Dr. Cecilia Bentsi, an Executive Director of Ghana Women Fund since its inception, is responsible for the general administration and Human Resource management of the Company, and oversees the development and implementation of effective, responsive and efficient administrative and human resource strategies, policies and management systems that are aligned to the Company’s needs and best practices. She is a Public Health Physician / Consultant by profession with over forty years working experience in health services delivery, management and administration. She acquired her medical training from Kiev State University (Language study and pre-medical) and Odessa State Medical Institute from 1961 to 1967. Dr Bentsi had post-graduate training in Medical Microbiology from 1977-1978 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, graduating with MSc Degree after an attachment training for 1 year at the Microbiology Department of the Preston Hall Hospital in Kent, UK. In November 1981 she was elected Fellow of the West African College of Physicians and became a Foundation Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in December 2003. Dr Bentsi has worked exclusively in management and administration after the initial years of clinical service passing through the ranks of the profession to the grade of Specialist in 1982 in Ghana’s health sector as follows:

• Member of staff of Policy Planning Monitoring Evaluation (PPME) Division of the Ministry of Health (1997-2005). Head of Private Sector Unit (PSU) of PPME, a Unit which she initiated and helped to establish. The PSU liaises with and coordinates the activities of the private health sector including NGOs and other Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in health; promoting the growth and development of the private sector for its increased participation in health care delivery and contribution to the achievement of the health sector goal.
• Member of Staff, Institutional Care Division of Ministry of Health, where she assisted in development of standards and regulations, the formulation of draft bills for Ghana’s health sector and monitory of implementation of health policies in health institutions( from1993)
• Head, Health Laboratory Services of Ghana (1982-1993)
• Specialist Microbiologist from1982
• Senior Medical Officer (SMO), Microbiologist Department, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital; SMO in charge of Public Health Reference Laboratory (PHRL), Health Laboratory Services (1974)
• Medical Officer, Bacteriology Dept. Department of Chemical Pathology and Blood Bank, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (1969)
• House Officer, Department of Surgery, Medicine, Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Komfo Anokye and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospitals (1967).

Dr Bentsi has experience as a lecturer and external examiner lectured in Medical Microbiology for the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) and as external examiner for Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST). She has done consultancies for the WHO in and outside Ghana and also for the UNAIDS and International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Dr Bentsi has travelled widely and participated in conferences, seminars and workshops bordering on her profession, her humanitarian activities and civic responsibilities. She has been involved in training and programs on gender and advocacy amongst others.

Dr Bentsi served on the Councils of Ghana Medical Association and the Ghana Red Cross Society for years. She is a past Chairman of the Board of Ghana Coalition of NGO’s in Health, Past President of Society for Women and AIDS (SWAA Ghana) and Past President of the Society of Ghana Women Medical and Dental Practitioners. Dr Bentsi currently serves as the Chairman of the Relief and Reconstruction Technical Committee of National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO). Having been in long, active, voluntary service of Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana (PPAG) in various capacities, having served as Council Member for years and later as an Honorary Council Member, Dr. Bentsi has been elected to the position of a Patron of PPAG.