Trustees
MCAI is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is responsible for ensuring the charity is well-managed and abides by its charitable objectives. The Trustees come from a wide range of backgrounds and share a passion to improve maternal and child healthcare worldwide, bringing a wealth of specialist skills and expertise to our organisation. The board meets four times a year and we have a sub-committee of Trustees who meet monthly, together with staff members, to discuss project management and charity issues.
Professor David Southall
OBE (for humanitarian aid for children in Bosnia & Herzegovina) MD, MRCP, MBBS, FRCPCH
Honorary Medical Director
David Southall is a retired Foundation Professor of Paediatrics at Keele University and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.
Prior to this he was a Reader in Paediatric Clinical Physiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute and consultant paediatrician at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London.
David's main interests include: medical education and sustained improvements in the emergency medical care of pregnant women and adolescent girls, babies and children in disadvantaged countries, critical care paediatrics, the development of techniques for managing the life-threatening abuse of children and mothers, and advocacy against armed conflict and its effects on mothers and children. He has written extensively in medical journals against the adverse effects of the arms trade in resource poor countries. David founded the charity Maternal and Childhealth Advocacy International in 1995.
Dr Máire Casement - FRCOG
Trustee
Dr Máire Casement is a retired Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist with a special interest in Urogynaecology. She practised in Belfast City Hospital and the Royal Jubilee Maternity in Belfast, Northern Ireland until her retirement in December 2015.
Máire first visited our advanced obstetric training programme in Liberia in 2016 as an international trainer, teaching obstetric and gynaecological procedures to the trainees on the task sharing programme. She has since made several such visits to Liberia, including running the practical exam for trainees, and also does frequent distance learning tutorials with the obstetric trainees in Liberia as part of the obstetric international trainer team.
Máire became a Trustee of MCAI in December 2018. She is widowed with four grown up children and one grandchild.
Dr. Mesfin G. Zbelo MD, MSc, PhD, FWACP
Specialist in Perinatal and Maternal Health | Health Systems & Epidemiology
Dr. Mesfin Zbelo is a global health policy expert and trustee of MCAI, where he contributes to advancing the organization’s mission to protect women, newborns, and frontline health workers in conflict-affected settings.
A medical doctor with a PhD in perinatal healthcare research, Dr. Zbelo specializes in maternal and newborn health, health systems strengthening, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and implementation science in low-resource settings.
He serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and has led strategic and research initiatives across several African countries.
His work reflects a deep commitment to equity, evidence-based practice, and survivor-centered approaches to reducing preventable mortality and improving health outcomes in fragile and humanitarian contexts.
Catherine Stowell - MSc (with distinction) in medical ultrasound.
British Society of Echocardiography Accreditation in Transthoracic Echocardiography.
Catherine has been specialising in ultrasound for 15 years. During this time, ultrasound equipment has become ever more portable and affordable, such that the greatest barrier to its widespread use is now the skill and experience needed to acquire good images, and correctly interpret them.
Catherine has been creating ultrasound courses since 2013. She is interested in the ways in which new technologies can be used to overcome barriers to education, particularly financial and geographical, and is working on her PhD at Imperial College on how to train non-experts most efficiently in echocardiography (ultrasound of the heart). Much of her research work involves the application of artificial intelligence to echocardiography, and Catherine is interested in how novel technologies can be applied to assist those without immediate access to a human expert, or to improve time efficiency in resource-limited settings.
Catherine has been working with MCAI to source equipment for humanitarian crises since 2022, and became a Trustee of MCAI in June 2024.
Dr. Brigid Hayden MB.ChB (Bristol), FRCOG (London), PGCTLCC (Liverpool), DMCC (London)
Trustee
Brigid is a retired NHS Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist.
She has been a trustee of MCAI for 17 years, during which she has taught in the Gambia, Liberia and Bosnia.
Brigid worked for three years on the island of Mauritius as an obstetrician & gynaecolost and vocationally-trained General Practitioner, along with her husband and fellow trustee Dr. Madho Jingree.
Brigid spent six months as an International Medical Adviser to the British Government's Department for International Development, based in Pristina, Kosovo, following the NATO bombing campaign of Serbia in 1999.
Brigid has two children and two grandchildren.
Brigid carries out voluntary work in her local community of Hackney in east London with the Hackney Night Shelter, of which she is also a trustee.
Wendy Martin - RN RM ADM BMedSci LLM MSc
Trustee
Wendy is a Chief Nurse for Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group in the UK.
Wendy has been a practicing midwife for many years and has advanced qualifications in Midwifery, Medical Law and Disaster Relief Healthcare.
Wendy has worked for MCAI as a volunteer midwife in our programmes in The Gambia and Liberia, including delivering training in emergency maternal, neonatal and child health, working clinically alongside local staff and undertaking monitoring and evaluation programmes of work.
Wendy became a Trustee of MCAI on 8th September 2016.
Dr. Madho Jingree MB.ChB (Bristol), FFARCSI (Dublin)
Trustee
Madho is a retired NHS Consultant Anaesthetist, who has recently returned to trusteeship.
He has worked as an anaesthetist on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius, and also as Medical Officer on the South Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha, along with his wife and fellow trustee Dr. Brigid Hayden.
Madho's engagement in the work of MCAI has included taking part in face-to-face teaching of nurse anaesthetists in the Gambia.
Madho has two children and two grandchildren
Madho carries out voluntary work in his local community of Hackney in east London with the Trussell Trust,
25th September 2019. Video reporting on a major success by the maternal emergency care team in the management of a near-maternal-death at The Martha Tubman Memorial Government Hospital in Grand Gedeh County in Liberia. Watch the video.
MCAI's 2020 safeguarding policy including UNICEF's Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) programme
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