Step Up Team Members
Uganda Team
Father Remigio C. Obol
The spiritual leader of STEP-UP and SUU, Father Remigio C. Obol was the creator of STEP-UP in partnership with Dr. Joshua Miller. He is the parish priest of Assumption Parish in Awach in northern Uganda. He considers STEP-UP to be an important part of the parish program given its contribution to the improvement of health in the community. Because of the support of Archbishop Dr. John Baptist Odama, he visited the USA in 2006 where he met Professor Joshua and others, at which time the war was at its peak. After hearing Father describe the negative impact of the war on the health and education of the children, Joshua came with others to Gulu to evaluate ways in which they could be of help. That was the beginning of a program that has carried forth until now. It started with psychosocial support training and subsequently evolved to include medical capacity building. From 2006 through now there have been many instructional activities related to health, psychosocial support, and education, and “the impact of the activities is very great.” Service delivery of the health personnel and the concern demonstrated for their patients have improved. STEP-UP has also brought equipment to facilitate the work of the medical personnel in Aswa county. Father appeals to well-wishers who care about the health and education of the children of his region to help this program continue to succeed. He asks that people contribute to STEP-UP or personally join hands with STEP-UP and SUU. He feels that there are multiple ways to support health: stationery, books, money, equipment, medicines, “even tools for harvest.” He expresses faith in people, saying, “We are talking to the world, but not a faceless world.”
Okello Patrick Onguti
Okello Patrick Onguti has been with STEP-UP since its beginning in 2010. He is happily married to Auma Mary Alai (Dr. Maria, also a board member of SUU) and enjoys their family in Gulu: their son, daughter and three nephews. He became involved after meeting Joshua Miller in 2006 and joining in the discussions with Father Remiggio. As someone who grew up in Father’s parish, he saw the war and all its atrocities, and in fact had to leave school for three years before ultimately returning and completing his studies. His work as an agricultural extension officer requires him to interact with communities and gives him a unique understanding of their problems. He feels passionate about his people; the impact of the war on the people of his community has made him feel a great need to be a part of this project to help them. Several NGOs were in the region after the war, but they were only emergency responders. There was no attention to the lasting post-traumatic impact that has remained long after the NGOs moved out, that he continues to observe in his community during meetings, church services and everyday life. STEP-UP has remained here “and is here for the long run,” continuing their work with medical and psychosocial capacity building. He is proud to be a part of this journey; he can see the impact. “You cannot develop the world on your own.” As secretary of the board of STEP-UP Uganda he feels that we still have a lot to do to live up to our name and mission. We have had medical success but need to achieve more success in the psychosocial realm noting that people in good medical and psychological health are better able to be productive and take care of their families.
Auma Mary Alai, M.D.
Mary Auma Alai, MBchB, MMED, Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, is known to STEP-UP and her fellow Ugandans as “Dr. Maria.” She has been on the board of SUU since the first US team trip in 2010. Trained in general internal medicine, she has specific experience in intensive care medicine and diabetes care. Her additional training in tropical medicine provided her with expertise in a wide spectrum of tropical diseases including tuberculosis, HIV infection/AIDS, and malaria. She was honored to travel to Washington DC in November 2014 to do a poster presentation at the annual conference of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, after which she spent time with the STEP-UP team in Massachusetts. Over the past six years her work has focused on clinical and humanitarian health programming in complex humanitarian emergencies in countries whose health systems have been devastated by conflict, such as South Sudan. When available, she assists the USA STEP-UP team with their training in northern Uganda; with teaching experience of medical students, interns and residents at Gulu University and at the University of Bar el Ghazal in South Sudan, her contribution to STEP-UP’s work is highly valued. She stays involved with STEP-UP because she particularly values the positive impact that their activities have had on maternal and child health. She and her husband Okello Patrick have two children: Frederick (also a doctor) and Karima.
Apiyo Susan
Apiyo Susan has been a midwife since 2011. She is on staff at Pabwo Health Centre III, located in a distant rural area. She attended her first STEP-UP training in Helping Babies Breathe in 2013. She became proficient and was later chosen to be a trainer of other skilled health providers in Northern Uganda in Helping Babies Breathe, Essential Care for Every Baby and Bleeding After Birth. She is excited to have recently become an official part of the STEP-UP Uganda structure. She is the busy mother of her twins, Hope and Happy, and a new baby. Having recently advanced her midwifery degree, her long-term vision is to obtain a Bachelor’s degree and become an instructor in a midwifery school.
Akello Monica
Akello Monica is an enrolled midwife, and mother of two children. She studied in Kalongo Midwifery School, attaining her certificate in 2010. She initially started working as a midwife, then joined AIDS relief, after which she joined the government system in 2012 as a midwife. She took part in Helping Babies Breath training in 2013 at Awach Health Centre IV and was soon mentored to train trainees. She has trained other health workers in Helping Babies Breathe, Essential Care for Every Baby and Helping Mothers Survive/Bleeding After Birth. She loves working with STEP-UP and STEP-UP Uganda, loves her job as a midwife, and loves seeing healthy babies and healthy mothers. Currently advancing her education to attain a diploma in midwifery, the knowledge and skills she has developed as a trainer for STEP-UP made her proficient enough to train her fellow diploma students on newborn resuscitation and saving mother’s lives.
Olanya Jackeline Grace
Olanya Jackeline Grace has been a midwife for 22 years. She initially worked at Lacore Hospital for 3 years after which she joined the government system. She likes her work and likes seeing babies born healthy and alive, to healthy mothers. She has been happy with the work that STEP-UP has done in Aswa, noting that they have built her capacity and she in turn has built the capacity of others. She hopes to soon see the impact of the work. She prays that STEP-UP continues to help a “desperate community” with limited resources. She is the mother of four children.
U.S. Team
Joshua Miller, Ph.D., MSW
Joshua MIller recently retired as professor at Smith College School for Social Work. He focuses on antiracism, psychosocial capacity building in response to disasters and armed conflict, and helping people who are socio-politically targeted. He has responded to many disasters, including 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Asian Tsunami, and earthquakes in China and Haiti. He has written many articles and has published five books, including Psychosocial capacity building in response to disasters (2012, Columbia University Press) that describes the model of collaboration, capacity building and training of trainers used by STEP-UP. He is a co-founder of STEP-UP in Northern Uganda and is deeply committed to the work done for this project by his Ugandan and US colleagues.
Ann Markes, M.D.
Like her husband, Matthew Kane, Dr. Ann Markes’ first contact with global health was at the age of 19 while participating in a semester abroad in Kenya. This was followed by two other trips to Kenya with Matthew, three months as medical students, and a year (1985-86) working at Tumutumu Hospital in Karatina. After raising three children and working in primary care, she started to participate in global health again, including several trips to Haiti and participation with Interplast in China and Vietnam. However, it is the work in Uganda that keeps calling her back. The resilience of the Acholi people after suffering for so long during the war, the commitment of the health workers in northern Uganda to their people, the health workers’ enthusiasm for training, and their hard work to continue to pass that training on are sources of great inspiration to her. She looks forward to continued trips to Gulu, strengthening the partnership with the STEP-UP Uganda team, and expansion of the work that is being done together.
Matthew Kane, M.D.
Matthew Kane, M.D. is a medical internist with a decades long passion for international medicine. He fell in love with Kenya during a semester abroad program in 1977. Completing medical school and residency, he and his wife, Ann Markes, M.D., then worked in a small rural hospital in Kenya in the 1980’s. After raising their 3 children, they resumed their international work in Haiti on multiple occasions. Although rewarding, providing direct medical care never seemed to be sustainable. He feels that the work STEP-UP does in Uganda, partnering closely with our Ugandan colleagues, has been the most fulfilling work that he has done. Using the Trainer-of-Trainers model, it has been wonderful to see the Ugandan health providers have such passion for increasing their skills and the skills of their colleagues. The friendship and comradery that has developed among all of us keeps bringing him back to Uganda.
Linda Cohen, M.D.
Linda Cohen, M.D. has been a practicing pediatrician for more than 40 years. Coming from a public health/school health background, she has always been interested in the physical and emotional well being of children and their families, particularly those living in conflict and low resource areas. For many years she was a member of a medical and dental brigade working in Honduras. She is happy now to be working with STEP UP, training Ugandan midwives and health workers in safe deliveries and newborn care.
Megan Carmel, MD
Megan Carmel is an obstetrician-gynecologist at Rochester Regional Health in Rochester, NY. She attended medical school at the University at Buffalo, and residency at URMC in Rochester, NY. She has been practicing for 10 years and specializes in general OB/GYN, pelvic pain and minimally invasive gynecology. International medicine has long been a dream of hers that only came to fruition in her 2020 trip with STEP-UP, when she worked with the medical team to develop and train modules on pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. STEP-UP’s focus on capacity building and the people involved, both in the US and Uganda, who are so passionate about learning from each other, are what compelled her to join and will keep her involved for many years to come. She is a wife and mother of two daughters, by far the greatest joys in her life.
Davina Miller, LICSW
Davina Miller has been a clinical social worker for 36 years. She was previously the director of counseling at Mt. Holyoke College and is now in private practice. She helps people with a range of psychosocial problems, including trauma, eating disorders and relationship challenges. Davina has volunteered for STEP-UP twice and is in charge of securing second-hand computers for use by Ugandan medical personnel.
Vicki Weld, MSW, LICSW
Vicki Weld earned her degree at the Smith College School for Social Work. A clinical social worker for 26 years, her work has focused primarily on child social/emotional development, education groups on parenting, and psychotherapy for people of all ages. Having studied family therapy as a specialty area, her passion is family therapy, and she is fascinated by family systems and larger systems. She currently works fulltime in an outpatient clinic in a hospital, offering services to children and families around medical illnesses, trauma (PTSD), depression, behavioral challenges, and anxiety. She also has a private therapy practice in which she sees a wide variety of children and adults. Embracing the model of Psychosocial Capacity Building, the Trainer of Trainers model, and the cross-cultural work with leaders in Northern Uganda have been rewarding and inspiring for her. Clearly a path to mutual growth and positive change, she has been excited to be part of this team effort and looks forward to working with STEP-UP in the future.
Janet Namono, LICSW
Janet Namono is a licensed clinical social worker practicing with children, adolescents and families at a teaching hospital In Massachusetts and at a recently started private practice. She received her education from Makerere University, University of Massachusetts and Smith College. Janet was born and raised in Entebbe, Uganda and went to school in Tororo and Kampala, where she also worked before moving to the United States. As one of the newest members of STEP-UP, Janet contributes her passion for service with special interest and experience in serving communities of diverse children, adolescents, and families.