PSI: Press Room

Press Inquiries

Journalists looking for information on PSI or the health issues on which it works should contact:

David J. Olson, Director of Public Affairs
Email: dolson@psi.org
Telephone: (202) 572-4614

David has been with PSI since 1992, for the first 10 years running programs in Africa, Asia and South America and, since 2001, leading PSI Public Affairs. In 1992, he launched Zambia's first social marketing project in HIV prevention. In Bangladesh, David advised the world's largest health social marketing program (focusing on family planning and oral rehydration therapy); this program is recognized as a major family planning success. In Paraguay, he ran a program that focused on adolescent reproductive health. Prior to PSI, David founded an indigenous rural development movement for Lutheran World Relief in Mali and was a Peace Corps volunteer teaching agriculture in Togo. David started his career in journalism and has a degree in Mass Communications. Il parle français, habla español y fala um pouco de português.

PSI Expert Sources
PSI has the following experts who can provide information and perspective on our main health areas. If you wish to interview one of them, contact David J. Olson.

Family Planning/Maternal Health
Maxine Eber, Reproductive Health Technical Advisor: Ms. Eber advises PSI’s programs in more than 26 countries in the design and implementation of family planning programs. She can discuss issues related to the development of behavior change communications, brand development and marketing strategies targeting health care providers and the general public. Ms. Eber has managed PSI’s program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Uganda and reproductive health programs in Botswana and the U.S. She holds a MPA from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and is proficient in French and Japanese.

Health Research
Steven Chapman, Director of Research: Dr. Chapman oversees an international research program examining behaviors relating to HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, and family planning. He can discuss the antecedents of behavior change in developing countries and the role of social marketing in changing those. He has a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and speaks French and Dutch.

HIV, Interpersonal Communication
Jessica Greene, Acting Director, HIV: Ms. Greene has extensive experience in interpersonal communication training and technical support, concurrent sexual partnership interventions, youth interventions, high risk group interventions (including sex workers, transgender populations, intravenous drug users and the military), male condom and female condom social marketing. She has worked at PSI since 2003, providing research and programmatic technical assistance to PSI's HIV prevention and communication interventions. Before joining PSI, Ms. Greene worked on the Horizon's program at the Population Council and with Helen Keller International on a multiple micronutrient clinical trial in Lombok, Indonesia. She has a masters degree in Health Sciences from John's Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health where she spent time conducting research on sexually-transmitted infections among youth and other high risk populations in Baltimore.

Injecting Drug Use and HIV
Robert Gray, Country Representative for Laos and Thailand: Based in Vientiane, Laos, Mr. Gray is PSI's technical expert on HIV prevention and health-related harms associated with injecting drug use (IDU). Mr. Gray has developed and implemented HIV prevention programs targeting IDUs in China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and has consulted and trained on HIV prevention and IDU programs for the World Health Organization, UNICEF, Médecins sans Frontières and the Australian Centre for Harm Reduction. From 2003 to 2006, he managed a large scale, innovative drug demand reduction program in Central Asia, and now oversees PSI's programs in Laos and Thailand. Mr. Gray has a master's degree in East Asian politics and history from Harvard University and speaks Chinese.

Malaria
Desmond Chavasse, Global Director of Malaria Control: Dr. Chavasse is responsible for PSI's global malaria control programs in 25 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These programs focus on delivering insecticide treated mosquito nets at scale through targeting subsidy to vulnerable groups and providing increased access to effective malaria treatment through social marketing of prepackaged malaria therapy. He can discuss all issues related to malaria control policy and practice as well as PSI's role in the Roll Back Malaria partnership. Dr. Chavasse has a PhD from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, was a researcher/lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and has 17 years experience in the control of vector borne diseases with principal focus on malaria.

Metrics and Measurement
Nada Chaya, Metrics Manager: Ms. Chaya oversees the measurement of health impact resulting from PSI’s sales of products and services in over 60 countries. She also leads related activities to inform decision making at the program and policy levels. She can discuss the tools and metrics that PSI utilizes for performance management in health delivery. She holds a Master's degree in Public Health with concentration in Population Dynamics from Johns Hopkins University.

Safe Water/Child Nutrition
Sally Cowal, Vice President of Maternal and Child Health: Ms. Cowal is responsible for PSI's maternal and child health portfolio, which includes safe water, oral rehydration, micronutrients (such as iodized salt, multivitamins and iron-folic acid) and other nutrition-related products and programs. She came to PSI from a long career in public service, including more than two decades in the U.S. foreign service including assignments as ambassador and deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemispheric Affairs. Ms. Cowal was one of the founders of UNAIDS, was key to securing its initial funding and served as its first deputy director.