Lunch exhibition satellite symposium

Lusaka Apex Medical University, Lecturer

Brenda Zulu Tembo is a distinguished, Zambian healthcare professional with a passion for Midwifery, Women's, and Children’s Health. She holds a Master's Degree in Midwifery, Women and Child Health from the University of Zambia as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing from Lusaka Apex Medical University. Currently, she is pursuing her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree at the University of Alabama (USA).

Brenda is also a seasoned Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife, having earned both credentials from the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Zambia.

Karolinksa Institute, Midwife Student

Josefine Törnqvist graduated as a registered nurse in 2021 but had a dream to become a midwife. She worked as a nurse at the emergency department at Danderyds Hospital, travelled to Kenya to work at a hospital in Nairobi and worked in a gynaecological ward before she started her studies to be a midwife in August 2022.

Josefine plans to graduate with a Master’s Degree in Midwifery in January 2024.

ICM, Chief Executive

Sally is a New Zealander who arrived in the Netherlands in January 2017 to take up the role of Chief Executive at ICM. Before that, she had a 35-year career spanning all aspects of midwifery – practice, education, regulation, professionalism, and politics. Her previous roles included: President of the New Zealand College of Midwives, inaugural Chair of the Midwifery Council of New Zealand, and Head of Midwifery, Professor of Midwifery, and Director of Learning and Teaching at Otago Polytechnic.

Sally holds various academic qualifications including a Doctorate in Midwifery and has authored numerous papers and books including co-editing an Australasian Midwifery Textbook (now in its 4th edition). Sally is passionate about midwives and midwifery and believes strong midwives’ associations can incite changes in their countries to ensure strong midwifery professions and midwife-led continuity of care services for women and their families.

In 2008 she was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to midwifery and women’s health.

ICM, Midwife Advisor - Education

Erin Ryan is an American midwife working as the Midwife Advisor for Education at the International Confederation of Midwives. For over 20 years, she has been proud to serve birthing families in the US as well as working in multiple global settings as a midwife and educational consultant. She has worked on projects in Indonesia, Philippines, Uganda, Morocco, Bangladesh, and Zanzibar.

She graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor's Bachelor's Degree and later with a Master’s Degree in Public Health. Erin sees midwives as the community leaders who will create change one birth at a time while at the same time simultaneously being the global leaders in equality and anti-oppression.

Laerdal Global Health, Strategic Partnership Manager

Anna has a broad professional and clinical experience as a midwife since over 30 years. She also has experience as a teacher in nursing. In August 2010, she joined the UNFPA as a Senior Programme Specialist in Midwifery, posted in Bangladesh country office until 2013. Thereafter, she served for UNFPA in Lao PDR for three years, supporting the midwifery development in the country. Following Lao PDR, she worked for the World Health Organization as a consultant in the Maternal Newborn and Child Health Department well as the WASH Department.

Anna joined Laerdal Global Health as a Global Program and Implementation Manager in 2017, leading the P&I team forward in the overall mission of helping saving the lives of mothers and newborns. Since 2022, she is assigned as Strategic Partnership Manager, focusing on midwifery education globally.

Laerdal Medical, Chairman

Tore Laerdal is Chairman of Laerdal Medical, a Norwegian family-owned company that has been a leading supplier of training material and therapeutic equipment for acute medicine since modern lifesaving techniques were developed in 1960.

Tore Laerdal is also Executive Director of the Laerdal Foundation for Acute Medicine. The Foundation has earmarked significant funding for practically oriented MDG 4 and MDG 5 research projects.

In recent years, Mr Laerdal has turned his full focus to global health challenges, and established Laerdal Global Health, a not-for-profit with the sole purpose of providing highly affordable and culturally sensitive training and therapeutic solutions to help reduce maternal and newborn mortality in low resource settings. For this purpose, Laerdal Global Health has partnered with USAID, NIH, Save the Children, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others in the Helping Babies Breathe alliance and the Survive & Thrive alliance. Furthermore, Laerdal Global Health has established the Day of Birth Alliance with Jhpiego and the Center for Bioengineering, Innovation and Design at the Johns Hopkins University.

Mr Laerdal serves as Chairman of the Board of two external research foundations in Norway. He holds an MSc degree in Business Administration from the Norwegian School of Economics and has received an Honorary Doctorate in Science from the University in Hertfordshire in the UK.