Director, Ipas Francophone Africa Regional

Dr. Bilguissou Balde leads Ipas’s work in Francophone Africa. She is a public health and international development professional with more than 10 years of experience in sexual and reproductive health and rights programming, women’s empowerment, humanitarian emergencies and other issues. She joined Ipas in 2018 and most recently served as the Ipas Francophone Africa Acting Regional Director. Before joining Ipas, she worked at the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. She has also worked with Plan International in Guinea and Senegal, and with the Guinean organization Sante Plus in the Francophone Africa region, and has had assignments in Togo, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and other countries in East and Southern Africa.

She was trained as a primary care physician at the Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry, Guinea, and subsequently earned a master’s degree in public health (MPH) in global health and community development. She also has a graduate certificate in complex humanitarian emergencies management from Emory University in Atlanta.