FHI Mourns India Country Director Kathleen Kay

[Guest guest]

FHI Mourns India Country Director Kathleen Kay

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC (Dec. 11, 2007) — Kathleen Kay, MPH, who

guided Family Health International's India program into one of the

largest, most diverse HIV programs in FHI's portfolio, died

unexpectedly last weekend after a short illness. She was 48.

The exact cause of death has not been determined, and an autopsy was

scheduled for Dec. 12. She will be buried in her native Sydney,

Australia, in a Catholic ceremony.

Kathleen, a leader in global HIV work for two decades, had been ill

for about two weeks. She was last seen on Saturday, Dec. 8, when she

spoke with her housekeeper, says Dr. Bitra , Kathleen's

longtime deputy who is now serving as acting country director. He

says Kathleen looked unwell at the time but declined assistance and

did not want the housekeeper to return on Sunday. The housekeeper

found Kathleen dead in her bed at her New Delhi home on Monday

morning.

" Kathleen had a remarkable ability to win the respect, confidence and

enthusiasm of staff, community and government leaders, implementing

partners and financial sponsors, " says FHI Chief Executive Officer Al

Siemens, PhD. " Her ability to bring people together in pursuit of

FHI's mission of improving lives was invaluable. "

Indeed, Kathleen guided FHI's India office from its early days in

2001, assembling a talented local staff and helping the office grow

into a technical leader in the region and a strong partner to the

National AIDS Program. Six years later, FHI's small team has grown to

80 people in six offices. Funders of FHI's India activities now

include USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK Department

for International Development, and the Children's Investment Fund

Foundation. FHI's work in India is known for the breadth of its

audience — ranging from HIV-positive children to sex workers and

their clients — and for its focus on building the capacity of

organizations such as the Indian Network of People Living with

HIV/AIDS.

Kathleen spent a longer period at FHI — six years — than at any other

employer. But when she joined FHI in December 2001, she brought

considerable HIV experience. Most notably, from 1987 to 1990, she had

been special assistant and confidante to Mann, the

pioneering director of the World Health Organization's Global Program

on AIDS. Her work in those early years of the epidemic was central to

her personal and professional identity. Together at WHO, Mann and

Kathleen " helped to build the foundation for a global response to

HIV/AIDS, " says FHI Senior Vice President Sheila .

Last month, traveling in Geneva with senior FHI staff before she fell

ill, " Kathleen was simply ecstatic when she ran into several of her

colleagues during her work with Mann in the early '80s. It

was a reminder of Kathleen's outstanding, critical and pioneering

contribution to the evolution of the global response to the HIV/AIDS

epidemic, " says Lamptey, MD, DrPH, president of FHI's Public

Health Programs. Kathleen remained close friends with Mann's first

wife, Marie-e Bondat, and was practically a part of the Mann

family.

Kathleen subsequently led the Indonesia HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care

Project (Australia's first bilateral HIV effort in Indonesia) and

also worked at UNAIDS, but she built most of her career on short-term

consultancies in HIV policy. Her clients included the Harvard AIDS

Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the International

HIV/AIDS Alliance, the United Nations Development Program on HIV and

Development, the Pacific Regional HIV/STI/AIDS Program, the

University of New South Wales, the Commonwealth Department of Health

and Housing, and ACIL Australia.

Kathleen received her bachelor's degree in political science and

psychology from Australian National University, her nursing degree

from the University of New South Wales Teaching Hospitals, and her

master's degree in public health from Harvard University.

Again and again, colleagues mention three things about Kathleen

immediately — her infectious laugh, her relentless drive, and her

capacity to care for others.

If Kathleen's laugh is something many will remember most about her,

it is partly because she struggled so hard to regain it in recent

years. About four years ago, an illness caused her to lose her voice;

when it returned, her speech was throaty, raspy and at times

inaudible — an unexpected challenge for someone who valued clear

communication and often spoke in public. Kathleen underwent several

surgical procedures at the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice

Rehabilitation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and

gradually regained much of her natural speech, so much so that she

was comfortable speaking on camera for FHI in June 2006. She was

proud of her strong voice on that clip, which she shared with her

family to demonstrate her vocal progress, and even considered

proposing an Oprah segment to feature her surgeon's good work.

Her determination to regain her voice was much like the intensity

that Kathleen brought to her work. " Kathleen's passion and dedication

to public health were the driving forces behind all that she did, "

says. " She ended her career leading FHI's programs in India,

a country she truly loved and wanted to protect from AIDS. "

" Kathleen was so vital, with endless energy. That's why this is such

a shock, " says Leine Stuart, PhD, ACRN, the FHI senior technical

officer who has been on assignment to India three times since

June. " She was one of those staff who had a certain mystique — she

would see a new opportunity and pursue it wholeheartedly. "

" Kathleen is an unforgettable person. She was filled with exuberance

for life. Her energy — and capacity for work — was boundless, " says

Gail Goodridge, director of FHI's ROADS Project in Nairobi. Goodridge

remembers having dinner at Kathleen's home in about 2002, surrounded

by boxes of unpacked household effects. " I'm going to get this place

in shape, " Kathleen had declared, dashing from one room to the other.

But Goodridge says, " I had the feeling that in the trade off of

unpacking boxes versus meeting a deadline to start new HIV

programming somewhere, the boxes would lose. Kathleen had a clear

sense of what was important, and at the top of that list was saving

lives. "

Kathleen worked long hours, to the exclusion of other parts of her

life. " Often if you wrote her an email past 10 p.m. her time she

would respond within minutes. I really think she was as disciplined

with herself as she was because she just wanted to help as many

people as she could in the time she had. She was a one-woman tour de

force of effective planning and activity, " says Gretchen Bachman, an

FHI senior technical officer. Bachman remembers that when Kathleen

first arrived in Delhi and was setting up house, she met a woman who

was homeless with a very young child. " Without any hesitation,

Kathleen, upon hearing her story, asked the woman to work for her and

live at her place with her child. In about a day the woman had moved

into Kathleen's new place, " Bachman says.

Mills, PhD, MPH, FHI's country director in Vietnam,

says, " Only a couple of weeks before she died, she emphasized that we

should never be satisfied with mediocrity but strive for excellence.

She pushed all of us in that direction and never tired of the fight. "

Dallabetta, MD, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation

in India who was once an FHI colleague, says, " Kathleen was so

engrossed in her work that she taught her maid to make one set of

(meals) that did not contain oil, and her maid made the same food

every day. I have been to Kathleen's a handful of times for dinner

and it was always the same menu — tandoori chicken, boiled

vegetables, rice, roti, and palak paneer [a pureed spinach and cheese

dish]. "

FHI's partners, too, appreciated Kathleen's dedication. Dr. Michele

Andina, director of Pathfinder International's Mukta Project in

Maharashtra, recalls Kathleen at the now-famous Mumbai gathering of

15,000 sex workers in January. " She was radiant and smiling as

always, with that wonderful deep laugh of hers. For her everything

was exciting and positive and she was always readily available to

answer any questions or concerns. "

" Kathleen had a gigantic heart with a concern for everyone — staff,

Indians, street children — and a real sense of fair play and

justice, " says Dallabetta, who remembers Kathleen spending days

helping an FHI staff member who had been denied a visa for India

after a year. " She cried over the unfairness of it. "

Jeanine Bardon, who directed FHI's Asia-Pacific office during most of

Kathleen's time in India, said Kathleen " never failed to give 2,000

percent of herself. She was extremely committed to being a mentor, as

she had been so well mentored by Jonathon Mann. She will be

remembered by her staff for all that she did to help them

individually and collectively advance as professionals and to be

better people. Ultimately, we should celebrate her for the size and

kindness in her heart, the joy in her laughter, her friendship, her

dogged and pioneering determination, and her tenacious commitment to

make the world a better place for all of us. "

Kathleen never married and had no children. Survivors include her

mother Marjorie Kay of Woy Woy, New South Wales; sister Therese Maree

and brother-in-law Neal of Sydney; sister Frances Kay and

brother Kay, both of Central Coast, New South Wales; and

seven nieces and nephews.

Steve Taravella

http://www.fhi.org/en/AboutFHI/Media/Releases/res_KathleenKay.htm

[Guest guest]

Dear Kathleen,

You led a powerful team in a work of HIV in India with the most crucial cross

cutting themes - Gender, GIPA and reducing the stigma and discrimination. FHI

was always a home for INP+ ever since INP+ began in 1997, even as a nascent

group of just 12 people -a support that was initiated by the former country head

of FHI Dr. Philip.

With no office in Delhi , FHI office was a home away from home for everyone at

INP+. When you came in as the Country Director with a new team of professionals

at your aide there was apprehension about how the partnership with FHI would

turn into. I remember the orientation at Delhi in 2002- the new systems, new

people and all the partners. Everyone was seeking a comfort zone in an

intimidating environment of sudden change. But what I remember vividly is

talking to Bitra and then to Sumita and then slowly to you. I was quiet

emotional because the support that FHI had given for INP+ was the most cherished

and a timely one , INP+ had just lost Ashok and then there was this change of

everyone in FHI being new – and needed a reassurance.

With your formidable smile, your energy to charge everyone around you and your

leadership – you reassured the support for INP+. It did not stop with

reassurance but the intent was also transferred to the entire team at FHI. The

continued support from FHI translated to growth in magnitude, capacity and

strength of INP+ though the next few years. The lead that INP+ was given for

all the GIPA workshops for all the partners of FHI is one that needs a special

mention – a partnership that was complete in all sense.

After two years and few months of moving away from INP+ and having lost the

opportunity to be connected with you through INP+, I feel that your moving away

to another world is confirming a loss that cannot be replaced. But Kathleen you

will be remembered for your passion for HIV/AIDS work in India , your

commitment to INP+ , your infectious smile , your ' yeah' reconfirming what

you communicated and your energy.

For all of you at FHI who has lost your champion – I have no words to console

you!

Geetha Venugopal

Program Associate

EngenderHealth Society

F6/8B Poorvi Marg

Vasant Vihar

New Delhi -110057

Ph no 011- 26147123/24/25

Fax no 011-26140861

e-mail: <geethavenugopal1@...>