AMWA Welcomes Sophie Delauney, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
 AMWA is pleased to welcome meeting speaker Sophie Delauney, Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Ms. Delauney will speak on “Medical Volunteering, Nationally and Internationally.” This area has long been and continues to be vital to AMWA’s mission, through AMWA’s American Women’s Hospital Service (AWHS). Founded in 1917, AWHS provides assistance to medical clinics for the under-served and international travel support for young women physicians and medical students to provide medical care in under-served clinics.  Sophie Delauney
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Sophie Delauney, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Sophie Delaunay began her tenure in 2009 as Executive Director of the U.S. section of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). With a background in international affairs and more than a dozen years of experience running MSF field programs in countries as diverse as China and Rwanda, Delaunay took over the leadership of MSFUSA at a time when the need to provide humanitarian assistance to people trapped in war zones is increasing dramatically while the dangers and obstacles to the provision of aid in places such as Somalia and Pakistan has escalated markedly.
”The principle of providing independent and impartial medical care to people trapped by wars, epidemics, or natural disasters regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or political ideology that guides the work of MSF medical teams around the world has really taken hold in the U.S.,” said Sophie Delaunay, Executive Director of MSF- USA. ”With hundreds of thousands of supporters across the country and hundreds of highly skilled and dedicated aid workers sent out on assignment through the U.S. office, MSF’s foundation in U.S. society is critical as the fundamental principles of independent humanitarian action are increasingly under threat from governments and armed groups.”
Delaunay joined MSF-USA in early 2008 as a senior program officer to lead MSF’s advocacy efforts in the U.S. Prior to this position, she worked for 12 years with MSF in various capacities, including country administrator in Thailand and Rwanda, head of mission in China and for MSF’s North Korea program. From 1995-1998, she was the administrative and financial director of Epicentre, MSF’s epidemiological research center. She recently served on the boards of MSF France and Epicentre. As head of the program department of ESTHER, the French government’s funding agency to combat AIDS, Delaunay knows intimately the challenges of confronting the twin epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis, a major priority of MSF’s medical work. She holds a master’s degree in International Business from the University of Le Havre in France and a master’s degree in Political Science from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
Doctors Without Borders/Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF) is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that provides aid to people in more than 60 countries whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. In 1999, MSF received the Nobel Peace Prize.
The American Medical Women’s Association is an organization which functions at the local, national, and international level to advance women in medicine and improve the health of all individuals. We achieve this by providing and developing leadership, advocacy, education, expertise, mentoring, and through building strategic alliances. Join us at www.amwa-doc.org!
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