Keynote speakers

Keynote - Eve de la Mothe Karoubi

Eve de la Mothe Karoubi is the Head of Networks at the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN). Eve joined the SDSN in 2012 and leads the development of regional and national networks globally, and contributes to our work on data and monitoring for the SDGs, including the Benin Sustainable Development report.

Previously, she worked for the OECD on capacity building in developing and emerging economies, with a particular focus on strengthening governance in post-conflict and fragile states, and sustainable development in the Sahel and West Africa. In 2007/08, Eve was an Insight Fellow, an international fellowship program on effective conflict management, during which she worked in universities and grassroots NGOs in Liberia, Thailand, Lebanon, and at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Eve has also held positions with Mercy Corps’ Conflict Management Group in New York and the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania.

In parallel to her role at SDSN, Eve has taught graduate courses on sustainability at Sciences Po Paris, PSL University and HEC Paris. She holds a Masters in International Affairs from the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), a Master en Affaires Internationales from Sciences Po Paris, and a B.A. with honors from Smith College.

Workshop 2 - Dr. Joelle N. Chabwine

Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Joelle N. Chabwine graduated in Medicine first at the Université Catholique de Bukavu (DRC) in 2000 and second, at the University of Lausanne (CH) in 2013. She obtained her PhD in fundamental physiology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) in 2008.

After her PhD training, she returned to the clinics, starting her internship in Neurology at the University Libre de Bruxelles at Erasmus Hospital and obtained her specialization degree in Switzerland (Geneva University Hospital and Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Vaud).

Despite a Swiss professional career, dr. Chabwine maintained her ties with her mother country through various research projects and teachings, mainly at the Catholic University of Bukavu. In the frame of the konzo project, the main topic of her research in the DRC, she supervised several Master and one PhD theses (a second PhD thesis has just started). Obtained results, mostly thanks to the TEAMS fund, allowed proposing new hypotheses and perspectives about konzo, based on differential contributions of known risk factors and potentially neurotoxic cyanide metabolites.

As a neurologist, she currently practices mainly in the Cantonal Hospital of Fribourg, combining the responsibility for neurocognitive neurology and the Memory Clinic, with a more general neurology practice.

As senior researcher in neuroscience, she has a special interest in the association between clinical symptoms and disease biomarkers (structural, biological and electrophysiological) applied to neurological diseases (including stroke, pain and tropical spastic paraparesis). Her expertise in fundamental neurophysiology allows her to study the implication of neurotransmitters (mainly GABA and Dopamine) and other pathways in neurological pathologies. Her research approach is mostly translational, seeking for further understanding of fundamental mechanisms underlying diseases. More specifically, she tries to identify potential therapeutic targets for a mechanism-informed and more personalized disease management. Her current topic of interest is brain plasticity in chronic pain and upon brain focal vascular lesions.

Besides, she is a lecturer at the Faculties of Medicine and Psychology of the University of Fribourg, teaching a number clinical neurology and neuroscience courses.