Rima Jolivet, Senior Research Associate at the Women & Health Initiative (W&HI) of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is a certified nurse-midwife with a doctorate in public health, specializing in maternal health system strengthening and quality improvement. She is an expert coalition builder with extensive experience facilitating  multi-stakeholder consensus processes to inform maternal health policy, advocacy, and practice. She currently directs the Improving Maternal Health Measurement Capacity and Use (IMHM) Project, which includes research, technical work, and national consultations to bring attention to the social, political, and structural determinants of maternal health  and survival, and to improve the means to measure and drive improvement in these areas.

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She also directs the W&HI’s portfolio of activities related to Respectful Maternity Care (RMC). Before she joined W&HI, as Maternal Health Technical Director for the Health Policy Project on behalf of  the White Ribbon Alliance, Rima helped found the Global Council on Respectful Maternity Care (GCRMC) and led the efforts to develop and promote The Respectful Maternity Care Charter: The Universal Rights of Childbearing Women. She also holds a BA in French from Columbia College, a BSN from Georgetown University, an MSN in Midwifery from Yale University, and master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.

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Rima spoke about mistreatment, disrespect, and abuse of women during childbirth in healthcare facilities around the world, and the movement that has developed in response to it to ensure that every woman receives Respectful Maternity Care.