" Konté is a facilitatrice in the Modibo Diarra community. Prior to becoming a facilitatrice she participated in Community Education and Literacy Campaigns and graduated from Project Muso’s Women’s Education Program.
Maimouna Coulibaly participated in Project Muso's Women's Education Program, where she learned revenue generating activities such as making liquid soap and mosquito repellent. She now teaches in the heart of Yirimadjo, out of a classroom at the mayor's office.
Mama Diallo is the youngest facilitatrice, at only 19 years. She teaches in the Medine community.
Amadoun A. Cisse facilitates in the zone Yirimadjo Nord. He studied economic management at the University of Bamako and the techniques of socio-educational animation at the National Institute of Youth and Sports.
Fatoumata "Tata" Koné was inspired by her facilitatrice to become a facilitatrice herself. She teaches at a center located in her mother's compound and is motivated by her desire to help others learn.
Juliette Dakouo says that "it pleases her greatly to be a facilitatrice." She previously taught 5-7 year olds at a private school in Yirimadjo. It was learning to read and write that led her to become a facilitatrice. She now teaches in the Kouloubleni community, where she has over 130 participants.
Alimatou Diallo is a facilitatrice in the Yorodjambougou Est community.
Nanaissa (Nani) Koné has been trained in artisan fabric dying and in preschool education. In addition to her role as a facilitatrice she is also the director of a preschool that is located in the same compound in which she lives.
Microfinance and Economic Empowerment
Fatoumata “Fatim” Traore (Director of Economic Empowerment Programs) coordinates all enterprise and microfinance programming for Project Muso. She works with the women's cooperatives to ensure on-time loan repayment, supports women to improve the businesses they have launched, and coordinates economic empowerment trainings. She has worked formerly with the international aid organization World Education and with the national urban development organization Alphalog. From 2001-2003 she was the Community Development Assistant at Asa Subaahi Gumo (ASG), a national NGO in Mali whose accomplishments include creating schools.
Martha Franquemont (Microfinance Technical Assistance Coordinator) graduated from Bradley University in 2009 with degrees in economics and political science. She wrote her senior thesis on microfinance and its impact on poverty alleviation in Uganda. Before coming to Mali, Martha worked as a research assistant for the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan and served as an AmeriCorps volunteer for the American Red Cross.
Anjali Saxena supports the growth and strategic planning of the microfinance program and also helps with development and fundraising efforts. She was our Mali-based Microfinance Program Technical Support officer during 2008-2009. Before joining Project Muso, she worked in HIV/AIDS research at Massachusetts General Hospital, with a focus on the HIV epidemic in India, HIV/TB co-infection, and HIV transmission in South Africa. She graduated from Wesleyan University in 2006 with a degree in Science in Society, in concentrations in Neuroscience & Behavior and Sociology.
Cailey Gibson provides communications and development support to the Project Muso team. She served as Project Muso's Microfinance Technical Support Officer in Mali in 2009-2010. A graduate of Carleton College, Cailey received degrees in International Relations and Environmental Studies. She wrote her senior thesis on changing perceptions of gender and development and participated in a microfinance study tour in Nicaragua. Prior to joining Project Muso's team, Cailey worked for the William J. Clinton Foundation on their Climate Change Initiative in Boston.
Research
Djoumé Diakité, MD (Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator)
Mamary Koné (Lead Analyst)
Rebecca Palmer (Monitoring & Evaluation Fellow
Mohamed Bana Traoré (Data Entry Specialist)
Earl Francis Cook Jr. (Senior Advisor)
Cathy Yoon (Senior Advisor)
Mohammed Bana Traoré (Data Entry Specialist). Mohammed enters raw data collected weekly from our Community Health Worker team, which includes births, deaths, pregnancies, and clinical data into an electronic database. He manages our annual household malaria survey data, which includes household health and demographic indicators. Mohammed also assisted Project Muso with the processing of data associated with our healthcare financing system. Born in Mopti, Mali, Mohammed moved to Bamako at age 11 to attend secondary school, high school, and finally college. He received a degree in education science from the University of Bamako in 2009.
Administrative
Jessica Beckerman (Co-Executive Director, founder) coordinates Project Muso’s team to develop, revise, and plan programs and evaluate the impact of our work. She provides technical support to our operational team, and is involved with development and fundraising. Jessica has worked in West Africa with several organizations including the groundbreaking NGO Tostan, and she has also worked as a Project Manager at Partners In Health’s PACT Project, designing new community-based health care delivery systems for marginalized patients. She studied international development and public health at Brown University and currently studies medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Jessica has worked in Mali since 2004, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.
Ari Johnson, MD (Co-Executive Director, founder) trained at Harvard Medical School and is now a resident physician at the University of California San Francisco. He provides technical support and helps to coordinate research and evaluation, program design, public sector advocacy, and development efforts. He has conducted research at the National Institutes of Health, the International Health Institute, the Medical Research Council of South Africa, Brown University, Harvard University, and the Kuvin Center for the Study of Infectious and Tropical Diseases in Jerusalem. He has published peer-reviewed articles and essays in the fields of infectious disease, health policy, neurobiology, AIDS, and migration. Ari was a National Goldwater Scholar and the 4-time winner of the Research at Brown Award.
Ichiaka Koné, MD (National Coordinator, founder) is a physician with a degree in internal medicine from the University of Bamako-FMPOS. He is currently working on his Masters degree in Public Health through a special off-site program with Nancy University in France. Dr. Koné trained in community-mobilization, and human rights and responsibilities with Tostan in Senegal, and has presented Project Muso’s CBMP as a best practice model at several national and international conferences and meetings, including a recent World Bank conference in Accra, Ghana co-sponsored by DFID and the World Bank. Dr. Koné coordinates Project Muso’s operational and research efforts, facilitates our CBMP pilot steering group with local, regional, and national Ministry of Health officials, and contributes his medical expertise to health curriculum development and evidence-based clinical training of Project Muso’s CHWs and CSCOM staff.
Belco Cissé (Financial Manager) is an accountant with a license in accounting management from FSEG, Bamako's Economic and Management Sciences University.
Jonathan Moller (Financial Director) works closely with Project Muso's US and Mali-based teams to coordinate and strengthen our financial management systems, ensuring transparency, accountability, and efficiency. Jon has a Masters of Science in Finance, and an MBA in Health Administration from the University of Colorado.
Ina Traoré (Administrative Intern)
Kevin Hepner is the senior financial advisor for Project Muso. He works closely with the Project Muso team to enhance the efficiency and organization of our financial bookkeeping system, and he has developed organized and extendable accounting structures for our organization. A Certified Public Accountant, Kevin is the President and CEO of United South End Settlements, a 116-year-old nonprofit located in Boston's South End. He is an instructor of non-profit accounting and finance at Boston University and is the former Vice-President of the Judge Baker Children's Center. Kevin has served on many nonprofit boards and is currently the Board President of the South End Community Health Center.
Development and Communications
Rebecca Palmer (Development Coordinator) serves in Mali as both Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator and Development Coordinator. She graduated in 2010 with a B.A. in Biology from Carleton College. While at Carleton, she worked as student liaison to the Wellness Center and also served as a student coordinator with the Acting in the Community Together (ACT) Center. She gained experience advocating for women’s issues as an intern with Women’s Policy, Inc. and the National Women’s Health Network in Washington, D.C. Her previous international experience includes volunteer work with the Center for the Working Girl in Quito, Ecuador, and a semester spent studying Medical Practice & Policy in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Kate Brackney (Grant writer) is a Masters in Divinity student at Harvard University. She was formerly the Associate Editor of The Johns Hopkins Medical Letter. She is a Brown University graduate and Teach For America alumna, and she is currently coordinating Project Muso's grant-writing team.
Lucas Foglia is a graduate of Brown University. His photographs are exhibited nationally and he has received many grants and fellowships for his work. His photographs are included in permanent collections including the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, the Newport Art Museum, Light Work, Sprint Systems of Photography, the Margulies Collection and the Starr Foundation. In 2007, Lucas created a photographic series on the work of Project Muso, and some of his photographs can be seen throughout this site.
Tibet Sprague is a software developer for FuseCal.com who designed and developed this website.
Mary Virginia E Thur manages Project Muso's gifts processing. She spent 2008-2009 providing technical assistance to Project Muso's healthcare program in Mali. Mary Virginia originally hails from the Washington D.C. area, but came to Project Muso from the Sikasso region of Mali, where she worked as a Health Extension Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural maternity for two years before joining the Project Muso team. Before working for Project Muso/Peace Corps she worked for the NGOs Clean Water Action and Working America (2004-2006). She graduated from North Carolina State University with a B.S. in Biology and a B.S. in Political Science in 2004. “Be strong, Believe”.
Board of Advisors
Arachu Castro, PhD is a medical anthropologist trained in public health and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School (HMS) Department of Social Medicine. She is also Project Manager for Mexico and Guatemala at the non-profit organization Partners In Health (PIH). PIH, in concert with local sister organizations, aims to provide high-quality, comprehensive primary health care to people living in poverty. Dr. Castro’s work involves improving access to health care for populations living in poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Paul Farmer, MD, PhD is co-founder of Partners In Health. Beginning in Haiti in 1987 PIH has now expanded to include programs in Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, and the US. Dr. Farmer is also the Presley Professor at HMS and an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston (BWH). Dr. Farmer has guided the design of Project Muso’s health services delivery program since its inception, particularly in the area of health care system capacity building.
Jim Kim, MD, PhD who co-founded Partners In Health, recently stepped down as Director of the World Health Organization HIV/AIDS Department and Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization, to become Dartmouth’s University’s 17th president. He previously
directed the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and served as Department Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Division Chief at the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Kim provides key guidance to Project Muso’s scale-up and replication strategy.
Molly Melching, the founder and Executive Director of Tostan, has pioneered a model for non-formal education and community mobilization that has been implemented in thousands of villages in Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Somalia, and the Gambia. She is highly regarded for her expertise in non-formal education, human rights training, and social transformation issues. Tostan is the winner of the 2007 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, and the 2007 UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, and has partnered with USAID in a number of implementing countries, including Mali. Molly supports the positive synergies between the Tostan-Project Muso education and community action systems and our community-led approach to health services delivery.
Board of Directors
Jessica Beckerman (Co-Executive Director, founder).
Whitney Braunstein (founder) plays a crucial role guiding Project Muso's development and also served as Project Muso's "home base" in Washington, DC. She graduated from Brown University in 2004, where she studied Visual Art and the HIV/AIDS epidemic from an anthropological and sociological perspective. She has worked in New York at Speak Truth to Power and the Coro New York Leadership Center and in Washington, DC as a project manager at Management Systems International. In 2009, Whitney is joining the MIT Sloan School of Management to pursue an MBA.
Edward M. Cardoza, MA is the Executive Director of the non-profit organization Still Harbor. He received a Masters in Arts in Ministry from Saint John's Seminary School of Theology in 2003. He completed a practicum in spiritual direction at the Center for Religious Development through the Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, MA. Ed also serves as a volunteer solicitor and member of the Development Committee at Partners In Health, where he previously served as Vice President for Development
Ally Dick (Secretary) graduated from Brown University in 2007. She majored in Visual Art, focusing on photography and video, and took many classes in the area of international development. While at Brown she went to Mali to create a documentary film about women’s perspectives on HIV/AIDS in conjunction with the Global Alliance to Immunize Against AIDS. She returned to Mali to work as an on-the-ground coordinator for Project Muso Ladamunen in 2006. She currently works at Progreso Latino in Central Falls, Rhode Island with the immigrant community.
Ari Johnson (Co-Executive Director, founder).
Ethan S. Johnson, MBA is currently a research analyst for an institutional investment manager in New York City. His prior professional experience includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity and equity research. Ethan also founded On Your Feet Project, a nonprofit organization engaging young people in community service. He received an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan.
Patricia V. Symonds, PhD is a medical anthropologist and Associate Professor of Anthropology at Brown University. A Brown alumna (A.B., 1979: Ph.D., 1991), her research focuses on the impact of culture, political economy, and cosmology on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. She specializes in the impact of HIV/AIDS on minority hill dwellers in Thailand. Professor Symonds is responsible for bringing together the original founders of Project Muso, who were all at one point her students at Brown, and she has provided crucial guidance and support to Project Muso since its inception.