Our Team
Dr. Crista Johnson-Agbakwu, MD, MSc, FACOG is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist at Maricopa Integrated Health System, where she is the Founding Director of the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic. She is also a Clinical Research Affiliate of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Center at Arizona State University.
She received her undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University, medical degree from the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and completed her residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the George Washington University Medical Center. She subsequently completed a fellowship in Female Sexual Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and then became a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan where she obtained her Masters in Health and Health Care Research examining disparities in reproductive health care among refugees/immigrants through mixed-method Community-Based Participatory Research.
Her current research focuses on investigating strategies to improve sexual and reproductive health outcomes for newly-arrived refugee women, particularly those who have undergone Female Genital Cutting (FGC) as well as Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV); with the aim of improving health care access and utilization, sexual and reproductive health education, counseling, community engagement, as well as enhance health care provider cultural competency.
She currently leads a federally funded effort through the Office on Women’s Health to improve the provision of health care services, community engagement and provider cultural competency on FGM/C across the state of Arizona.
Jasmine Abdulcadir, MD, PD, OB/GYN is an Obstetrician and Gynecologist trained in sexual medicine with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Hospitals of Geneva (UHG), Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, and Chief of the Ob-Gyn Emergency Unit (UHG). She is also the founder and chief of the multidisciplinary clinic for the care of women living with female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). She is a researcher, a national and international scientific expert and health professionals' trainer regarding FGM/C management and prevention. She collaborates with the Department of Reproductive Health and Research, Adolescents and at-risk population’s team, World Health Organization (WHO).
Yasmin Bootwala, MD is a native Houstonian living in Phoenix since 2013. She is a urologist with expertise in Urinary Tract Reconstruction and Pelvic Surgery. She majored in biology and Spanish at the University of Miami and then completed her MD at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Bootwala went to Atlanta for 5 years of Emory urology residency and then completed a 2-year clinical reconstructive fellowship at MD Anderson in Houston. She moved to Phoenix at the time of her marriage to her wonderful husband and they have 2 boys less than 3 years of age now. Dr. Bootwala is very passionate about women’s health and global health issues and very excited to be working with Dr. Johnson.
Mara Evans, CM is a Certified Nurse Midwife who trained at Yale University. She has worked in a variety of settings throughout her career. During her 2 missions with Doctors Without Borders in South Sudan she cared for women who have been affected by Female Genital Cutting and promoted capacity building of national midwives through didactic lectures, hands-on simulation, and bedside teaching. Ms. Evans has mentored midwifery and medical students through her role as a clinical preceptor at Evanston Hospital, and University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. As an associate professor at University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston she served as clinical faculty for Family Medicine residents. Development of this workshop is part of her research towards a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Johns Hopkins University. Currently, Ms. Evans practices full scope midwifery at Dean Health and St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin where she is establishing the hospital’s first midwifery service.
Lubayna Fawcett, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Physical Therapy at Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona, and a Research Faculty Associate at Arizona State University. Her dissertation explored childbearing experiences of Somali refugee women with female genital cutting (FGC) and their healthcare providers. She received her undergraduate degree in Physical Therapy from University of Oklahoma, and PhD degree in Global Health from University of Arizona. She cofounded the Pelvic Floor rehabilitation services at Mayo Clinic. In collaboration with Dr. Crista Johnson-Agbakwu (Refugee Women’s Health Clinic, MIHS and Arizona State University- SIRC) received a 3-year grant from the Office of Women’s Health (OWH) to explore health care barriers and challenges related to FGC for women and girls and to identify culturally appropriate preventive measures collaboratively with communities to whom FGC is a cultural norm.
Kelsey Kvidsten, MD is an OB/GYN resident at Maricopa Integrated Health System. She has chosen to be part of Dr. Crista Johnson- Agbakwu’s team to fulfill her research requirements in her program.
Christina Marea, MA, MSN, RN, CNM is currently pursuing a PhD at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing with a focus on the development of clinical and didactic competencies for health care cutting (FGC). Ms. Fleming has extensive clinical experience caring for FGC-affected women and girls both in the United States and abroad in South Sudan and Kenya with Somali refugees. Ms. Fleming is an experienced educator for nursing and medical students. She is a faculty member in the Advanced Practice Nursing Department at the Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Sciences where she teaches didactic courses and coordinates simulation-based education for nurse-midwives and women's health nurse practitioner students. She has served as clinical faculty for the Family Medicine Residents at Georgetown University Hospital and Obstetric Residents at Howard University and Medstar Washington Hospital Center in Washington D.C. Ms. Fleming's body of research is focused on the reproductive health of refugee and immigrant populations, gender-based violence, and health care provider education strategies to reduce health disparities for vulnerable populations.
Jeanne F. Nizigiyimana, MSW, MA is the co-founder and Program Manager of the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC) at Maricopa Integrated Health System in Phoenix, AZ where she also chairs the Refugee Women’s Health Community Advisory Coalition (RWHCAC). While providing community culturally-grounded health education, her work involves the duties of a community partner for research activities that are co-designed and co-implemented by an interdisciplinary, multicultural staff, volunteers and community members. Originally from Burundi, Ms. Nizigiyimana’s main goal thru RWHCAC is to strengthen the refugee communities. Her refugee journey and resilience inspire a passionate work that impacts the lives of underserved women globally. In 1999, she co-founded Refugee Women United for Progress, in Phoenix, Arizona. Inc. In the summer of 2014 and 2017, she volunteered to join a global initiative sponsored by ASU Global Center for Applied Health Research (GCAHR) to explore Culturally Specific Health Education Programs for Internally Displaced Women-Survivors of War, a Community-Based Participatory Research project in Burundi, Central Africa.
Nicole Warren, RN, CNM, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing and a Certified Nurse Midwife providing well woman gynecologic care at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Warren has over fifteen years of combined research, clinical practice and fieldwork experience in women’s gynecological and obstetric health. Much of this work has focused on improving care for women affected by female genital cutting (FGC). She is an award-winning teacher and has provided more than 40 educational sessions to increase capacity of nursing, midwifery, medical and social service providers to provide culturally and clinically competent care to women with FGC. She has collaborated with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Women’s Health on this topic. Most recently, she led the revision of the position statement on FGC for The American College of Nurse Midwives and co-authored a review of interventions to address sexual function in affected women.
Janine Young, MD is a general Pediatrician at Denver Health and Hospitals and an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Department of General Pediatrics. She is the Medical Director of the Denver Health Refugee Clinic and serves as the Medical Advisor for the State of Colorado’s Refugee Services Program. She is funded through the State of Minnesota’s CDC grant working to develop a Refugee Centers of Excellence.
Her career focus has been in providing care for new immigrants and refugees and has presented talks nationally regarding the development of standard of care medical screening guidelines for these populations, including the diagnosis and management of FGC in children. She is the lead author of the pending American Academy of Pediatrics Clinical Review of FGC in children and teens, the American Academy of Pediatrics Immigrant and Refugee Toolkit screening guidelines and CDC’s pending pediatric guidelines on FGC in refugee populations.