Collective Resolve: Advancing Women’s Health and Gender Equity

Dr. Yvette Efevbera is a global health leader, gender equity strategist, and Founder & CEO of SHE Thinks Group, a Pan-African strategy, advisory, and leadership firm advancing health, gender equality, and youth development. With a background spanning academia, philanthropy, and systems leadership, she partners with global organizations and community leaders to co-create equitable strategies that center girls and women. She previously led global adolescent and gender portfolios at the Gates Foundation, shaping multi-million-dollar initiatives to transform gender norms and health outcomes, and contributing to an advocacy partnership between Melinda French Gates, Amal Clooney, and Mrs. Michelle Obama.

Dr. Efevbera’s work has been published widely. As a donor, she funded two special supplements in The Journal of Adolescent Health focused on evidence to end child marriage in global and U.S. contexts, featuring youth authors and a youth guest editor. She has spoken at leading institutions, and global health and development convenings across Africa, Europe, and North America.

She brings a deep commitment to reimagining how systems invest in the leadership, health, and power of girls and young people globally.

Dr. Psaki is a senior executive with more than two decades of leadership at the forefront of global health, education, and gender equity. She previously served on the White House National Security Council staff, where she led policy coordination on global health — advancing strategies to protect marginalized populations and prevent emerging health threats from reaching the United States. She also served as senior advisor on gender equity in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to her government service, she spent 20 years in senior leadership roles at NGOs and research institutions, including Partners in Health, FHI 360, and the Population Council. As a founding leader of the GIRL Center, she built and directed a global research hub dedicated to expanding opportunities for adolescent girls, generating evidence to inform policy and investment in girls’ education and empowerment worldwide. Dr. Psaki holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.S. from Harvard University. Her research has been published in leading scientific journals including The Lancet and Demography, and her commentary has appeared in outlets such as TIME and Vox.

Dr. Anju Malhotra is a recognized global leader on gender equality, reproductive health, and adolescent rights. Her programmatic and research work, as well as teaching focus on advancing the real-life opportunities and health options for women's and girls in low and middle income countries, and in reshaping financing, capacity, research, and measurement systems to propel these efforts to deliver change at scale.  Previously, Dr. Malhotra headed UNICEF’s work on gender equality, where she developed and implemented the game-changing Gender Action Plan (GAP), successfully building the organization’s resources, commitment, capacity, and results on gender equality. She has been a leader in shaping the SDG target and global movement to end child marriage, in establishing the multi-donor, multi-country global program to end child marriage, and in defining the research agenda on child marriage and adolescent health. As Vice President at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), she led multiple interventions and impact evaluations on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, the keynote paper for the landmark 2007 Women Deliver conference, and the “Fertility and Empowerment Network.” Dr. Malhotra began her career as Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland and NIH Post-doctoral fellow at the Carolina Population Center.  She holds a Ph.D. in Demography and Sociology from the University of Michigan.