Taraneh Salke is the founder and executive director of Family Health Alliance (FHA), a nonprofit organization focused on advancement of women’s reproductive health and rights in resource poor environments (www.familyhealthalliance.org).

Taraneh is an advocate of global women’s health and rights, speaking extensively at conferences, universities, schools, and women’s organizations, both nationally and internationally (www.taranehsalke.com), where she stresses the importance of cultural sensitivity and relevance in implementing global development programs.

Taraneh is an award winning documentary film maker. Her documentary “Where Are The Men?” depicts women’s health and status in Afghanistan and opportunities missed by the international community to advance women’s development in this male dominated society (www.wherearethemenmovie.com). The documentary is currently screened at universities, women’s organizations, film festivals, and churches nationwide.

As FHA’s director, Taraneh designed and implemented over 30 training programs in Afghanistan, training hundreds of local health providers on strategies to reduce maternal and infant mortality. Her understanding of Afghan culture, fluency in local language, and her ability to work closely with locals has led to innovative and successful public health programs in Afghanistan over the past 10 years. Taraneh’s efforts and advocacy in women’s health established the rationale for education and involvement of ordinary Afghan men in advancement of women’s heath in Afghanistan. The success of her programs has led to concrete policy changes at both local and national government levels to include men in family planning and reproductive health training programs at the Ministry of Public Health in Afghanistan for the first time.

Taraneh is a public health specialist and cultural anthropologist who received her Masters in Public Health and Bachelors in Anthropology from UCLA. Her focus is the Middle East and Muslim societies. Taraneh’s work has taken her to some of the most underserved and underdeveloped communities in the world. Under the protection of its elders, she lived with a nomadic tribe in the mountains of Kurdistan where she studied tribal women’s access and utilization of health services in this remote community.

In Iran she studied the factors that have led to the country’s successful family planning programs and strategies that are used to reduce maternal mortality rates in rural areas. She also worked with Afghan women refugees in refugee communities settled in poor urban slums in Iran. Her work in West Africa took her to remote rural villages where she focused on maternal mortality issues and the availability of medical services for women.

Taraneh was part of an official delegation of the American Public Health Association to Cuba in 2010 that observed and reported on Cuba’s public health system. In this capacity she headed a committee to research and publish on maternity care at Cuban government facilities.

In 2013, Taraneh received the “Women of The World Awards” sponsored by 50/50 Leadership and the United Nations Association. The award recognizes “women who are impacting lives throughout the world.”

Taraneh’s work and extensive experience at the grassroots level has made her a valuable resource in educating and informing the public and policy makers on issues related to women’s advancement and development in the Middle East and Muslim societies.