Board of Directors

Ashley Gresh, PhD, MSN, MA, BSN, BA, RN, CNM, is an Assistant Professor in the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Ashley is both a certified nurse-midwife and a public health nurse, whose research focuses on addressing inequities in maternal and child health outcomes. Her current work examines the effects of perinatal group-based care on maternal and child health in the postpartum period, and examines ways for adapting, implementing, and sustaining group care in Baltimore and globally. Dr. Gresh is committed to co-creating solutions to issues in health care with the communities she serves by using a human-centered design approach; one that shifts power dynamics and centers the rights and well-being of childbearing people, their families, and communities.

She has a range of global and international health experience including being in the inaugural cohort of the Global Women’s Health Fellowship, a joint venture between the Johns Hopkins Schools of Nursing and Medicine and Jhpiego. A foundational career goal for Dr. Gresh is to reimagine and redefine postpartum care to transform systems and delivery of care.

JHU Center Affiliation:
Center for Equity in Child and Youth Health and Wellbeing
Institute for Policy Solutions at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Vlorian Molliqaj is a public health professional with extensive experience in program management, fundraising, and strategic planning. He holds a Master’s degree in Public Health Science with a specialization in Health Economics from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Vlorian has been instrumental in implementing health and social initiatives in Kosovo, notably serving as the Kosovo country lead during the GC1000 project, part of the European Union-funded Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. During 2019-2023, he was Executive Director at Action for Mothers and Children, contributing to significant growth of impact of the organization and overseeing numerous health initiatives and securing essential funding and strategic partnerships.

Currently, he works as the Regional Representative at PLAY International – Western Balkans, where he spearheads programs focused on social inclusion and youth development. His efforts have significantly promoted the use of sports as a tool for development, enhancing community resilience and well-being.

Sheela Maru, MD, MPH, is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Health Systems Design and Global Health and Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is an attending physician at NYC H+H/Elmhurst Hospital where she practices as a generalist Obstetrician Gynecologist. Sheela is the Director of the NYC partnership between the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at Mount Sinai and the NYC H+H/Elmhurst Global Health Institute, Queens, and Elmhurst Hospitals. The NYC Partnership aims to improve the health and wellbeing of communities served by the public health system in Queens through building community partnerships and addressing social determinants of health. Sheela worked closely with community partners to build the HoPE Community Doula Program. In addition, she has been an advisor for the organizations Possible and Nyaya Health Nepal, supporting health systems strengthening and implementation science work in rural Nepal since 2007. Her research is focused on improving healthcare access and quality for women and children in low-resource settings through community engagement and innovative models of care.

Sheela is the mother of twin teens and lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, NYC with her family.

Kathy Norr, PhD, is a medical sociologist and Professor Emerita at the College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago who has conducted research on health promotion interventions for maternal-child health and HIV prevention in the US and globally. She brings her extensive experience designing and testing innovative programs and implementation science to GCG.

Kathy was first introduced to the group care model in the early 2000’s by Carry Klima and Sharon Rising. With Carrie and others, Kathy tested group prenatal care in a clinic serving low-income women in Chicago, resulting in significantly improved outcomes, including increased prenatal visits, breast feeding, and satisfaction. Kathy saw that this model had even greater potential in low-income countries. Her most recent work with Crystal Patil and her Malawi colleagues has brought group care to Malawi, incorporating an HIV prevention focus based on Kathy’s peer group intervention. This randomized trial of group prenatal care in 7 clinics has identified many positive outcomes, including better prenatal services (more services and health education topics received, higher attendance, satisfaction), better client outcomes more knowledge and improved mental health, dietary diversity, birth preparedness, and infant feeding) and continued sustaining of the model by all 7 clinics. The team is now working with health leaders to scale-up the model to eventually reach childbearing families nationwide.

Kathy is a founding member of Group Care Global and is part of the implementation research team carrying out the European Union-funded GC1000 initiative in 7 countries (Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 848147).  

Dr. George Little, MD, recently retired as Professor of Pediatrics and of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Dartmouth Medical School and the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in the United States where he was a neonatologist. He is involved in improving pregnancy outcomes in Kosovo where he has served as an advisor to the Ministry of Health.

George has served with a US Agency for International Development (USAID) Child Survival Project in Egypt and as a consultant to the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the United Arab Emirates University in Abu Dhabi. Early in his career he served as a Peace Corps staff physician in Nigeria and Malawi and then as the Regional Medical Officer for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Manodj Hindori, MSc, graduated in environmental engineering at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands. Back in his home country, Suriname, he worked for over fifteen years for the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) on health sector reform and health systems management. In 2008 he became the CEO of the St. Vincentius Hospital in Paramaribo. He served for many years as chairman of the National Hospital Board of Suriname. After 14 years of service, in early 2022 Manodj exchanged his career in the hospital for a career in international diplomacy. In August 2023, he was appointed as non-resident ambassador for his country to Turkey.

Manodj is the co-founder and Board Chair of the Foundation for Perinatal Interventions and Research in Suriname (Perisur), a nonprofit organization that promotes good health and quality of care for pregnant women, young mothers, and their babies. Manodj was closely involved in the development and implementation of Group Care in three hospitals in Suriname. Currently he is active in the implementation of Group Care in primary health care settings in low-income communities, with a focus on vulnerable women and their babies, and is part of the implementation research team carrying out the European Union-funded GC1000 initiative in 7 countries (Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 848147).  

Amy Crockett, M.D., is the medical director of the Greenville Health System Obstetric Center and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist. She also serves as the Clinical Lead for the South Carolina Birth Outcome Initiative, the South Carolina perinatal quality collaborative. She is a CenteringPregnancy champion in South Carolina and now is leading a randomized controlled trial of the model in the Greenville Health System.

Amy is a Fellow of the eighth class of the Liberty Fellowship Program and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Doug Laube, MD, recently retired as Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Wisconsin. During his tenure the department experienced unprecedented growth in faculty as well as in research funding. In May of 2006, Dr. Laube became President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) following a year as President Elect. He continues to be involved in several international projects focused on women’s reproductive health.

Doug served as Board Chair with the Centering Healthcare Institute for several years and now is the Board Chair for Group Care Global.

Marlies Rijnders, PhD, graduated as a midwife in 1989 and subsequently worked as an independent midwife in the Netherlands for 10 years. In 1999 she started working as a research-midwife at TNO in Leiden, a nationwide institute for applied research. In 2011 she introduced group antenatal care and group youth health care in the Netherlands.

Marlies conducted implementation studies of CenteringPregnancy and CenteringParenting (2012-2016) and is co-project leader of a cluster randomized trial looking at the effects of CenteringPregnancy in the Netherlands (2013-2016).

Marlies serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of Group Care Global.

Sharon Schindler Rising is a certified nurse-midwife who graduated from the Yale School of Nursing, taught on the faculty there, and then established the graduate nurse-midwifery program and the Childbearing Childrearing Center at the University of Minnesota. In 1993-94 she developed and piloted the CenteringPregnancy model of Group Care in Waterbury, CT and began doing instructional workshops nationally and globally.

She founded the Centering Healthcare Institute in 2001 and served as its CEO until 2014. In 2017 she and her colleague, Charlotte Houde Quimby, published, “The CenteringPregnancy® Model: The Power of Group Health Care”. She was on the Yale grant team that conducted the first randomized controlled trial on the Centering model.

Sharon is a founding member of Group Care Global and is part of the implementation research team carrying out the European Union-funded GC1000 initiative in 7 countries (Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 848147).

She resides with her husband in Philadelphia, PA, and works closely with the Board to provide major direction for Group Care Global.

Sharon can be reached at srising@groupcare.global