Board of Directors

Bindiya Patel, MPA

Board Chair

Bindiya Patel, MPA

Co-Director, Global Leadership Forum

As Co-Director, Bindiya Patel leads strategy and fundraising for the Global Leadership Forum. She also serves as core faculty to develop globally-minded social purpose leaders.

Ms. Patel has more than 20 years of experience leading projects and initiatives in the global health sector. In her last role at PATH, Ms. Patel served as managing director for PATH’s largest division where she oversaw strategy, operations and integration. She also led the implementation of an innovative approach to equity in programming across the organization. Earlier in her career at PATH, she  advocated for new HIV prevention options for women in the Global Campaign for Microbicides, managed US government funded projects on tuberculosis in Tanzania, served on PATH’s strategy team, and launched the PATH Center for Malaria Control and Elimination. In her roles with PATH’s strategy team and Global Health Programs division, Ms. Patel designed and led organization-wide change initiatives to enable structured collaboration across countries and programs to strengthen PATH’s impact. Prior to PATH, she oversaw child health and nutrition programming in multiple South African townships and managed grants to local organizations in the UK.

Ms. Patel earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Cornell University and a master’s degree in public policy from Princeton University. She serves on the board of directors for the National Women’s Health Network and the Civic Council for the Master of Arts in Applied International Studies at the University of Washington Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.

Christie Vanhorne, M.Ed., MPH

Board Vice Chair

Christie Vanhorne, M.Ed., MPH

Board Vice Chair

Christie is the founder and president of CVH Consulting, LLC, a public health consulting firm focused on health education and instructional design. From her first foray as an HIV health educator in rural South Africa with the Peace Corps in 2004, Christie has been devoted to improving the lives of the most marginalized. She has dedicated her life to improving health outcomes through advocacy, education, and uplifting the voices of those with lived experiences. Throughout her career, she’s directed health education programs at a Planned Parenthood affiliate, designed reproductive health curricula for women with rare bleeding disorders for national health organizations, and advocated for reproductive health issues on the local, state, and national levels. Most recently, she was a co-host of a podcast about extreme periods and started teaching two public health courses at Vassar College. She holds two Master’s Degrees, one in Education and one in Public Health.

Carrie Kaya

Board Treasurer

Carrie Kaya

Board Treasurer

Carrie is a Senior Associate at Susan Matlack Jones & Associates supporting nonprofits with specialized accounting and bookkeeping. She prides herself on providing useful, accurate financials that allow management and Boards to make decisions about their organization’s financial health. After a decade living outside the US, she is excited to bring her enthusiasm to work for women’s healthcare. Carrie’s focus on women’s healthcare was reinforced while dealing with a healthcare challenge in Morocco and Turkey and seeing the differences in care and treatment. She is excited to join the Board of the Network!

Meredith Field

Board Secretary

Meredith Field

Board Secretary

Meredith P. Field, MSEd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Alfred University. Meredith’s research interests focus on bodies, reproduction, health, medicine, and development as they intersect with social movements, science, technology, and society. Her recent research projects explored topics related to reusable menstrual products and access to maternal health care in rural areas of Pennsylvania. She previously worked with the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network and studied how policy changes regarding access to contraceptives and abortion in rural parts of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia affect people’s lives. Meredith has been an activist since she was a child, beginning with local environmental issues and expanding to issues of women’s health, prisoners’ civil rights, and other human rights and social justice topics. She has worked in higher education for more than fourteen years. She earned her dual title PhD in Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies from The Pennsylvania State University.

Yamini Oseguera-Bhatnagar

Board of Directors

Yamini Oseguera-Bhatnagar, MPH

Board of Directors

Yamini is a convener, strategist, and facilitator who has been working in HIV for over a decade. Yamini’s background ranges from youth development to women’s health, reproductive justice advocacy, health equity, racial & gender justice. She is passionate about supporting the resiliency of communities locally and worldwide. She is a UC Berkeley alum with an undergraduate degree in Ethnic Studies and is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Health at San Francisco State University with an emphasis in Health Education. She’s a first-generation immigrant and is raising her children in San Francisco, California.

Lacey Alexander, PhD, RN, GERO-BC

Board of Directors

Lacey Alexander, PhD, RN, GERO-BC

Board of Directors

Lacey Alexander, PhD, RN, GERO-BC, is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is focused on how bias and discrimination impact the clinician-patient relationship. Most recently, she is exploring how negative interactions between patients and clinicians about weight can create barriers to quality and timely care delivery. She also completed an Advanced Fellowship in Women’s Health at the VA Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. Lacey continues to moonlight at the VA in hospice, serves as her hospital’s LGBTQ+ Veteran Care Coordinator, and intermittently teaches a large undergraduate course about gender and health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is excited to serve on the Board of Directors because she is passionate about creating resources to guide consumers in making safe decision about their health.

Carmita Padilla, MBA

Board of Directors

Carmita Padilla, MBA

Board of Directors

Carmita Padilla is a health equity champion and an accomplished non-profit executive with 30+ years of experience building partnerships that innovate shared mission-oriented solutions.

She is currently the Chief Program & Sites Officer at the nonprofit Health Leads. She has also served as its Vice President of Partnerships and Initiatives, Executive Director for New York Operations, and National Director of Program Expansion, among other roles. Carmita started her career at AT&T and Deloitte Consulting before shifting her relationship, operations and business management expertise to the non-profit sector, as the Executive Director of Women’s Health & Counseling Center.  She has also held Development roles at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and Hunter College. Carmita holds a BA from Rutgers College and an MBA from Lehigh University. She lives in New York City and is fluent in Spanish.

Marci Harris, PhD(c), MCP, MPH

Board of Directors

Marci Harris, PhD(c), MCP, MPH

Board of Directors

Marci Harris, MPP, MPH, is currently working on her PHD in Public Health at the University of Utah. Her research is focused on hereditary genetic syndromes and the comorbidities that occur after cancer diagnosis. She previously worked with Planned Parenthood Action Council of Utah working towards better reproductive rights policy in Utah. She has helped advocate for policies that protect the quality of women’s health. She is passionate about public health and the value of complete and accurate health information for women.

Abigail Arons, MPH

Board of Directors

Abigail Arons, MPH

Board of Directors

Abigail Arons, MPH, is a project director at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Since 2001, she has led research and evaluation projects at UCSF focusing on reproductive and sexual health, including long-acting contraception, sexual health education, adolescent pregnancy prevention, cancer prevention and HIV. Currently, she leads an NIH-funded randomized controlled trial on the impact of guaranteed income for low-income Black youth.

In addition to her professional expertise in reproductive health, Abigail took a crash course in breast cancer when she was diagnosed at age 31. After completing active treatment, she joined the Board of Breast Cancer Action, a national watchdog organization for the breast cancer movement, to advocate for more effective, less toxic treatments, and for a greater focus on the root causes of cancer, including environmental factors. Abigail is thrilled to serve on the Board of the National Women’s Health Network.

Nichele Hoskins

Board of Directors

Nichele Hoskins

Board of Directors

Nichele Hoskins lives in Savannah, Georgia and serves as Healthy Savannah’s Communication Manager for Covid/Flu. Under a CDC grant, her key duties are to build community health knowledge, and to increase access and understanding of Covid-18, the seasonal flu, and the vaccines that can help reduce the disproportionate burden they place on Black and Latiné communities in Chatham County.

A longtime health journalist, Hoskins earned an MA in Journalism from The University of Michigan and has worked as a senior editor at such national publications as Health and Heart & Soul magazines. Her journalism experience began at such daily newspapers as The Sacramento Bee, The Savannah Morning News, the Shreveport (La.) Journal and the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.

Hoskins, who has long championed women’s health and racial health equity, is also a national spokeswoman for WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. She also serves on the board of the Forsyth Farmer’s Market and is a member of the Links Inc., Savannah (Ga.) Chapter.

“I look forward to joining the board of NWHN in its important work informing, supporting, and advocating for women and women’s health,” says Hoskins.

Hillary M Stemple Esq.

Board of Directors

Hillary M Stemple Esq.

Board of Directors

Hillary M Stemple grew up in a rural town in West Virginia. She saw firsthand the impact the lack of access to health care resources could have, particularly on girls and women in her community. Through her work as a lawyer specializing in issues related to health care provision, she works with clients to address information gaps and access barriers to reproductive care. This work has also developed her understanding of how social disparities impact health care, particularly women’s health care, and she takes every opportunity she can to counsel the government, providers, and advocacy organizations about the steps they can take to address such disparities. As a new NWHN Board member, she hopes to provide insights into the regulatory and legal issues that create barriers to care that must be addressed to help ensure women in all communities have the access to health care and health information that they need.

Julie Thai, M.D.

Board of Directors

Julie Thai, M.D.

Board of Directors

Dr. Thai is a geriatric medicine physician based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She completed her medical school and residency training in family medicine at Michigan State University and her fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She also holds a Masters in Public Health  from Columbia University and is currently a diplomat of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Dr. Thai has worked extensively in clinical research and has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in the areas of rapidly progressive dementia, end-of-life care preferences, public health policy, and more.

She is passionate about promoting health education, patient advocacy, and diagnostic excellence in the aging adult population.

Kimberly Robinson

Board of Directors

Kimberly Robinson

Board of Directors

Kimberly Robinson is an independent consultant on reproductive justice issues, including the health of Black women. Kimberly has worked in direct services at a variety of settings, including for many years as the Director of Health Services at Women’s Health Specialists, an independent feminist health center. While at Women’s Health Specialists, she oversaw the operations for multiple clinics and satellite services and was responsible for the training and recruitment of all clinical staff including residents and medical students, helping to train the next generation of abortion providers. As a women’s health activist, Kimberly works with colleagues, communities and allies to build constituencies that demand reproductive justice for all women. She is the northern California liaison for Black Women for Wellness.