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Rita Badiani

United States

Director, Global and Multi-Country Projects Unit

Rita Badiani brings over 30 years of experience in program management and development, primarily in family planning, reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, and population studies. She currently serves as Director of Special Projects, after having led the Evidence to Action Project as the Director for five years. Prior to that she was a country representative in Mozambique. She joined our team in 1999.

As country representative, Rita managed a portfolio of 14 projects from 12 different donors, five provincial offices, and a staff of almost 200. She has extensive experience managing complex programming in family planning, HIV and AIDS, and maternal and newborn health with primary health services in Brazil, Ghana, Haiti, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Tanzania.

Rita first joined Pathfinder as the chief technical advisor in Mozambique, designing and implementing our incredibly successful Geração Biz program. From there, she served as deputy country representative in Ghana, director of operations in Nigeria, and director of the Family Planning Integration project in Tanzania. In 2009, she made her way back to Mozambique where she served as director of the USAID-funded Strengthening Communities through Integrated Programming project.

Rita has an MS in urban studies, human resources, and population studies from Georgia State University and a BA from Gama Filho University in Brazil. She speaks English, Portuguese, and Spanish.