The U.S. Team.

Elvis Ndansi

Director

Elvis is the President & Founder of Unite for Health Foundation, a healthcare NGO in Cameroon registered as a 501(c)(3) in New York. Elvis was one of twelve Obama Foundation Scholars in the 2018 inaugural program at Columbia University in New York City.

Elvis’ career in nursing and public health was inspired by the work of his mother, a dedicated and tireless nurse in a rural community in Cameroon.

When Elvis was a 24-year-old nurse working in a remote village, he had to deal with the death of a sick baby, a death that could have been avoided. The mother had no choice but to walk for many hours to get the infant to the nearest health facility. It changed Elvis’ life forever.

He quit his job and in 2007 he started Unite for Health in a single room in a student neighborhood in Yaounde, with a box of medications and a few instruments.

Elvis has grown Unite for Health’s operations with other micro-clinics, and many outreach programs for underserved communities and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP), with a focus on maternal health.

In 2016, Elvis was awarded a Young African Leader Mandela Washington Fellowship, a U.S. Department of State exchange program.

A registered nurse in New York, Elvis has a BS in Nursing from the University of Buea in Cameroon, an MS in Nursing Education and a MPH with a concentration in Infectious Disease.

Elvis is one of the few leaders doing nonprofit work in Africa who comes from the region.

Florence Buchanan

communications lead

Florence grew up in London and lives in New York City. Since meeting Elvis Ndansi in 2019, she has been working with Unite for Health Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to combat maternal and child mortality in underserved communities in Cameroon and beyond, now serving as Board Chair.

Florence is the lead creative director, consultant and filmmaker at Project Buchanan and has held senior creative director roles at agencies like Deutsch, J. Walter Thompson and BBDO. Her brand experience encompasses hospitality, packaged goods, medical, pharmaceutical and biotech.

In 2016, Project Buchanan and Mother Image created The Survivor Series, a multimedia campaign for RAINN (the leading national anti-sexual violence nonprofit) with a Getty Images Creative Grant.

In 2011, Florence directed RIGHT THERE, A Short Film About Tolerance (16:44) with teenagers who were at school right by the twin Towers on 9/11. It won Best Short Documentary at the Richmond International Film Festival and is in the permanent collection of National September 11 Memorial Museum. Filmed ten years later, RIGHT THERE PART 2 (09:47) features six of the same kids, now in their 20’s.

Florence is also on the board of 3 Generations, a human rights storytelling nonprofit that works at the intersection of independent film and social justice advocacy.

Jeff Aresty

legal lead

Jeff Aresty is an international business and e-commerce lawyer who has led the non-profit Internet Bar Organization (IBO) since 2005.

IBO’s first project, PeaceTones® was initiated in 2008 at the Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts University to provide musicians in conflict, post-conflict or impoverished areas with access to economic and legal resources through digital platforms.

PeaceTones is an example of Jeff’s constant search for inspiring collaborators across the globe, such as the founding director of Tuft’s IGL, Sherman Teichman, who bring their own talents and outreach to promote equity and justice for all. Recently, working with Sherman and the Trebuchet, he introduced Jeff to many leaders from academic, government, business, technology and NGO communities, including Rachel Svetanoff.

Jeff’s background both in technology and the law, and as an e-commerce lawyer goes back to the start of his career. He has co-authored articles and chapters on technology and law topics in several books from 2006 to 2021.

Jeff has taught several undergraduate courses on Global Cyberlaw, Law and the World Wide Web, and International Business Transactions at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Jeff earned his JD and LLM degrees in Taxation and International Banking from Boston University School of Law. He has also completed training as an international commercial arbitrator and as a certified mediator in Texas.

Billy Whittaker

Solar Power Delivery Partner

Billy Whittaker is the Founder and CEO of Bronco Power Boost, an innovative solar power and technology company with a mission of individual empowerment and sustainability.

It all started when Billy set out to solve a problem. His intent was to design a home product that would automatically provide eco-friendly power when there’s an outage. One that could be installed indoors and avoid the pollution, lot line issues and noise problems of conventional backup power systems. A design that would be affordable and sustainable. The idea for Bronco Power Boost was born.

After finding a solution for local grid problems, Billy became aware of energy poverty as a massive global challenge. Teaming up with Unite for Health and IBO on Project Energy For Life Cameroon, Billy has customized his technology solutions specifically to address the needs of the Elak Oku community. He describes it as, “a team on a satisfying journey to positively change lives in faraway parts of the globe.” Billy prides himself on using his ingenuity and skills to help others.

Bronco Power Boost has achieved a million dollars in sales in the U.S. and has completed installations of unique new products including Smart Solar Bronco. Recently, the company expanded, added partners, and moved with its new engineering team to larger headquarters in Houston, TX.

John Brennick

Fundraising Co-Lead

John Brennick is a global healthcare funding specialist. He worked in global roles for ten years at Johnson & Johnson specializing in pharmaceutical value communication and reimbursement, followed by seven years in the Global Public Health group.

He co-founded and led CaringCrowd, a J&J crowd-funding platform that raised more than $4.1 million for nonprofits engaged in healthcare projects in 47 countries. CaringCrowd is estimated to have touched the lives of more than one million people worldwide.

Most of John’s career has been in healthcare, starting in finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and later in marketing strategy at the intersection of the public, private and nonprofit sectors at the Yale School of Management.

John has always been passionate about access to healthcare for all and regards his greatest achievements to be improving the lives of those in vulnerable situations. He now volunteers for various nonprofits he came to know and trust during his tenure at CaringCrowd, including organizations in the Project Energy For Life Cameroon consortium.

Michael Valentin

Fundraising Co-Lead

Michael serves as Senior Community Liaison for Janssen Infectious Disease and Vaccines. His territory includes New York City, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. He works closely with HIV/AIDS service organizations, community-based organizations, health centers and hospitals to provide HIV disease awareness education to agency participants and staff. He also provides specific product related education for allied healthcare professionals.

Michael is enthusiastic about supporting local and global communities and is an active participant in Johnson & Johnson’s Global Community Impact skills-based volunteer programs. He is co-lead of J&J’s WISER Volunteers which includes volunteering for Hunger Relief, Natural Disaster Recovery, Global Public Health awareness in Haiti for capracare, and recently, Project Energy For Life Cameroon.

Michael has served on several HIV Policy Committees at the local and national level, has been published in HIV journals, and has presented at major HIV/AIDS conferences. He is proud of his 25+ years serving the HIV/AIDS community.

Michael also has experience working with children and adults diagnosed with developmental disabilities, mental health issues, and Autism. He is a tutor for Literacy Volunteers of America

Michael earned his MSW from Yeshiva University Wurzweiler School of Social Work in New York.  

Ezra Jerome

Resource Mobilization Lead

Ezra sees program design and implementation and resource mobilization as two sides to the same coin that can mutually reinforce one another. He readily adopts this lens as an Assistant Director of Foundation Partnerships at UNICEF USA where he stewards relationships and facilitates co-creation of programs with leading institutional funding partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation.

He currently manages and supports a complex, international grant portfolio of over $300M with a focus on communicable diseases (polio, malaria); water, sanitation, and hygiene; maternal, neonatal, and child health; community health; and digital health. In his previous role with the patients’ needs-driven, drug R&D nonprofit DNDi, he helped develop a global fundraising strategy as well as a more targeted campaign-driven strategy for sleeping sickness.

A firm believer in the power of partnerships, local ownership, and systems thinking, Ezra provides strategic consulting services across the entire program lifecycle and has accrued significant experience working with UN development agencies, INGOs, and CSOs.

Ezra earned his MPH in Community and International Health from New York University’s School of Global Public Health and BS in Integrative Neuroscience from Binghamton University.