Dr. Mekonen Eshete is a Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon and Associate Professor of Surgery at the Addis Ababa University School of Medicine. He serves as the leader of the Yekatit 12 Hospital and Medical College cleft lip and palate unit, Ethiopia’s only full comprehensive cleft care centre. His expertise is in clinical care, research and training. Dr. Mekonen is a long-time partner of Smile Train and Transforming Faces.

Dr. George William Galiwango is the head of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery department at CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital in Entebbe, Uganda. He completed his Higher Surgical Speciality Training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery with COSECSA and serves as a mentor and clinical educator to budding plastic surgeons across Uganda. For over 10 years, Dr. Galiwango has been a Smile Train partner cleft surgeon and senior leader within CoRSU’s Comprehensive Cleft Care team.

Prof. Roopa Nagarajan is a Professor and Chairperson at the Dept. of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences & Academic Officer, Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, India. She served as the Organizing Secretary of the 13th International Cleft Congress in Chennai, 2017 and is co-author of a book chapter entitled Cleft Palate Speech in the Majority World.  She is a longtime leader in both Smile Train and Transforming Faces’ CCC movements.

Debbie Sell is a Cleft Specialist Speech and Language Therapist & Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Outcomes and Experience Research in Children’s Health, Illness and Disability (ORCHID) at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK. She co-edited a book on Cleft Care in the Developing World, was a founder of a speech and language therapy training course in Sri Lanka and is a member of CLEFT – Bridging the Gap charity’s Research Steering Group. She is a founder and co-director of Speech@Home.