The people
behind the proof.
Kybele is led by a team combining 25 years of frontline clinical expertise with the organizational and strategic experience to build what comes next.
CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CLINICAL INNOVATION & RESEARCH – FOUNDER
Dr. Medge Owen
Founded Kybele in 2001 after a Fulbright scholarship revealed the scale of preventable deaths in childbirth. Professor of Obstetric Anesthesiology, Wake Forest School of Medicine (retired). Has personally led clinical partnerships across 15 countries and co-developed the evidence base underpinning OTIP. The clinical credibility and founding vision behind the model – 25 years of direct partnership at the frontline of obstetric and newborn care.
CO-EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STRATEGY & GROWTH
Tom Newton-Lewis
Brings experience building multi-country health systems enterprises and expertise in strategy, partnerships, and resource mobilization. Leading Kybele’s evolution from high-performing innovation organization into a disciplined, multi-country enterprise with the financing models, governance architecture, and partnership infrastructure required to define a field.
The enterprise team behind
disciplined scale.
Behind the clinical model is an operational core that manages programs, finances, strategic partnerships and global delivery – ensuring Kybele scales without losing quality or the government ownership that makes results last.
Kybele Ghana is an independent Ghanaian nonprofit – the primary in-country partner to the Ghana Health Service. This is not a field office. It is a Ghanaian institution, embedded in the national health system and the human infrastructure through which the advanced care work was built, tested and nationally scaled.
A deep bench of
world-class technical expertise.
Kybele mobilizes world-leading clinical and implementation professionals on a volunteer or fractional basis – building a deep technical team that goes far beyond what a permanent staff of equivalent size could provide. These experts bring the specialist clinical knowledge, implementation science rigor, and regional credibility that make Kybele’s work trusted by governments and front-line teams alike.
Governance built for
disciplined, responsible scale.
Kybele operates under two boards – Kybele Worldwide and Kybele Ghana – combining clinical medicine, global health, implementation science, finance, and institutional governance expertise across seven countries. Two boards reflect two institutions: one global, one Ghanaian.
Dr. Medge Owen
FOUNDER & CO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Professor of Obstetric Anesthesiology (retired)
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Founded Kybele 2021
Tom Newton-Lewis
CO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Leads Kybele’s global enterprise evolution.
Dr. Lawrence Fordjour
BOARD PRESIDENT
Neonatologist & Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics, SUNY Downstate Medical Center
Dr. Rajat Chabba
BOARD VICE-PRESIDENT
Clinical Associate Professor & Clinical Director, Obstetric Anesthesiology, Stanford University
Dr. Gillian Abir
BOARD MEMBER
Global health and healthcare strategy. International development and systems-strengthening expertise.
Dr. Borislava Pujic
BOARD MEMBER
Anesthesiologist and global health advocate. Regional expertise from the Balkans partnerships.
Mike Albert
BOARD MEMBER
Business and organizational leadership. Strategic and operational governance expertise.
Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyoh
BOARD MEMBER
OB/GYN Ghana. Senior clinical leader and long-standing Kybele Ghana partner.
Dr. Ferne Braveman
BOARD MEMBER
Adjunct Professor, Anesthesiology, University of Minnesota. Long-time Kybele clinical team member.
Dr. Oleg Turkot
BOARD MEMBER
Assistant Professor, Anesthesiology, Johns Hopkins. Co-founder of Kybele’s Ukraine initiative.
Dr. Martin Boamah
BOARD MEMBER
Senior Specialist OB/GYN, Greater Accra Regional Hospital. Kybele National Physician Champion, Ghana.
Dr. Scott Washburn
BOARD MEMBER
OB/GYN. Global health leader with expertise in health systems strengthening and program governance.
Dr. Carl Westphal
BOARD MEMBER
Retired clinical psychologist. Active in non-profit board governance.
Dr. Emmanuel Srofenyoh
KYBELE GHANA BOARD PRESIDENT
OB/GYN Ghana. Senior clinical leader and long-standing Kybele Ghana partner.
Dr. Sylvia Deganus
KYBELE GHANA BOARD MEMBER
Obstetrics and Gynecology, Senior Ghana Health Science clinical leader.
Dr. Kwabena Onwona Agyaman
KYBELE GHANA BOARD MEMBER
Ghanaian institutional leadership.
Dr. Frank Boni
KYBELE GHANA BOARD MEMBER
Public health specialist and global health researcher. Maternal and newborn health in Ghana.
Pippa Pepera
KYBELE GHANA BOARD MEMBER
Gender and health equity specialist. Advocacy and program leadership expertise.
Joyce Esime Anson Yevu
KYBELE GHANA BOARD MEMBER
Governance, finance and organizational development. Ghanaian institutional leadership.
Mr. Yaw Brobbey-Mpiani
KYBELE GHANA BOARD MEMBER
Governance, finance and organizational development.
