About Us

Selina Bentoom is a maternal and newborn health leader, International Development Consultant and Parent and Patient Expert who has transformed lived experience into sustained advocacy and systems-level action. As Founder and Executive Director of AFPNC, she has built a patient-led platform that connects family voice with research, clinical practice, policy, partnerships and public engagement, while convening stakeholders across government, healthcare, academia, development, media and parent networks. As Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, she brings the Foundation’s founding vision, lived experience and strategic leadership to its governance and long-term direction.

Georgina Taylor-Effah is a retired professional nurse and counsellor with more than 30 years of experience in health services, with a strong commitment to family-centred care and improving access to quality healthcare for underserved communities. Over the past 15 years, her community interventions have reached more than 20,000 mothers and children across rural and urban communities in Ghana. She joined AFPNC in 2015, bringing both professional expertise and lived family experience as the grandmother of a premature baby born at six months’ gestation weighing 1.4 kg. This combination of clinical insight, counselling experience and personal understanding informs her commitment to supporting mothers, newborns and families affected by prematurity in Ghana and beyond.

Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyirah is a distinguished public health specialist and former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, with extensive experience in health policy, health-system leadership and institutional governance. A graduate of KNUST Medical School and a Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, he has also served as a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Pentecost University. He is Council Chairman of the Ghana NGO Coalition in Health and has served on boards of health institutions in Ghana and internationally. His career also includes consultancy work with major international organizations, including the World Bank, World Health Organization and Danida, bringing to AFPNC deep expertise in public health strategy, policy development, health-system strengthening and multisectoral engagement.

Professor Afua A. J. Hesse is Ghana’s first female paediatric surgeon and a distinguished medical educator, researcher, hospital administrator and health leader whose career spans clinical care, surgical education, research, health management and policy. A Professor of Surgery and Co-founder and President of the Accra College of Medicine, she has trained and mentored generations of doctors and surgeons in Ghana and West Africa and has served as an external examiner for medical schools and postgraduate colleges across the region. At Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, she became the first woman to head both the Paediatric Surgery Unit and the Department of Surgery, and later served as Director of Medical Affairs and Acting Chief Executive Officer. She has held senior leadership roles within the West African College of Surgeons, Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pan African Paediatric Surgical Association and Medical Women’s International Association, and has contributed to national health planning, medical research, international journal review, health-sector consultancy and WHO technical work.

Dr. Isabella Sagoe-Moses is an experienced Child Health Specialist and former National Child Health Coordinator at the Ghana Health Service, where she served for more than 15 years before becoming Deputy Director of the Family Health Division with responsibility for Reproductive and Child Health. She has played an important role in shaping Ghana’s newborn and child health agenda, including chairing the National Committee for Newborn Health and contributing to the development of major national policies and guidelines such as the National Child Health Policy and National Newborn Health Strategy. A graduate of the University of Ghana Medical School with an MSc in Tropical Paediatrics from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, she has particular expertise in infant and young child feeding and breastfeeding, has trained health professionals in Ghana and internationally, and currently contributes to medical education at the Accra College of Medicine and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons.