Global Advisory Council
The National Medical Fellowships (NMF) Global Advisory Council is comprised of high-profile, purpose-driven influencers who are passionate about NMF’s mission and programmatic work. It is a community of members from around the world who deeply care about making a difference and want to share in, invest in and support, the mission of NMF.
Global Advisory Council members provide financial support, and offer strategic insight and advice to empower NMF to advance positive change. This work bolsters NMF's mission mandate and to support its scholars, alumni, and health equity stakeholders in pursuing better health outcomes across the nation and throughout the world.
Global Advisory Council Members
Kweku A. Awotwi is currently the Board Chairman of United Bank for Africa (Ghana) Ltd, the Multimedia Group Ltd in Ghana, and the non-profit sports for development organization, Playsoccer Ghana which he co-founded in 1999. He has been the past Board Chairman of Stanbic Bank (Ghana) Ltd (2012 – 2018), Ghana’s Volta River Authority (2017-2021), and a Board member of several energy and mining organizations across Africa.
An electrical engineer by training, Kweku started out his career designing integrated circuits for ITT and GE/RCA respectively between 1984-1988. He worked for Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corporation between 1990-1998, where he left as Business Manager of the Primary Aluminum Business Unit; served as Managing Director, Strategic Planning & New Business Development for Ashanti Goldfields Company from 1998-2004; Chief Executive of Ghana’s Volta River Authority (2009-2013); and most recently, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Tullow Oil plc (UK) and Tullow Ghana Ltd, respectively from 2018- 2020.
In between these corporate assignments, he has been involved in a number of entrepreneurial ventures in energy and mining across Africa. These include a US$1 billion 375 MW independent power project, Cenpower Generation, which he co-founded and developed, and which reached commercial operation in 2019; a start-up oil and gas exploration company, Midway Resources, where he was CEO and laid the foundation of several licence and asset acquisitions in East and West Africa; an electricity meter factory in Kaduna, Nigeria which became operational in 2021; and a South African gold mining company reverse listed into a Hong-Kong listed public company.
Mr. Awotwi has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford, California, and a B.S in Electrical Engineering, Economics and Political Science from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Kweku Awotwi, M.B.A., DSc
Chair, UBA Bank, Chair, Multimedia Group, Chair/Co-Founder, PlaySoccer
Dr. Lynda Decker is a Physician Entrepreneur, passionate about excellence and accessibility in healthcare delivery at all levels of the income spectrum. Over the past 30 years in clinical practice, my personal brand has revolved around a patient-centric/customer-centric service approach driven by values of human dignity and excellence.
Franklyn Medical Services, since 2007 has created a sought after bespoke, patient-centric and high-touch clinical model of General Clinical and Specialist care with Medical concierge services. She is driven by influencing positive change in the Healthcare industry in Ghana and within the West African subregion – improving access to quality care, diagnosis and interventions to preserve life.
Dr.Decker is a board member and Vice Chair /CEO of the Healthcare Federation of Ghana, Executive Member of the West African Private Healthcare Federation, a Global Partner National Medical Fellowships (US), and a member of the Ghana Medical Association.
Lynda Decker, M.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Healthcare Federation of Ghana
Anne Evans Estabrook is the Owner and Chairman of Elberon Development Group, a family-owned real estate holding company in northern New Jersey.
Most of the properties are industrial with the remainder serving commercial and retail tenants. Ms. Estabrook is also Chairman of David O. Evans, Inc., a property management and construction management company. For many years, Anne has been instrumental in redevelopment in Elizabeth, one of New Jersey’s largest cities, with Prologis, LLC, a worldwide publicly traded REIT (real estate investment trust). Elberon has a strong affiliation with F. Greek Development Co., a well-respected, New Jersey-based full service real estate company. Elberon and its affiliates currently have three redevelopment projects underway.
A prominent member of New Jersey’s business community, Ms. Estabrook was appointed by Governor Corzine to The New Jersey Economic Growth Council in September 2006. From 2003 to 2005, she served as Chairman of the New Jersey State Chamber of Commerce, the first woman to ever hold that position in the 92-year-old history of the organization. She was the 2001 National Chairman of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), a real estate trade organization with approximately 15,000 members.
Anne is also a director of the Federal Home Loan Bank-New York and a member of its executive, corporate governance and housing committees. Thereafter, she was a director of United Jersey Bancorporation and its successor, Summit Bancorp, and its subsidiary. Until December 2011, she chaired the National Audit Committee Chairs Council and is a member of the New Jersey American Water Company Board of Directors.
For several years, Anne was a director of National State Bank-Elizabeth, which subsequently became Constellation Bank, a subsidiary of Constellation Bancorp, and served on the executive, loan review, and audit committees. She also served on and chaired the compensation committee. She was on the Board of New Brunswick Savings Bank after it was purchased by Constellation Bancorp and was instrumental in negotiating the sale of Constellation to Corestates Bancorporation in 1994. Thereafter, she was a director of United Jersey Bancorporation and its successor, Summit Bancorp, and its subsidiary, Summit Bank, serving on the loan, executive, audit, and trust committees, until it was sold in 2001 to FleetBoston Financial.
As Chairman of E’town Corporation, a New York stock exchange company, and its subsidiaries, Elizabethtown Water Company, E’town Properties, Inc., and Applied Wastewater Management, Anne was responsible for negotiating the sale of the company to Thames Water, a British Water Company, subsequently acquired by RWE, a German utility company. She was a member of the Thames Water International Advisory Council from 2001 until mid-2006. She chaired the New Jersey Advisory Council of Thames Water Co. from 2001 through 2004.
A strong advocate for education, Ms. Estabrook served as a member of the Lay Board of Trustees for Delbarton School (Morristown, New Jersey) for 15 years, and chaired for five years. In April 2011, she was selected to serve on Governor Chris Christie’s New Jersey Council on Higher Education as its Vice Chair.
A graduate of Cornell University with a BS degree and MBA degree, Anne served on her alma mater’s Board of Trustees for 10 years, was a member of its Executive Committee, and chaired its Buildings and Properties Committee. Currently, she is a Trustee Emeritus and Presidential Councillor. She continues to serve Cornell as an Overseer of the Medical School Board, its International Affairs Committee, Real Estate Renovations & Facilities Planning Committee, and other committees.
Ms. Estabrook was Vice Chairman of the Rutgers Business School Board of Advisors from 2003 through 2005, and at Kean University, she is currently a member of the President’s Council and Wenzhou-Kean University Board, Vice-Chair. Up until 2013, Anne was a member of the Liberty Hall Museum Board of Directors, and in October 2012, she became a member of the Institute of Women’s Leadership (IWL), Rutgers, the State University, Advisory Board. In February 2014 she was inducted as a Director to the Board of Directors of Y Homes, Inc., (CHDO) a division of The Gateway Family YMCA.
Enhancing the communities in New Jersey where she lived and/or worked until December 2002, Ms. Estabrook served on the Archbishop’s Finance Council in the Archdiocese of Newark for 14 years, and in January 2012, was once again appointed for a five year term. Until December 2010, Anne was a member of the Metuchen Diocesan Finance Council and the former Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Catholic Charities, a member of its executive committee, and chaired its finance and buildings and facilities committees. In December 2008 she became a Member of the Board of Overseers of Immaculate Conception Seminary. In 2009 she became a Trustee of St. Barnabas Health Care System, now known as Barnabas Health; in 2010 she became a member of its Audit Committee and is a member of its Nominating & Governance Committee. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Monmouth Medical Center, Chairman of its Children’s Hospital Committee. Until July 2009 she was a Trustee of the New Jersey Network (NJN) Foundation and she is a past Presiding Chair of the New Jersey Chapter of the National Conference for Community & Justice (NCCJ) – New Jersey Region, now known as American Conference on Diversity.
Ms. Estabrook has served in a leadership capacity with numerous organizations committed to economic development and opportunity. Several years ago she served as a Board Member and officer of the Elizabeth Development Co. and from 1994-2000 was a member of the Governing Boards of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the Corporation for Business Assistance. In 2001, she was a member of Governor McGreevey’s BEST Commission (Budget Efficiency Savings Team). In 2005, Anne served as a member of Governor Corzine’s Transition Advisory Group and his Budget Committee, and in 2001, she was appointed a member of Acting Governor DiFrancesco’s Homeland Security Commission.
Ms. Estabrook’s achievements and work have been recognized by many organizations and publications. In March 2014, she received the NJ Biz First Lifetime Achievement Award for her many years of service. In October 2012, she was chosen by New Jersey Monthly Magazine as one of its Top 25 Leading Women Entrepreneurs. In May 2011, Anne was honored with The Scholarship Fund for Inner-City Children’s “Vitae Discimus Award.”
In September 2010, Anne was honored in NJBIZ Magazine as one of “The 50 Most Powerful People in New Jersey Real Estate,” and in December 2009, she was honored with the NJBIZ Hall of Fame Award. In November 2009, she received the National Association of Industrial & Office Properties (NAIOP) “Iron Lady Award.” In April 2009, she became a member of the New Jersey Business Hall of Fame (sponsored by Junior Achievement, NJBIA, The Star Ledger) honoring New Jersey’s business leaders and role models to today’s youth. In January 2008, she was awarded the 2007 Garden State Magazine Corporate Woman of the Year Award; she was honored in May 2007 by the Partnership in Philanthropy, and in March 2007, she was named one of NJ BIZ 2007 Best 50 Women in New Jersey Business.
Anne Estabrook, M.B.A.
Owner and Chairman, Elberon Development Group
Dr. Golightly received her BA degree in Biology from Wayne State University and her MD degree from Cornell University Medical College. She subsequently trained in Internal Medicine at Harlem Hospital where she also served as Chief Resident. She obtained her Infectious Disease training at the Harvard Combined Infectious Disease Training Program (Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham & Women's Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute) and post-doctoral research training in molecular parasitology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Golightly served as a medical attending and infectious disease specialist at the Beth Israel Hospital while on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. She subsequently returned to New York and established a research laboratory at the Weill Medical College. Dr. Golightly is active in training the next generation of physician-scientists. She has served as program director for the Infectious Disease Fellowship Training Program, Director of the second year medical student Basis of Disease (BOD) course in Infectious Diseases and the Ben Kean Course in Tropical Medicine. She is an active teacher in Global Health at the Ithaca Campus and is a member of the International Committee, which provides oversight for WCMC international electives. She attends on the infectious disease consult service as well as in the WCMC Travel Clinic.
Linnie Golightly, M.D.
Associate Dean of Diversity and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College
Rosalind Kainyah, MBE is an authority and trusted advisor on Sustainability and responsible business with over 30 years of combined legal, international, executive and board level experience. She has advised companies across a variety of sectors including the extractives industry, energy, private equity, financial services, healthcare, agriculture, consumer goods, logistics, manufacturing, and technology.
Rosalind has worked with companies and organizations including Linklaters, Anglo American Corporation of South Africa, De Beers, Tullow Oil plc, the United Nations Environment Programme, University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Unit, and ERM. She has worked on projects across Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the South Pacific.
Rosalind is also an experienced non-executive director. She currently serves on the boards of discoverIE plc, Gem Diamonds Limited, CalBank Plc, Lekela Power and BTE Renewables. In the not-for-profit sector, she is Vice Chairperson of the Africa Gifted Foundation and a Board member of Results for Development (R4D). She has previously served on the Boards of Aker Energy, the Ghana Food & Drugs Authority, The Africa-America Institute and was the founding President of the Ghana Chapter of the International Women’s Forum.
Rosalind was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II for services to corporate social responsibility for the benefit of young people in Africa. She was recognized as a 2021 Women Who Make A Difference by the International Women’s Forum. Rosalind was nominated as one of the top 50 leading female professional Women to Watch by the Cranfield School of Management Female FTSE Board Report in 2019. In 2016 she was names by Forbes Afrique Magazine as one of the 100 influential women on the African continent and in 2008 as one of Britain’s most influential people of African and Caribbean heritage by the Power List.
Rosalind holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Ghana, a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of London and a Master of Laws degree from University College, London. She is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Rosalind Kainyah, MBE
Board Director, ESG Lawyer
Born in the Dominican Republic, Reynaldo Ortíz-Minaya's areas of research reflect colonization's indelible impact on his land of birth and on surrounding islands in the Caribbean. His research includes world-historical structures of slavery (particularly in the Spanish-Caribbean); social regulatory processes; political economy; and ethno-racial labor formation. He examines the ways that systems of forced labor fluctuated and served as precursors to modern forms of penal punishment.
His forthcoming manuscript, "From Plantation to Prison: Visual Economies of Slave Resistance, Criminal Justice, and Penal Exile in the Spanish Caribbean, 1820-1886", explores the relationship between the expansion of slavery in Cuba and the rise of prisons in Puerto Rico as a means to incorporate the Spanish Caribbean into the world-market during the nineteenth century.
As a U.S. Fulbright Specialist, his additional research examines the historical relationship between forms of confinement (penal in particular) and the accumulation of profits under varying economic systems.
He serves on the board of directors for various international organizations focusing on penal reform and rule of law and has conducted research in Pakistan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Jamaica, South Africa, the Palestinian Territories, and throughout the Caribbean region.
Reynaldo Ortíz-Minaya, PhD
Professor of Sociology, Howard University
Dr. Justice Duffu Yankson is a practicing medical doctor and lawyer (attorney). He also holds an MBA from the University of Ghana Business School. Dr. Yankson has vast experience in fund management (especially pension fund management) as well as investment, corporate law, and governance.
Dr Yankson is a product of St. Augustine’s College - Cape Coast, University of Ghana, Legon and the Ghana School of Law.
Justice Yankson, M.D., M.B.A., Esq.
Vice President, Ghana Medical Association