Strengthening communities: Driving inclusive, culturally responsive care

Ms Umi Sau Ayienga

Umi Sau is a passionate Customer Experience and Healthcare service excellence professional with experience in transforming patient journeys, improving service delivery, and driving continuous improvement within healthcare.
She currently serves as a Client Experience Manager at Avenue Healthcare, where she leads initiatives focused on enhancing patient experience, strengthening complaint resolution, improving service quality, and using patient feedback and operational data to identify and address service gaps.

She is passionate about patient-centre care, service excellence, healthcare transformation, and customer-centric leadership, with a strong belief that exceptional healthcare experiences are built through people, processes, technology, and empathy.

Umi is a member of ICX Kenya and has undertaken professional development in customer experience and leadership, including the Customer Experience Champion Program by CX Academy Africa and the CX Possibilitarians Group Leadership Series.

She brings a practical, frontline perspective to conversations on patient experience, service excellence, complaint management, and building sustainable cultures of continuous improvement in healthcare.

Dr Mahesh Bhatt

Dr. Mahesh Bhatt is a surgeon, author, and public health consultant with more than three decades of leadership across clinical practice, public health, research, and community development. He serves as MD and CEO of MMBSHS Trust, a volunteer-driven charitable organization based in Dehradun, India, advancing health and development initiatives across the Uttarakhand Himalayas.
A senior practitioner and thought leader, Dr. Bhatt has worked with government, non-governmental, academic, and corporate organizations as a clinician, researcher, educator, administrator, and health consultant. His professional affiliations include respected national and international medical and public health bodies, reflecting his broad engagement with health systems, policy, education, and global health promotion.

His publications examine the spiritual, neurobiological, and social dimensions of health, including Spiritual Health, Spirituality: Neurobiology at Our Best, and The Year 2020: The Corona and Chaos, which has been translated into French, German, and Spanish. His recognitions include designation as a Peace Ambassador by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award in Science and Medicine, and Ukiyoto Publishing’s 2022 Author of the Year award in nonfiction science.

Dr Jessa Mae De Guzman

Dr. Jessa Mae R. De Guzman is a public health and occupational health physician, policy advocate, and health systems leader currently serving as Medical Specialist III and Head of the Public Health Unit at Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center in Ilocos Norte. A graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine and holder of a Master in Public Management Major in Health Systems Development from the Development Academy of the Philippines, she combines clinical expertise with public health and health systems management.

From 2017 to 2019, she served under the Doctor to the Barrios Program, delivering essential healthcare services in an island municipality while conducting public health research. In 2019, she joined the Department of Health Central Office, where she led the COVID-19 Laboratory Network Project Management Unit, contributing significantly to the country’s pandemic response.

Dr. De Guzman is passionate about health systems strengthening, disease prevention, healthcare equity, and community-based care. Her work has earned recognition locally and internationally, including serving as Country Coordinator for the 7th Global Public Health Conference in Thailand. Through leadership, research, and continuous quality improvement, she aims to contribute to evidence-based policies and improve population health outcomes.

Mr Iqbal Firdaus

Iqbal Firdaus is a Management Fellow at NHG Health, where he leads strategic initiatives in population health to strengthen integrated community care across Central and North Singapore. His current portfolio spans community mental health, health promotion for ethnic minority communities, and nature-based health interventions that support vulnerable residents. Through his work, he translates strategy into practical, community-centred programmes by fostering partnerships across healthcare, government, and social service sectors.

An alumnus of the International Hospital Federation Young Executive Leaders Programme, Iqbal is passionate about systems thinking, leadership development, and advancing equitable health outcomes. He is driven by the belief that healthier communities are built through collaboration, innovation, and sustained cross-sector partnerships.

Dr Elizabeth Pfoh

Dr. Pfoh holds various roles at Cleveland Clinic, including Associate Professor of Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University; Director, Center for Value-Based Care Research Fellowship Program; Staff, Internal Medicine; and Evaluation Lead, Value-Based Operations. She earned a PhD in Health Services Research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and subsequently completed a fellowship in General Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She has a Master’s in Public Health from Columbia University. Her h-index of 33 demonstrates her consistently and widely cited publication record. She is the PI of an NIH-funded R34 grant and is a co-investigator on studies funded by NIA and the CDC. Her work focuses on understanding how to deliver timely and effective care to primary care patients.

Mr Carlos Varela Ferro