Our Team
Eva Ledroit
Eva Ledroit, LLM, is project officer for Make Mothers Matter (MMM). Mme Ledroit holds a master’s degree in Law from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and is specialized in public international law and human rights. She has been a part of MMM since 2015, when she started as an intern working on the topic of the economic empowerment of mothers and particularly, the gender pay-gap in the European Union. Since 2019, she has been a project officer at MMM working on the communications and dissemination as well as end-user engagement of the CIRC4Life Project, an EU Horizon 2020 project aimed at the development of new business models based on the circular economy. Ms Ledroit native French speaker, she is also fluent in English and Portuguese.
Serese Marotta
Serese Marotta is the Director for Advocacy and Education at the non-profit organization “Vaccinate your Family” (VYF) Serese previously worked as COO for Families Fighting Flu following the loss of her five-year old son, Joseph, to the flu in 2009. Prior to that, Serese worked as an environmental scientist for 16 years at a consulting firm conducting ecological and human health risk assessments for hazardous waste sites. She now works tirelessly to raise awareness about the seriousness of flu and the critical importance of annual flu vaccination for everyone six months and older.
Maurine Neiman
Maurine Neiman, PhD is an evolutionary biologist and Associate Professor at the University of Iowa, USA. Her main appointment is in the Department of Biology. Dr. Neiman also is the first ‘hard’ scientist to have a joint appointment in the Department of Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies, reflecting her focus on the potential and power of transdisciplinary research. Dr. Neiman's research program targets fundamental questions in biology centered on the evolutionary impact of genetic variation and extending to a diverse set of other fields, from invasion biology and host-pathogen interactions to cancer biology. She is especially interested in bringing together diverse concepts, tools, and people to address important biological problems. Dr. Neiman is also active in science education and community engagement. Dr. Neiman is now contributing her expertise in evolutionary biology and commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration to the Vienna Vaccine Safety Initiative, with the goal of increasing access to safe and effective vaccines. She is also providing her insights as the mother of a young son, JJ Neiman-Brown, who lost his life to H1N1 flu in February, 2020.
Barbara Rath
Barbara Rath. MD PhD HDR is is a board-certified pediatrician and infectious disease specialist with 20 years’ experience in clinical trials, public health and virology in the US, Latin America and Europe. She is co-founder and chair of the Vaccine Safety Initiative and Research Director at the University of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in France. Dr. Rath is executive board member with the International Society for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses and with ESGREV, the respiratory virus study group for the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Rath received her medical school education in Germany, the United States and Spain, and her doctoral degrees and habilitation in Switzerland and France. In addition to a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University, she received paediatric residency and infectious disease subspecialty training at Duke and Tulane Universities, USA. In 2018, she completed the Global Paediatrics Leadership Program at Harvard University Medical School.
Claire Romaine
Claire Romaine, BSc, is ViVI’s outreach coordinator and currently a medical and public health student at Tulane University. Claire received a bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from the University of Virginia in 2018, where her undergraduate honours thesis established a pilot program for community-based participatory research. Claire was also UVA’s inaugural Hannah Graham Memorial Award scholar. This year-long fellowship sponsored health policy internship in Geneva, Switzerland. Between college and medical school, Claire worked as a population health project manager at Epic. There, she supported large hospital systems through the implementation of value-based analytics tools. She Also coordinated a group of paediatricians and social workers from multiple Epic customer organizations.
Johanna Schima
Johanna Schima, LLM is Head of the European Delegation at Make Mothers matter (MMM). She joined MMM in October 2014. Since then, she has served as Policy officer for MMM, focusing on expanding the MMM network around the world, advocating on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly on gender equality, economic empowerment families and the role of women in promoting Peace at international and European level. Ms Schima studied law and philosophy in Colombia, and holds a master’s degree in law, LL.M, from Harvard University, USA. A native Spanish speaker, Johanna also speaks fluent English, French and German.
Daniela Quaggia
Daniela Quaggia is a Senior project manager, graduated in Communication Science with a 2nd level Master's degree in Institutional Communication. At the national level, in Italy, she has been working in Cittadinanzattiva for 4 years in the Institutional Relations office; since January 2010 she is a member of the Active Citizenship Network staff and, as Project Manager in the health area (vaccination, patients rights, chronic pain, cardiovascular diseases...), she is also responsible for the networking activities and internal communication among the almost 200 EU partners of ACN, working for an exchange of information, experience, and good practices, involvement in the project and political activities.
Michele Slafkosky
Michele Slafkosky is the Director of Advocacy and Outreach for Families Fighting Flu, a national nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to saving lives and reducing hospitalizations by protecting children, families, and communities against influenza through education and advocacy. She arms flu advocates with knowledge and resources to fight flu in their communities locally, regionally, and nationally. She has over 20 years of experience working with stakeholders and engagement and is adept at grassroots advocacy and connecting people who are passionate about flu vaccination and awareness to elevate their efforts. She lives in the Boston area and has three children.
Stephen Reingold
Stephen Reingold MD, is board certified in pediatric medicine in the United States and Israel and works to advance the quality of community pediatrics. He earned his medical degree at the Technion University in Israel and completed his pediatric training at the Maimonides Infants and Children's Hospital in Brooklyn, NY. Currently he serves on the board of the Israel Ambulatory Pediatrics Association, is a member of the Israel Pediatric Association and is on the board of the Goshen Organization. Dr Reingold has published widely, including peer-reviewed journals and medical texts. He is the medical officer in the Department of Public Health of the Municipality of Jerusalem and practices community pediatrics.
Arja Krauchenberg
Arja Krauchenberg, BA MA is the project coordinator of the European Parents’ Association (EPA). She first came in touch with the association as the Austrian delegate in 2011 and was elected as a member of the board of directors in 2013. In 2018 she became the president and since the end of her mandate she continues to serve the organisation as project coordinator. In line with the core paradigm of EPA she advocates for the recognition of parents as primary educators of their children demanding that they’d be supported in this essential task. In 2019 she was elected as a member of the Steering Committee of the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) and in 2020 became part of the Executive Committee of OIDEL (Organisation internationale de l’enseignement libre) as well as a board member of EUFIC (European Food and Industry Council). Mrs Krauchenberg holds a bachelor’s as well as a master’s degree in Romance languages from Vienna University and is a certified Austrian tour guide for persons with disabilities. Next to her native German, she speaks English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Slovene.