Center for
Global Health

Associate Scholar

Languages: English, Swahili, Luganda, French

Bio statement

Professor Suedi is a dedicated, culturally diverse, and respected global health leader with more than 15 years of experience. She currently teaches global health at Towson University. She cofounded Childbirth Survival International, a global nonprofit charged with reaching the unreached with services, resources, and information. Her contributions in global health are rooted in purposeful and strategic collaborations resulting in:
(1) improved access to resources, skilled care, and information;
(2) increased utilization of quality health services;
(3) strengthened lower tier health facilities to reduce travel burdens and overcrowding in urban facilities;
(4) elevated the social status of women and girls.

Recent global health projects

1. Addressing key social determinants of health to elevate the social status of women, girls, and youth.
Since 2013, Childbirth Survival International (CSI) has been at the forefront to address medically health-related challenges experienced by women of reproductive age and a ballooning young population. CSI would incorporate various strategies to educate individuals on nutrition, prevention of diseases, early recognition of childhood illnesses, gender-based violence, food insecurity, and more. A major challenge was many women and girls lacked the education, safe space to learn, and the financial means to meet their medical needs and other basic needs that influence their health.CSI shifted its approach from addressing social determinants of health barriers through the lens of programming and advocacy to incorporate a sustainable and practical approach by creating a space where women, girls, and youth will fully thrive. Continuing to address health barriers and challenges, on March 12, 2023, CSI opened its first vocational training college in Entebbe, Uganda called Sustainable Actions for Financial Independence (SAFI) Vocational College to give women, adolescent girls, and young men the opportunity to acquire vocational skills, learn financial literacy, and become economically empowered to afford health services, adequate nutrition, and meet their basic needs. SAFI Vocational College is elevating the social status of women and girls, contributing to the overall improvement of health outcomes, and letting people rewrite their narrative to succeed in life. Learn more about SAFI College, https://childbirthsurvivalinternational.org/saficollege


2. Bridging health facility access gaps for pregnant women in Uganda to deliver in a health facility with a skilled birth attendant in order to reduce preventable pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum complications, disabilities, and deaths.
CSI's efforts have been impactful to increase health facility childbirths through community education, distribution of safely sealed childbirth kits (mama kits containing necessary medical supplies), and working with midwives to improve their skills. CSI's efforts are made possible through strategic and continuous collaborations with local health facilities, community members, and government leaders. CSI's maternal health project is contributing to national and global goals to reduce preventable maternal-newborn disabilities and poor health outcomes.

Last Updated: 03 April 2025