Dr. Rodney L. Wright

Rodney L. Wright, MD, MS has been closely involved in research, treatment, and education aimed at combating HIV/AIDS since the early 1980’s. Dr. Wright is currently the Director of HIV Programs in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women’s Health at the Montefiore Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women’s Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He also is co-Director of Women’s HIV Services at Bronx Lebanon Hospital. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine and completed a fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Wright is very active in research on HIV in women and obtained a Master of Science Degree in Clinical Research Methods in 2007. He has been actively involved in the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group (PACTG) and the Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG). Most recently, Dr. Wright has been involved in capacity building research in Ethiopia. Dr. Wright is a member of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine, the HIV Medicine Association, and is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Nadya Salcedo

Nadya Salcedo is an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and brings to African Services' board experitse in civil and human rights law. She has represented NGOs InterAction, Save the Children and Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, as well as political asylees. Prior to that, Nadya was a paralegal at the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn where she managed a client caseload of 100 where she served as an advocate for individuals seeking public assistance and developed eviction prevention strategies in collaboration with staff attorneys. Nadya has worked abroad in Asia, Latin America and Africa and had extenssive experience interning in the field of international development across a range of issues, including food programs and conflict resolution. Nadya has a BA in political science from Rice University and earned he rlaw degree from NYU School of Law.

Demetric Duckett

Demetric Duckett is the chief business development officer for Seedco Financial and is responsible for all marketing and communications. As a member of the executive leadership team, Mr. Duckett provides direction and leadership in the development and implementation of the organization's national business growth strategy. He is responsible for planning, directing and overseeing the elaboration, implementation and management of strategic partnerships and for identifying and pursuing new lending program and product opportunities across the organization's franchise. During his tenure, Mr. Duckett has led the organization to increase its focus on identifying programmatic loan structures to improve capital access for certified M/W/DBEs and other small businesses, especially where such opportunities exist within public agencies and authorities, trade or affinity groups, or defined geographic regions and industry segments.

Mr. Duckett has over 20 years of experience in banking and finance. Prior to joining Seedco Financial, Mr. Duckett was Vice President for Capital Access Programs at Carver Federal Savings Bank where he led Carver's involvement in the New York City School Construction Authority Mentor Loan Program, the Metropolitan Transit Authority Small Business Loan Program, and the United States Department of Transportation Short-term Lending Program. His earlier positions at Carver include Vice President and Community Finance Officer, as well as Vice President for Sales and Marketing. While at Carver, he also rebranded the organization as a small business lender, redesigned and rebuilt its web presence and online banking platform, and streamlined and upgraded its retail banking product offerings. Prior to Carver, Mr. Duckett was Vice President of Community Development at Bank of America where he was responsible for Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and he was Vice President and Global Relationship Manager at BankBoston where he managed a $2 billion credit portfolio spanning 16 countries. Mr. Duckett began his corporate banking career and was formally credit trained at PNCBank.

A native of South Carolina, Mr. Duckett holds a Bachelor of Arts in French from Furman University and a Master of International Business from the University of South Carolina. He is fluent in French, Portuguese, and Spanish, and his volunteer activities include serving as a board member for African Services Committee and for South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation.

Pamela Brown-Peterside

Nigerian born Pamela Brown-Peterside joins the board of African Services after returning from Uganda, where she was the Assistant Director of World Harvest Mission’s Kwejuna Project in Bundibugyo. There, She participated in the management and administration of a district-wide program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and also provided psychosocial support and nutrition assistance for women living with HIV. Prior to her work abroad, Pamela was an Assistant Member in the Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention at the New York Blood Center and the project director of the center’s Project Achieve site in the South Bronx focusing on HIV prevention research with women. From 1999 to 2005, she was also an adjunct professor of sociomedical sciences at the Mailman School of Public health at Columbia University, the same department where Pamela received her Ph.D. Pamela has published and presented on HIV infection among high-risk women and on the social and ethical considerations in the search for an AIDS vaccine.