ABOUT US
Stephen W. Nicholas
Founder – Board President
Our Origins
Dr. Stephen W. Nicholas, a pediatrician in New York City, was a pioneer in providing care for children with HIV and their families since the 1980s in Washington Heights and Harlem, New York. He realized that many of these children with HIV were from the Dominican Republic and decided to travel to La Romana, Dominican Republic to better understand the problem. At the time, there were no medications in the country to treat HIV. He then started the first program in the east of the country to prevent vertical transmission by treating pregnant women with HIV.
He then collaborated with the Fundación MIR and the Religiosas Adoratrices to establish a family-centered care clinic in 2004, one of the first health centers in the country to provide antiretroviral therapy to its clients HIV-positive patients. What began as a program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, very quickly grew to have a much broader mission, providing psycho-social support and medical care not only to women with HIV and their newborns, but also to their families, other vulnerable populations and the general public. Today, Clínica de Familia La Romana is an independent organization , recognized as a model clinic for integrated health services in the Dominican Republic.
Our Mission
Children’s Global Health Fund is a 501c3 charitable organization with the mission to save the lives of vulnerable children and families globally by raising funds for and providing support to organizations improving family health in developing countries. Our current priority is Clínica de Familia La Romana, an internationally recognized model for patient care, professional education and training and clinical research.
Our Board
Stephen W. Nicholas
Board President
Mina Halpern Lozada
Ex Officio Member
Pediatric HIV specialist who helped create the pediatric AIDS program at Harlem Hospital, where he later became Director of Pediatrics. He co-founded the Incarnation Children’s Center for “boarder babies with AIDS” in 1988. In 1999, he founded the International Family AIDS Program to support the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission in the Dominican Republic, leading subsequently to the creation of Clínica de Familia La Romana and the Global and Population Health Education Program at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S). Dr. Nicholas was previously the Senior Associate Dean for Admissions at VP&S and Professor of Pediatrics and Population and Family Health at Columbia University. He is now retired. He was born in Casper, Wyoming, and graduated from Casper College, the University of Wyoming, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. He did his pediatric training at Columbia-Presbyterian Babies Hospital and Harlem Hospital and completed a Robert Wood Johnson General Academic Pediatrics fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Executive Director of Clínica de Familia La Romana since 2011, where she provides overall programmatic and administrative leadership. Previously, Mina was the program coordinator for Clínica de Familia’s adolescent clinic and the program to prevent HIV vertical transmission (2009-2011). From 2006 to 2008, Mina served as a Program Management Fellow with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global AIDS Program in Guyana. Prior to 2006, Mina served in a few different positions in the areas of reproductive health and HIV in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. Mina, originally from Washington State, received her Bachelor of Arts in Government from Wesleyan University, her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington, and a Certificate in Managing Healthcare Delivery from Harvard Business School.
Linda Cushman
Board Vice President
Ana Jiménez-Bautista
Board Treasurer
A sociologist and health researcher with expertise in research design and implementation in underserved, minority communities, Dr. Cushman has directed numerous clinic and community-based studies in the areas of reproductive health, disease prevention, health services utilization, the use of alternative medicines, and health and migration issues in the Dominican Republic. She taught Qualitative Methods and Research Design and Data Collection to Master’s students at the Mailman School of Public Health, where she directed numerous practicum programs including sites in Uganda, the Dominican Republic, and domestic Native American Communities. She has received awards for the excellence of her leadership, teaching, mentoring and curriculum development at Columbia. Dr. Cushman is Professor Emerita of Population and Family Health at the Columbia University Medical Center and a Special Lecturer of Population and Family Health.
Member of the Clínica de Familia Board of Directors and the Director of the Office of Field Practice (OFP) at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. She was previously the Director of Programs for Columbia University´s Program for Global and Population Health (2011-2013) as well as the coordinator of community health initiatives (2004-2011) and health education (1995-2001) at the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health. Ms. Jiménez-Bautista received a master’s degree from Hunter College’s School of Social Work.
Richard Kearns
Board Secretary
Consuelo Beck-Sagué
Board Member
Recently retired fundraising consultant who provided counsel to more than three dozen hospitals, healthcare organizations and not-for-profit mission driven institutions since establishing his practice in 1997. Earlier in his career, Richard was executive vice president and chief development officer at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, vice president for development and public relations at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), and director of development and public relations at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. A graduate of Iona College, he holds a master’s degree from St. Joseph’s Seminary and has served on a variety of not-for-profit boards.
Pediatric infectious disease subspecialist who worked for 19 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an epidemic investigator, as Deputy Director, Division of STD Laboratory Research, and as Associate Director for Minority/Women’s Health, National Center for Infectious Diseases. Dr. Beck-Sagué worked for the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative (2004-2008), collaborating with the Dominican Republic (DR) Ministry of Health in the pediatric antiretroviral scale-up and volunteering at Clínica de Familia La Romana with her husband, Dr. Andy Dean. She founded the DR’s first summer camp for HIV-infected children with Clínica de Familia and competed successfully for USAID funding to support caregivers of fragile HIV patients. She is a retired associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work of Florida International University.
Andrew Dean
Board Member
Marlyn Delva
Board Member
Medical doctor and epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1964. After internship in Seattle, he served as Peace Corps Physician in Somalia for two years, and then as a staff member of an NIH research laboratory in the Pacific for four years, where he did his residency training in General Preventive Medicine. A year of Burkitt’s Lymphoma research in Idi Amin’s Uganda was followed by a year on the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health, subsequently enhanced by adjunct faculty appointments in six other schools of public health. His experience includes laboratory work with E. coli enterotoxin, isolation and serology of mosquito borne viruses and enteric pathogens, and electron microscopy of rotaviruses. He served eight years as State Epidemiologist in two states and was elected President of the national Conference (now Council) of State Epidemiologists. In 1984 he joined the CDC, where he led the design and development of Epi Info, a public health software package used around the world. After retiring from CDC in 2002, he developed OpenEpi, a series of epidemiologic calculators on the Internet (www.openepi.com). He and his wife, Dr. Consuelo Beck-Sagué, served as volunteers at Clínica de Familia from 2004-2008 where Dr. Dean developed software to facilitate treatment of HIV, and provided advice on clinic construction, laboratory technology, and informatics. Both have maintained an interest in Clinic affairs and have been financial as well as scientific contributors.
A social epidemiologist who, for nearly two decades, has worked in higher education to support and enhance the student experience through innovative and essential services. Dr. Delva is currently the Dean of Students at the Columbia University School of General Studies (GS). Before joining GS, she provided service and leadership as Associate Dean of Student Affairs and Dean of Students at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, where she continues to serve as an assistant professor of epidemiology. Dr. Delva has garnered national recognition for her accomplishments in teaching, and leadership, including most recently being awarded the 2019 Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Student Services Excellence Award for her forward-thinking practices and dedication in working with students. Her research explores health disparities, focusing on the accessibility of health services and the impact of societal structures as these relate to populations descending from the Caribbean. Dr. Delva earned a Doctorate in Education and a Master of Arts degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University, a Masters in Social Work from the Columbia School of Social Work, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Barnard College.
Rachel G. Rempell
Board Member
Pediatric emergency medicine specialist who currently is an attending physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she is the Associate Medical Director of the emergency department and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine. As director of physician staffing, Dr. Rempell oversees the care model in the emergency department and guides the data driven staffing plans to allow for care of over 150,000 patients across three sites. She completed advanced training in point of care ultrasound and is the Director of the Emergency Ultrasound Fellowship at CHOP. She is a part of ultrasound education across CHOP assisting in curriculums for the pediatric residents, pediatric emergency medicine fellows and attending physicians. Her work in ultrasound education has recently brought her to the Dominican Republic for an exciting partnership with pediatric intensivists in Santo Domingo. Dr. Rempell has a long-standing connection with the Clinical de Familia La Romana, first spending 2000-2001 working in La Romana as its first program coordinator.
Our Team
130
Staff Members
85%
Women
95%
Dominican
Our Financials
Programmatic & Operations Revenue
US$2,577,042
Donations & Grants
Service Revenue
Programmatic & Administrative Expenses
US$2,434,610
Program Expenses
Administrative Costs
Annual Reports
Newsletter 2024 Jun Download PDF
Newsletter 2023 Oct Download PDF
Newsletter 2023 Mar Download PDF
Newsletter 2022 Oct Download PDF
2022 Federal Tax Return Download PDF
2021 Federal Tax Return Download PDF
2020 Federal Tax Return Download PDF
2019 Federal Tax Return Download PDF
SUPPORT
Clínica de Familia collaborates with a robust network of public and nonprofit partners and business/corporate supporters, cultivates significant in-kind donations and is expanding its income-producing services.
- Alianza ONG
- Alianza ONGs Romanenses
- Clúster Turístico de La Romana Bayahibe
- Coalición ONG SIDA
- Grupo Consultivo de la Calidad de Servicios Clínicos de VIH
- Instituto de la Salud (INSALUD)
- Centro de Fomento de las Asociaciones Sin Fines de Lucro
- Instituto de Investigación Colaborativa
- Ministerio de Educación
- Ministerio de Salud Pública
- Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition
- Servicio Nacional de Salud
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
- City University of New York
- Columbia University
- Instituto Tecnológico (INTEC)
- Johns Hopkins University
- Northwestern University
- Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
- Rutgers University
- Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
- Universidad Central del Este
- Universidad de las Américas Puebla
- Universidad Eugenio María de Hostos
- Universidad Federico Henríquez y Carvajal
- Universidad Iberoamericana
- Universidad Nacional Evangélica
- Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña
- Universidad O y M
- University of California San Francisco
- University of Colorado
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of Massachusetts
- University of Michigan
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Texas Medical Branch
- University of Texas San Antonio
- University of Washington
We are incredibly grateful for all the support we have received from our partners and individual donors. The donations received covered operational and programmatic expenses, specific projects, and the completion of the plans for the future Clínica de Familia building. Without the contributions of institutions and individuals who believe in our mission, the work we do every day would not be possible.