At a reception hosted by the Maryland Congressional delegation in honor of JHPIEGO's 30th anniversary, the JHU affiliate presented its first Leadership in Health Awards. The celebration took place on Sept. 10 in the foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C.

"To celebrate our 30th anniversary, we wanted to honor those who have been working to improve the health of women and families around the world," said Leslie Mancuso, chief executive officer of JHPIEGO. "The recipients have contributed to improving women's and family health through health education and training and expanding access to direct care. In recognizing [these] leaders," she said, "we also shine the spotlight on the extraordinary improvements their efforts have brought to families whose access to health care is often severely restricted due to poverty, epidemic disease, reduced access to training, educational and technological resources, social or political conditions."

The recipients of the inaugural awards are Susanne Mubarak, first lady of Egypt; Khunying Kobchitt Limpaphayom, a professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Chulalongkorn University School of Medicine, Bangkok, Thailand; Soekir Soekaemi, midwife, Maternal and Neonatal Health and Infection Prevention, Surabaya, Indonesia; Peter Figueroa, chief of Epidemiology and AIDS, Ministry of Health, Kingston, Jamaica; Antonia Morales Tomin, health promoter, Solola, Guatemala; Jane Namasasu, deputy director of Clinical and Population Services, Ministry of Health and Population, Lilongwe, Malawi; and Hajera Baharestani, Faisabad Hospital, Faisabad, Badakhshan, Afghanistan.

On Sept. 12, JHPIEGO continued its series of anniversary celebrations with a panel presentation titled "The Continuum of Women's Reproductive Health: Voices From the Field," held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Panelists were six of the recipients of the Leadership in Health Awards. In addition, Nils Daulaire, president and chief executive officer of the Global Health Council, offered highlights of work going on around the globe on women's reproductive health.

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