CGHE Leadership Structure

Nicole Bradstreet serves as Program Manager for the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership (APRRP). Nicole has previous experience working in the global vaccine field, as well federal appropriations and government relations. Nicole holds a Master of Public Policy in global health policy from The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration at The George Washington University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American studies and government from the University of Texas at Austin.

Rebecca Chestnutt serves as CGHE's expert in humanitarian assistance and disaster response, including health and civil-military collaboration matters. This comprises leadership and support to programs and research at CGHE as well as educational programs with the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). Ms. Chestnutt has twenty years of experience in humanitarian assistance, planning, disaster response, pandemics, disaster risk reduction and health systems strengthening, spanning work with government agencies, non-governmental organizations, healthcare organizations, refugee organizations and the military. She provides subject matter expertise across the full cycle of disaster preparedness and response, including assessment, planning, execution and evaluation, as well as leadership and management practices, stakeholder engagement and systems development.

Additionally, Ms. Chestnutt has served as an educator, speaker, and consultant on a variety of related topics. She is currently faculty at Georgetown University and USU. She earned her MA from Oxford Brookes University as part of the Centre for Development and Emergency Practice, and her BA from the College of William and Mary, and has lived and worked throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean.

Margot Craig-Louden is a Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) with over fifteen years of experience in the hospitality industry (having worked for luxury brand hoteliers; Kempinski Hotels and Resorts, The Leading Hotels of the World, and Princess Hotels) in addition to the last seven years in meeting management for the Center. Planning and executing meetings/conferences both domestically and internationally, her competency in the implementation and management of meetings, workshops, and conferences of varying levels and sizes, has been predominantly for the US government, specifically, the Department of Defense; working with US Embassy officials, foreign ministries and cabinets, high ranking military officers (domestic and foreign), local and national government officials in countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Central and North America, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

Margot has delivered responsive, efficient, cost-effective, proactive, and client-focused service during the planning phase(s) of meetings/conferences under her management through the development of timelines; preparing and managing budgets; completing expenditure reports; developing and producing/reproducing all documentation necessary to support conferences, including meeting materials and registration website content; preparing agendas and producing participant information. Additionally, she has working knowledge of the regulations and guidelines of the Federal Travel Regulation. Her support of these education and training programs, which have spanned across all six combatant commands, has allowed her to maintain and sustain successful partnerships [and friendships] with many of those whom she has worked with as a result of her engagement with them during those programs.

Ms. Ellis has 20+ years of experience as a senior-level conference manager providing conference support to the Federal Government and the private sector. She attained the status of Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) in 2002 and is certified through 2017. She has an in-depth knowledge of federal meeting guidelines and standard operating procedure and is efficient in the coordination of multiple federal contracting vehicles. Ms. Ellis has demonstrated the ability to balance priorities, meet short demanding timelines and produce goal-oriented results.

Ms. Ellis has managed multiple meetings concurrently in the US and in over 37 countries. She has hired and supervised conference staff; developed policies and procedures for streamlining all phases of conference management and is effective in organizing and employing resources to achieve project objectives. She is experienced in managing multi-year federal tasks orders and contracts and developing and maintaining multi-million dollar budgets. Ms. Ellis is experienced working with senior government and military officials and senior-level corporate managers. She has served as project director and program manager on several multi-year, multi-million dollar task orders under HRSA and NIDA, and supported several grant reviews under FDA and the Department of State.

Dr. Jawad joined the Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences in October 2006 as a faculty member and Assistant Professor at the Military and Emergency Medicine Department. During that time, he also served as a senior technical Adviser to Project Hope. In 2007, he was extensively involved in developing the International Health Division at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs where his primary role was to develop DoD policy on Global Health Engagements through considering the host nation’s perspective. Dr. Jawad has served as senior adviser and subject matter expert in assessing training requirements and curriculum development and testing for the Defense Medical Language Initiative (DMLI) pilot program. Currently, Dr. Jawad is a senior International Health Systems Advisor, providing his subject matter expertise to the Defense Threat reduction Agency/Cooperative Biological Engagement Program. Dr. Jawad is an Affiliate Professor and distinguished senior fellow at the Center for the Study of International Medical Policies and Practices at George Mason University and is a member of the editorial board of the World Medical and Health Policy Journal.

Prior to arriving to the United States in August 2006, Dr. Jawad, served as Director General for operations and technical affairs at the Iraqi Ministry of Health. He played a critical role in reconstructing and overseeing the medical component of the New Iraqi army. At great personal risk and sacrifice to himself and his family, Dr. Jawad proposed and led the Ministry of Health effort to rehire 18,000 health providers from the disbanded Iraqi Ministry of Defense. This was in coordination with the Coalition Provisional Authority’s Health Team. His work with the coalition forces to resuscitate and stabilize the Iraqi national health system reduced the impact and damage caused by the invasion and saved thousands of lives. Before 2003, Dr. Jawad served with distinction for 26 years as a military medical officer in different units; his last rank was MG (sel) serving as the chair of the department of Orthopedic Surgery at Hammad Shihab Military teaching Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. Dr. Jawad was born and raised in Baghdad, Iraq and graduated from Al Almustansiryah medical school in 1981; he is a board certified orthopedic surgeon and has a combined experience of 39 years serving in and outside Iraq.

Jordan Limoges is the Training Coordinator for the African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership (APRRP). As such, she liaises with U.S. instructors and partner country stakeholders to develop training materials and facilitate implementation of APRRP engagements. Prior to CGHE, Ms. Limoges served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine and Lesotho, executing education and health projects in local communities. She received her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Stanford University. 

Dr. Geoffrey Oravec presently serves as Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) at CGHE, acting as direct lead for the hub of knowledge on DoD Global Health Engagement.  Dr. Oravec is also a Principal Investigator on the Pacific Asia India Resilience (PAIR) Program. As CKO, Dr. Oravec incorporates the principles and practices of knowledge management and communication as key components of public health, technical cooperation and capacity building. He also oversees the equitable and efficient dissemination of health information and communications to priority stakeholders, to include partner nation countries.

Dr. Oravec began his career in global health at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, before receiving his medical degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine.  He later earned a Master of Public Health in Global Health from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and went on to complete a fellowship in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry.  During his career, Dr. Oravec has worked on seven continents addressing global health issues ranging from the lack of mental health resources in Southeast Asia to whole-of-society disaster planning and preparedness in Africa.

CAPT Danny Shiau is currently Director of the Programs and Joint Force Support Division at the Center for Global Health Engagement, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU). He previously served as the Director of Public Health and Force Health Protection in the Surgeon’s Office of United States Pacific Command in Hawaii. CAPT Shiau is a board certified preventive medicine physician in the Medical Corps. He attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA and earned a Biological Sciences Degree in 1992. He received a direct commission and attended USU and earned his Doctorate in Medicine in 1997. He then completed a pediatric internship and served as the medical officer for USS HARPERS FERRY in San Diego and went on to complete his preventive medicine residency at USU. CAPT Shiau deployed as the OIC for Forward Deployed Preventive Medicine Unit in Kuwait and served as Head of Threat Assessment and as a preventive medicine officer at Navy Preventive Medicine Unit TWO at Norfolk, Virginia – providing operational consultation and surveillance to units deploying to CENTCOM, AFRICOM, and SOUTHCOM. He then transferred and served as the Deputy Director for Emergency Preparedness, M3/5 Medical Operations at Navy Bureaus of Medicine and Surgery. His primary focus was Pandemic Influenza policy and planning, ensuring emergency preparedness at Navy medical facilities worldwide. Additionally, he was attached to OPNAV 093, designated by the Surgeon General as the Navy’s Senior Public Health Emergency Officer (PHEO), providing public health consultation to senior commanders.

Dr. Vest is responsible for activities in support of the Defense Threat Reduction Activity Cooperative Biological Engagement Program portfolio as well as providing advice on infectious disease surveillance priorities and initiatives. He came to CGHE from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center serving as the Chief, Respiratory Infections, DoD-Global Emerging Infections System, overseeing the DoD influenza surveillance program and of other infectious diseases and ultimately served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.

Dr. Kelly G. Vest is a graduate of Oklahoma State University (DVM-1987) and Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health (MPH-1994). He completed his doctorate degree in epidemiology and public health (DrPH-2003) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and dedicated his efforts to veterinary and infectious disease epidemiology, surveillance, food safety, food defense, One Health and studies of military relevance. He is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine (1994). He is a member of the Order of Military Medical Merit and was awarded the Army Surgeon General’s “A” Proficiency Designator. He served 20 years in the US Army Veterinary Corps.