BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dr. Rolande R. Hodel received the 2009 Astellas USA Foundation humanitarian award for her work as founder and president of AIDSfreeAFRICA, a non-profit organization based in New York. Born in Germany, she is a US citizen and a legal resident of Cameroon. She has worked for companies such as BASF/Germany, Nanocrystals Technology/NY, Pharmaceutical Discovery Corporation/NY (today Mannkind/CT) and Emisphere Technologies/NY. She received her Masters of Science in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Kansas in 1995 and her Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the City University of New York in 2005.

Dr. Hodel serves on the board of directors of Chemists Without Borders, and is active at the local, national, and international levels within the American Chemical Society (ACS).

“I am dedicated to promoting peace through the empowerment of people in Africa to produce their own generic and essential pharmaceutical drugs.”

Maimunat Alex-Adeomi, MBBS, MBA is a healthcare professional with 12⁺ years experience in program management, health care service delivery, and knowledge and people management. She has worked and trained in Sub-Saharan Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where her key focus areas are designing, developing and integrating standardized programs, systems, and teams to promote clinical quality and improved healthcare outcomes.

In her current role as the Director of Education and Training at Operation Smile (a global surgical organization), she holds a key operational and leadership position within the organization; she is responsible for ensuring the achievement of organization-wide capacity building goals: the care of children born with cleft and other facial deformities, and education and training initiatives.

Scientist and manager with 22 years of process chemistry experience, Dr. Bay has expertise in designing and developing traditional and novel synthetic organic chemistry for the scale-up and manufacture of pharmaceuticals. He also has extensive knowledge and experience with current Good Manufacturing Procedures (cGMPs).

Dr. Bay is experienced in the production of antiretroviral pharmaceutical drugs.

Sr. Director of Process Chemistry

Katelyn Stebbins is a biology researcher with experience in global health. Katelyn started her career as an associate scientist with Cernostics, Inc., where she focused on digital pathology and clinical research. She gained a passion for HIV/AIDS work after spending 5 summers in Kenya working in medical clinics. Katelyn graduated summa cum laude from Seton Hill University in 2018 and is currently pursuing her MD/PhD at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine.

Arena Fernandez de Bobadilla has an MBA from IESE Business School and is a lawyer by background with 9 years’ experience in financial services. She has worked in the private sector, for companies such as J.P Morgan and Santander Bank, and the public sector, dealing with institutions such as the European Parliament. Focusing on digital innovation and product management, Arena currently works at Pago FX, an international payments service, as a Product Manager. Arena provides advice on product innovation and digital transformation with focus on customer driven innovation and international expansion.

Arena is passionate about using technology to help improve people´s lives, especially for disease prevention and treatment, which she considers a basic human right. This passion drives her commitment to support the Cameroonian community and promote e-health solutions for Africa. She is a dual Spanish -US citizen who has worked in London, Brussels and Madrid.