Leading advocates and practitioners working at local, national, transnational and global levels on diverse health issues from a justice/rights perspective have been invited to Yale for short residences (1-4 weeks).
During their residencies, Advocates served as teaching and mentoring resources to students through guest lectures, events/workshops, and individual meetings. They also contributed to interdisciplinary scholarship, projects, and advocacy efforts at Yale and with partnered institutions and community groups.
2019-2020 Advocates-in-Residence
Sharonann Lynch
Residency dates: February and March 2020
Sharonann Lynch is the Senior HIV and TB Policy Advisor for the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Access Campaign. Ms. Lynch has worked for nearly 20 years in the global health and humanitarian field, primarily related to access to HIV and TB treatment. She joined MSF in 2006, working for four years in various positions in the field in southern Africa, primarily focused on introducing innovative models of community-based treatment, care, and adherence support and changing national policies to support improved quality of care. In 2009 she joined MSF’s Access Campaign and has led numerous advocacy campaigns related to HIV, TB, and access to essential medicines policies of national governments, bilateral and multilateral donors, and other global health actors. Prior to joining MSF, Ms. Lynch was a founding member of Health Global Access Project (GAP). Prior to Health GAP, and active in ACT UP since starting a chapter in 1991.
Ximena Rojas García
Residency dates: April 2020
Ximena Rojas García is a midwife and obstetric nurse with Parteras Fronterizas / Borderland Midwives in Tijuana. Ximena studied nursing and obstetrics at UNAM, where she pioneered a student exchange with the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, providing healthcare at their Mexican Consulate and assisting with approximately 350 deliveries in maternal-child hospitals in Mexico City. In 2010, she began attending home births. She trained in Sierra de Puebla and Veracruz, where she learned ancestral midwifery and the use of traditional plants and temazcal baths. She then moved to Baja California in 2013 where she studied sex education and created the Itinerant Workshop of Preparation for Doulas. The Hüfi College of Doulas and Midwives grew out of that, as she began giving online classes to make midwifery education accessible to more women throughout Latin America. Along with her midwifery partner, Bianca Tema Mercado, she works with migrant refugees from Haiti and other countries to provide respectful maternity care on the border.