Under the Sisterhood Elizabeth Elfenbein

Today we’re getting under the hood of Dr. Ru Cheng a mother, daughter, sister, wife, aunt, daughter-in-law, ob-gyn physician, clinical researcher, therapeutics developer, women’s health expert, leader, and passionate advocate for women and girls. 
Ru Cheng is Director of the Women's Health Innovations team at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation where all lives have equal value. She leads a team focused on the development and adoption of high-quality health products that address the needs of women and girls in low and middle-income countries.
Ru’s career path defies traditional boundaries and classifications with a common thread of applying science and medicine to address health areas that prevent women from achieving optimal health. As a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist, she began her career in academic medicine as a clinician educator. After a mentor introduced her to clinical research, Ru saw the opportunity to drive impact on a bigger scale. She transitioned to the pharma industry and spent the next 15 years working in clinical development roles of increasing responsibility and leadership in women's health which took her to Wyeth/Pfizer, Bayer, and Johnson&Johnson. In her role at Johnson & Johnson, she developed public health initiatives aimed at the maternal mortality crisis in the US and the associated inequities. 
In her current role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Ru draws upon all of her experiences as a woman’s health clinician, big pharma R&D leader, and public health innovator. And throughout her career, Ru has brought her lived experiences as a female immigrant from a minority race, facing and overcoming inequities, further fueling her passion to advocate for marginalized women. In her free time, Ru enjoys spending time with her family, global travel, and staying fit. 
The opinions expressed are Ru’s own and are not reflective of her employer. 

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Today we are celebrating the incredible Francilia Wilkins Rahim for Women Making History. Francilia is a thought leader, a staunch advocate for diversity in procurement, development, and management, and the founder and CEO of RF Wilkins Consultants. and the Founder and CEO of AYO Labs the nation’s first modern-day, African American women-owned accelerator.

To date, Francilia has led RFW in raising more than $900 million for clients, completing more than 1000 unique projects and growing into the ranks of the top .1% of management consulting firms, owned by an African American woman in the United States. In 2020, she was awarded 3.5M from the City of New York and has since raised 14.5M which she will be leveraging to build AYO Labs anchored in a 40,000-square-foot contract manufacturing facility. The project will scale more than 500 businesses annually and create more than 400 jobs citywide. 

Ms. Wilkins Rahim is a sought-after speaker on equity and inclusion, minority & women business development, and the creation of economic opportunities for disadvantaged communities and the diversification of corporate America.  

Francilia serves on various boards including Greater Allen Development Corporation,  Allen Community Non-Profit Programs, St. John’s University’s Tobin College of Business, and New York State’s Housing and Community Renewal’s Multifamily Advisory Council. She also serves as Vice Chair for Brooklyn’s Pitkin Avenue Business Improvement District. In 2020 she was appointed as a member of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID Advisory Council for Real Estate and Infrastructure as well as NYC’s Department of Education MWBE Advisory Committee.   Francilia has received numerous awards and accolades for her work. In 2022, Crains named her NYC’s Emerging Leader in Diversity Equity and Inclusion. She was named Power Woman of New York by Schneps Media.

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Today we’re getting under the hood of Grace Adipiena from Ghana, Africa. A daughter, sister, friend, women’s advocate, counselor, philanthropist, politician, and a midwife practicing and supporting her community for over 20 years.
Grace works at one of the renowned hospitals in the Eastern Region of Ghana the Volta River Authority Hospital Akosombo. The VRA is crucial for the Eastern Region's rural communities. This hospital is more than a healthcare center; it's a beacon of hope for millions in the surrounding areas.
 
Grace helps people in and around the community with maternal health, delivering babies, and with other medical and access needs. She has been serving this community for several years and the hospital authorities look at her as a leader in their organization.

She is also the Founder of a-zqualityhealthfoundation.com a not-for-profit that provides health insurance and health programming for communities in need. Grace not only supports the maternal health experience she and her organization are also leading and supporting women’s health education programs such as Cervical Cancer Prevention Programs, Breast Cancer Screening programs, and more. She helps provide education and intervention tools for women in her community who do not have access to critical health screenings and proper care.

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Today we’re celebrating women making history with the inspiring Dr. Dale Atkins a mother, grandmother, sister, friend, women’s advocate, author, speaker, and psychologist.
Dale Atkins is a licensed psychologist with more than forty years of experience as a relationship expert focusing on families, wellness, managing stress, and developing compassion for resilience needed to live a balanced, meaningful life. Author of seven books and numerous chapters, articles, and journals for popular and professional audiences, Dale is a featured speaker who lectures and leads seminars worldwide. For her entire career she has served as a guest expert/consultant to the media, and for 22 years, appeared as a regular guest expert on NBC’s TODAY  and CNN.  She created and hosted “Dr. Dale’s Life Issues”, a 48-episode talk show series about relationships, broadcast on JTN and PBS.
Dale has a private psychology practice in New York City and has been a member of, and advisor to several nonprofit national and local non-profit boards, whose foci are literacy, tolerance, women’s health, wellness, child protection, and community action. She is particularly proud of her 25-year association with Jumpstart for Young Children, from whose board she recently retired after serving twenty-two years, since its founding, and for whom she served as the National Spokesperson for their Read for the Record initiative, launched on NBC’s TODAY show. Additionally, she is an active founding board member of WHAM! (Women’s Health Access Matters!)
Dale has been recognized locally and nationally for her philanthropic work and is the recipient of several awards for community service and leadership.  Among these are: “The distinguished Alumni Award” from Teacher’s College, Columbia University’s Spirituality Mind Body Institute,  YWCA “Brava Award”,  Jewish Women’s Foundation “Women Who Inspire Award”, Harmony with No Limits “Spirit of Leadership Award”, Jumpstart for Young Children’s “Leadership Award”;  and Anti-Defamation League’s “Leadership Award”.
Dale has two children and six grandchildren and lives in Connecticut.  She and her dog, Samson are a dog-therapy team!

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Today we’re celebrating women making history with the inspiring Zarifa Ghafari a mother, sister, friend, women’s advocate, human rights activist, author, Netflix documentarian, and the former Mayor of Maidan Shahr Afghanistan.
Zarifa Ghafari was one of the few Afghan female mayors and was also the youngest to be appointed, at the age of 24. She is known for her efforts to advance women's rights in Afghanistan. Zarifa was chosen as an International Woman of Courage in 2020 by the US Secretary of State. And received the 2022 International Women's Rights Award at the United Nations Geneva Summit. She was included by the BBC in the list of 100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2019. And she was included in The Badass 50 list. In 2020, she received the award: “Women Who Can Change the World by InStyle.” Her book, Zarifa, A Woman’s Battle in a Man’s World is a poignant memoir and the inspiration for her Netflix documentary, In Her Hands.
 
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan’s government in mid-August 2021, Zarifa fled with her husband, mother, and five sisters. The German government granted her asylum, and she now resides in Germany.

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Today we’re celebrating women making history with the inspiring Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli a mother, daughter, sister, friend, and an expert on food ecosystems, entrepreneurship, social innovation, and philanthropy. She has over 25 years of international development experience and is the founder of LEAP Africa and African Food Changemakers. She is also the co-founder of Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition Ltd. and AACE Foods Processing & Distribution Ltd. 
Ndidi serves on the boards of the Rockefeller Foundation, AGRA, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. India, Stanbic IBTC Group, the Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum, and the Bridgespan Group.
Ndidi holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree with honors from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a visiting Scholar at Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, an Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, and an Eisenhower Fellow. 
Ndidi is a TED speaker, was recognized as a Schwab Fellow and a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and has received numerous awards and recognitions including a National Honor by the Nigerian Government and the Harvard Business School Distinguished Alumni Award. She is the author of "Social Innovation in Africa: A Practical Guide for Scaling Impact," and "Food Entrepreneurs in Africa: Scaling Resilient Agriculture Businesses," both published by Routledge, and “Walking for God in the Marketplace.”

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