Global Health Workforce Expert Jennifer Macias Joins CapacityPlus

IntraHealth International has named Jennifer Macias as CapacityPlus’s deputy director, human resources for health and health systems strengthening.

“CapacityPlus is the global leader in health workforce innovation and cost savings, and Jennifer’s experience is perfect for leading our work in human resources management, the private and faith-based sectors, social service workers, and knowledge management,” said Kate Tulenko, director of CapacityPlus and senior director for health systems innovation at IntraHealth. “With her successful experience addressing the health workforce crisis at the country level, Jennifer understands what it takes to catalyze system-wide change. I’m delighted that she has joined the project.”

Jennifer MaciasMacias has two decades of experience in managing international public health programs. “It’s exciting to join CapacityPlus at this stage, with so many activities showing impressive results,” she said. “The project’s HRH Global Resource Center is the world’s largest and most frequently accessed collection of resources on the health workforce, with over 4,000 documents, 60,000 unique visitors per month, and 3,500 people taking part in eLearning courses. And our work with faith-based health systems throughout Africa has resulted in major strides forward. In Kenya, for example, findings from an assessment of two institutions indicate they’ve vastly improved their HR management, organized the workforce, increased job satisfaction, improved working conditions at health facilities, and enhanced communication among themselves and with the government. What’s more, Kenya is among 17 countries using our open source iHRIS software to manage 740,000 health worker records—saving them a total of $120 million in licensing fees.”

Prior to joining CapacityPlus, Macias served as IntraHealth’s project director for the USAID-funded Tanzania Human Resource Capacity Project. Previous positions include managing director of international programs at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and director of Jhpiego’s Africa office.

Macias holds an MPH in population planning and international health and has published several peer-reviewed articles on public health in developing countries.

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Photo by Andy White, courtesy of IntraHealth International