About

Cayetano Heredia University located in Lima, Peru is considered one of the top medical schools in Peru, and is one of the major producers and publishers of scientific research in the country. Founded in 1961 by a group of professors and students from the medical school of the four-century-old National University of San Marcos in Lima, Cayetano Heredia University has established numerous agreements and collaborative arrangements with leading institutions from all over the world.

Site Director

Patricia García, Professor, School of Public Health, Cayetano Heredia University
pattyg@uw.edu / patricia.garcia@upch.pe

Dr. García is a Professor at the School of Public Health at Cayetano Heredia University (UPCH) in Lima-Peru. She is the former Minister of Health of Peru, Dean of the School of Public Health at UPCH and former Chief of the Peruvian National Institute of Health (INS). As a recognized as a leader in Global Health, she has been member of the PAHO Foundation Technical Advisory Group (FTAG), board member of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health and President of the Latin American Association Against STDs (ALACITS). Dr. García is affiliate Professor of the Department of Global Health, at University of Washington and of the School of Public Health at Tulane University. She is actively involved in research and training in Global health, Reproductive health, STI/HIV, HPV and medical informatics. She has been recently appointed member of the United States National Academy of Medicine, becoming the first Peruvian professional with such a distinction.

About

Based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b) is an international health research institute committed to solving public health problems facing low- and middle-income countries through innovative scientific research – including laboratory-based, clinical, epidemiological and health systems research. By developing, testing and assessing the implementation of interventions specifically designed for resource-poor settings, icddr,b aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people living in the world’s poorest nations. For more than 50 years, the institute has been carrying out high-quality research and promoting the uptake of evidence-based interventions. Initial focus of the institute was on diarrheal disease, but now studies range from multiple infectious diseases, other threats to public health to methods of healthcare delivery etc. Work of icddr,b has had a profound impact on health policy and practice both locally and globally – and this remains the key objective of the institute for the future. And the institution has received various awards and accolades in recognition of its commitment to support improving the global health situation; the latest being the Hilton Humanitarian Prize in 2017. icddr,b is also the first ever recipient of the Gates Award for Global Health.

Site Director

Firdausi Qadri, Senior Director, Infectious Diseases Division, Head, Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Laboratory, icddr,b
fqadri@icddrb.org

Dr Qadri leads the Infectious Diseases Division in the planning and implementation of research related to the research priorities of icddr,b. She also heads the Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology laboratory. Her work includes basic and applied immunology of infectious diseases but also clinical and large field based studies on enteric vaccines. Special interests are infections caused by V. cholerae, ETEC, Salmonella spp and Helicobacter pylori. The results have produced an impact in the field of enteric diseases specifically in the area of immunological and genetics and genomic mechanisms, diagnostics and vaccine development.

Site Mentors

Taufiqur Rahman Bhuiyan, Scientist, Mucosal Immunology and Vaccinology Laboratory, icddr,b
taufiqur@icddrb.org

Dr. Bhuyian’s recent research interest has been in microbiology and immunology of enteric infections, eg. V. cholerae, ETEC, and Helicobacter pylori. He is currently working on functional T cell studies in understanding the immunological basis of different enteric infections in Bangladesh and protection.

Fahima Chowdhury, Associate Scientist, icddr,b
fchowdhury@icddrb.org

Fahima Chowdhury MBBS, MPH is an Associate Scientist in the Division of Enteric Respiratory Infection for Infectious Diseases Division. She completed her MBBS at Mymensingh Medical College Bangladesh 1994 and Internship training in medicine, gynecology and obstetrics from Sir Salimullah Medical College and Mitford Hospital (SSMCH), Dhaka. She also received one year post graduate training in Pediatrics Medicine from SSMCH, Dhaka in 1997. After her post graduation training, Dr. Fahima completed fellowship training in Clinical Management of Diarrhoeal Diseases and Research Methodology at icddr,b which includes pediatric medicine, internal medicine and gastroenterology. She also obtained a Masters in Public Health from in 2007 with a focus on Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

Shams El Arifeen, Senior Director and Senior Scientist, Maternal and Child Health Division, icddr,b
shams@icddrb.org 

Dr. Arifeen is the first Senior Director of the Maternal and Child Health Division at icddr,b. He has over 35 years of experience in maternal, newborn and child health, health services and health systems, including nine years in government health services, with a focus on health interventions for developing populations. Dr. Arifeen has extensive experience in research, and evaluations, with expertise in community and facility-based evaluations of interventions and programmes that address the commonest causes of illness and death among mothers and children, implementation research to improve the delivery of services as well as in developing monitoring systems.

Jena Derakhshani Hamadani, Emeritus Scientist and Pediatrician, icddr,b
jena@icddrb.org

Dr. Hamadani is an Emeritus Scientist and a Pediatrician at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Her research interests are assessing impacts of nutritional deficits, toxins, poor health and deprivation on development of underprivileged children in developing countries and on designing and evaluating innovative, low-cost and sustainable means to improve the situation.

Ashraful Islam Khan, Scientist, icddr,b
ashrafk@icddrb.org

Dr. Khan’s research has focused on control of cholera including host-pathogen interactions in V. cholerae infection, identification of immunologic correlates of protection among household contacts of cholera patients and also helps clinical guideline for the management of diarrhea patients. In recent years, he has focused on the project activities entitled “Enteric Disease Surveillance and cholera surveillance in Bangladesh” in 22 sites covering the seven divisions of Bangladesh with the collaboration of IEDCR/GoB. Dr. Khan is also involved in mHealth: smartphone-based decision-support tool in a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) to determine the effect of the method of decision-support on clinical guideline adherence for the management of diarrhoeal diseases in 10 district hospitals in Bangladesh.

About

The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) is based in New Delhi, India and was launched in 2006 to redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of public health. PHFI is now a premier center for health research, education, training, and policy and impact evaluation in India with multi-disciplinary expertise in a range of topic areas including cardiovascular and pulmonary disease, diabetes, maternal /child health, and nutrition. Multiple PHFI centers across the India oversee research portfolios including qualitative and quantitative observational studies, health economics, health systems and health policy impact, health technology innovation, and surveillance. Additionally, PHFI has established Indian Institutes of Public Health at five key locations across the country with the aim of providing world class training in public health. PHFI maintains close collaborative relationships with the Harvard Chan School as well as with Northwestern University and BU School of Public Health, and receives funds from national and international sponsors. The Harvard Chan School and PHFI have recently initiated a joint U01 and U2R program for a GEOHealth hub.

Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) is a New Delhi based not-for-profit organization, established in December 2000. The mission of CCDC is primarily intended to address the growing challenge of chronic diseases, in varied settings of the developing countries through: Knowledge generation, which can inform policies and empower programmes for the prevention and control of chronic diseasesKnowledge translation intended to operationalize research results by bridging the critical gaps between relevant research and effective implementation, through analytic work, capacity building, advocacy and development of educational resources for enhancing the empowerment of people and professionals CCDC has been recognized as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) by Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. It also holds registration under Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976.

Site Director

Sailesh Mohan, Professor and Director, Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries, PHFI and CCDC
smohan@phfi.org, smohan@ccdcindia.org

Dr. Mohan is a public health researcher with training in public health and chronic disease epidemiology. His career spanning nearly two decades, has been focused on research, teaching, and engagement with policy and practice related to non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention and control. His current work is focused on: (a) developing, implementing, and evaluating sustainable comprehensive community and health system-based approaches to hypertension and diabetes prevention and control as well as multimorbidity (b) building the evidence base to support transformation to high quality health systems by improving measurement, testing solutions, and creating generalizable knowledge in partnership with researchers and changemakers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (c) improving food systems by providing policy-makers with interdisciplinary scientific evidence on how food systems can deliver nutritious foods sustainably and equitably, (d) cohort studies (Precision-CARRS,UDAY) to advance understanding of cardiometabolic diseases and (e) training/mentoring junior researchers through training programs to undertake research and improve NCD prevention and control in India and other low-middle income countries (LMICs).

Site Mentors

Monika Arora, Professor and Director, Health Promotion Division, PHFI
monika.arora@phfi.org

Dr. Arora’s training is in Child Development, Epidemiology, Public Health and Tobacco Control. Her research has largely focused on Non-communicable Disease (NCD) prevention and management with special interest in tobacco control. She has led research studies in India that have explored epidemiology, prevalence and etiology of tobacco use and other NCD risk factors among adolescents and young people, identifying behavioral and psychosocial risk factors associated with these behaviors.

Shifalika Goenka, Professor, PHFI
shifalika.goenka@phfi.org

Dr. Goenka has expertise in worksite health promotion, both physical, social, political and worksite health promotion for chronic disease prevention, qualitative research methods, climate sensitive and chronic disease preventing environmental interventions, ethics- research ethics and public health ethics, and implementation sciences in the context of chronic diseases. She is head of Physical Activity and Obesity Prevention at the Center for Chronic Disease Control, head of Public Health Ethics at the Public Health Foundation of India and head of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Indian Institute of Public Health-Delhi.

Arun Pulikkottil Jose, Deputy Director, Centre for Digital Health, PHFI
arunp.jose@phfi.org

Dr. Jose is a public health specialist and physician by training. In his current position as Deputy Director of the Centre for Digital Health at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), he leads various digital education and tele-health projects in India. This includes an innovative assisted telemedicine initiative that is being implemented in various parts of India. The program is part of the efforts to ensure uninterrupted health access among the poor and vulnerable sections of society during the COVID19 pandemic. He was the Deputy Chair of the South & West Asia, Middle East Regional Advisory Group of the International Society of Hypertension from 2018-20 and has been country leader for the society’s May Measurement Month initiative that has screened over 4.7 million for raised blood pressure across the world and approximately 900,000 individuals in India.

Dimple Kondal, Assistant Professor, PHFI
dimple@ccdcindia.org

Dr. Kondal is has a broad background in biostatistics, with specific training and expertise in data management and statistical analysis for multivariate statistical methods of classification, longitudinal and missing data analysis techniques. She brings over 10 years of experience in the research, database development and application of statistical methods in public health and epidemiology with a primary focus on the analysis of cross-sectional data, longitudinal data, cluster randomized trial, multilevel modelling and missing data analysis. Dr. Kondal has been involved in the sampling strategy, database development, data management and statistical analysis related to clinical trials, cluster randomised trial and step wedged design. She has also been involved in modelling ambient air pollution exposure using machine learning techniques and linked these exposures with cardiometabolic health outcomes in the CARRS cohort

Shyamala Krishna Mani, Senior Advisor, WASH and Waste Management, Centre for Environmental Health, PHFI
shyamala.mani@ext.phfi.or

Dr. Mani is Senior Advisor, WASH and Waste Management, Centre for Environmental Health, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) since June 2018. Prior to that, she was a Professor at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi, a think tank under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Govt. of India. Dr. Mani worked as Programme Director, Waste and Resource Management (WaRM) in the Centre for Environment Education for 25 years from 1987 to 2012. At CEE, she did pioneering work of researching and implementing projects in Water, Sanitation and Waste Management including Municipal Solid Waste, Waste Water, Sewage and Septage Treatment plants, Industrial waste water treatment, Biomedical waste management, E-waste management, Plastic waste management and Hazardous waste management. Dr. Mani has been instrumental in research and policy in different aspects of Municipal Solid waste, Biomedical waste, Plastic waste, E-waste and Hazardous waste in India since 1997.

Dileep Mavalankar, Professor and Director, Indian Institute of Public Health, PHFI
dmavalankar@iiphg.org

Prof. Mavalankar has led the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar as its Director since 2012. His areas of interest include management of Maternal Health programs and health systems improvement, quality of care, reproductive health care, management of services and more recently Climate Change and heat health. Prof. Mavalankar’s current work includes management of maternal health programs, quality of health services and top management capacity for health. He is a consultant to several international organizations including Columbia University, WHO, UNICEF, CARE, Aga Khan Foundation, UNDP/World Bank and government of India’s health and family welfare departments and state governments. He has been a member of several programs & scientific advisory committees including GAVI Switzerland, Mother Care project USA; NIHFW, New Delhi; IIPS, Mumbai; IIHMR Jaipur; IMMPAC Project University of Aberdeen UK, government of India, Planning commission of India, etc. Prof. Mavalankar was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Government of India. He has been part of committees that have shaped the maternal health services in India including PMO nominee of NRHM Mission steering group in 2005-10 and a member of Health steering group of 12th Five-year plan.

Dorairaj Prabhakaran, Vice President of Research and Policy and Director, Centre for Control of Chronic Conditions, PHFI
dprabhakaran@ccdcindia.org

Dr. Prabhakaran is a Cardiologist, Epidemiologist, and Director of the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC). His career has been commitment to preventive cardiology. He is a Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK and adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public health, Emory University, Atlanta, USA. Dr. Prabhakaran has participated in several major international and national research studies funded by diverse international and national institutions, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, the Canadian Institute of Health Research, the European commission, and the Indian Council of Medical Research. Over the past ten years, he has led the design and conduct of the CARRS cohort, which is a large cohort in three urban locations of South Asia (Delhi, Chennai and Karachi) that has provided several mechanistic insights into the high propensity for cardiovascular disease and diabetes in South Asians. In addition, he is the PI of the GEOHEALTH program (funded by Fogarty International Centre) in India which primarily aims to evaluate the relationship of ambient air pollution with CVD and its risk factors.

Deepak Saxena, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Public Health-Gandhinagar
director@iiphg.org; ddeepak72@iiphg.org

Dr. Deepak Saxena is a Physician by training with an MD in Community Medicine. He is also PhD in Epidemiology and Post Doc in Public Health from Centre of Global Health (IHCAR), Krolinsika Institute, and Stockholm Sweden. At IIPHG he is a member of NIDHI-Techno business Incubation center and Regional Resource center for Health Technology Assessment. He is also a team member for generating Evidences to WASH in Health Care Facility at WHO-HQ. His major are of interest include: One Health, Infectious Diseases & Neglected Tropical Diseases, WASH, AMR and Drug Resistance TB, Health systems strengthening & Developing Epidemiological Cohorts. He also leads the e learning courses at IIPHG. He has authored five books and Monographs on various aspects of converging Epidemiological learnings in improving program implementation and evaluation. He has more than 100 publications in National and International Peer reviewed Journals and is Editor to Indian Journal of Community Medicine (IJCM) since 2015.

About

The Botswana Harvard Health Partnership (BHP) is a collaborative research and training initiative between the Government of Botswana and Harvard established in 1996. Located in Gaborone, Botswana, the BHP also houses the Botswana–Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory, the largest HIV/AIDS laboratory in Africa, which serves as the reference testing lab for all AIDS activities in Botswana. The BHP is an NIH-funded Clinical Trials Unit site for various trial networks including the HIV Prevention Trials Network, AIDS Clinical Trials Group, the International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials Group, and the HIV Vaccines Trial Network. The BHP has also been an attractive site for U.S. medical and graduate students, and participates as a site for the FIC AIDS International Training and Research, Scholars, Fellows, and Fulbright programs.

Site Directors

Shahin Lockman, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Associate Physician in Medicine, Department of Infectious Diseases, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston MA
slockman@hsph.harvard.edu

Dr. Lockman is an infectious-disease trained clinician, and has conducted epidemiologic, implementation science, and clinical trials investigation related to HIV-1 in Botswana since 1996, including placebo-controlled randomized HIV treatment and prophylaxis trials; clinic- and community-randomized implementation studies of approaches to treatment and prevention of HIV and related conditions; and observational cohorts. Much of her research has focused on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, optimizing treatment of pregnant women living with HIV, and the health and neurodevelopment of HIV-exposed/uninfected (HEU) children. She helped establish (in 2006) and serve as the PI of the Botswana Clinical Trials Unit at the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP), which conducts ACTG, IMPAACT, and HPTN network trials; and am protocol chair for the multi-site IMPAACT 2010 RCT which is evaluating safety and efficacy of DTG- vs. EFV-based antiretroviral treatment regimens in pregnant women.

Joseph Makhema, Chief Executive Officer, BHP
jmakhema@bhp.org.bw

Dr. Makhema is Chief Executive Officer of the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP), where he oversees all clinical research and training projects. He joined BHP as Senior Clinical Research Manager and Co-Director in 2003. He became BHP Project Director in 2006. A specialist physician by training, he also participates in the clinical conduct of research trials, capacity building, and training initiatives at the BHP.

Site Mentors

Mosepele Mosepele, Associate Professor, Internal Medicine & Infectious Diseases
mosepele.mosepele@gmail.com

Dr. Mosepele is committed to work on HIV prevention, treatment and associated co-morbidities. Specifically, he is interested in work that explores the role of stigma in HIV uptake testing, especially HIV testing among men in resource limited settings. Among those persons living with HIV (PLWH), he is committed to research on ensuring that these persons can attain viral suppression all the time, and also how we can minimize the effect of non-infectious complications (cardio-metabolic, inflammation) in impairing organ dysfunction, and/or accelerating the aging process among PLWH.

Sikhulile Moyo, Laboratory Director, Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership Clinical Trials Laboratory
smoyo@bhp.org.bw

Dr. Moyo oversees the laboratory components of all of BHP’s clinical trials and observational studies. He has been involved in the design and implementation of surveillance for prevalent and incident infections, transmitted drug resistance, and the phylodynamics of the local epidemic. Dr. Moyo is an alumnus of the HBNU Fogarty Global Health Training Program.

Additional mentors who have worked closely with past HBNU fellows

Dr. Peter Vuylsteke, Senior Lecturer, Department of Internal Medicine, Oncology, University of Botswana
Vuylstekep@ub.ac.bw

Dr. Vuylsteke is an Internist and Medical Oncologist and currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Botswana (UB). Dr. Vulysteke’s current work is in Botswana on breast cancer prevention and care, through various implementation programs. He has extensive clinical patient care experience spanning two decades, with eight of those years spent in a clinical leadership position. He was the past President of the Belgian Society of Medical Oncology (BSMO). Currently, he coordinates the Global Oncology Fellowship in Botswana.

About

Addis Continental Institute of Public Health (ACIPH) is an independent center of excellence for public health research and training in Ethiopia. It is an accredited higher learning institute and works closely local institutions such as the University of Addis Ababa (AAU). Institute investigators and students have focused their research efforts on major public health problems such as reproductive health, mental health, nutrition, NCDs, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Investigators provide training and technical assistance in data management, analysis and report writing including both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. A strong and well-established history of collaboration exists with the Harvard Chan School and BU evidenced by jointly implemented projects and publications.

Site Director

Yemane Berhane, Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of Addis Continental Institute of Public Health
yemaneberhane@addiscontinental.edu.et

Professor Yemane Berhane is a Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Prof Yemane Berhane has participated  in numerous research projects in the areas of maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other priority public health issues and published extensively (over 220 publications) in national and international peer reviewed journals. He has served as President of the Ethiopian Public Health Association (1995-99); as Associate Vice Present for Addis Ababa University (2001-02);  Regional Director for Measure Evaluation Anglophone Africa Training on Monitoring and Evaluation of health Programs (2005-06); Board Member of the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (2006-08); Member of the WHO/AFRO Technical Advisory Group on Measles Control in Africa (2005-present), and as a chair of the Global network of Monitoring and evaluation training center (GEMNET-Health, 2012-2014).

Site Mentors

Nega Assefa, Associate Professor of Reproductive Health, Maternal and Child Health
negaassefa@yahoo.com

Dr. Assefa has a background in reproductive Health, maternal and child health. His key research areas are pregnancy and child birth, family planning, child growth and development and infant and child survival. Currently, he is leading a longitudinal community-based demographic and health surveillance on 190 thousand populations in rural and urban areas of Harar and Kersa in Eastern Ethiopia.

Hanna Berhane, Associate Professor of Public Health Nutrition and Health Promotion, Addis Continental Institute of Public Health
hannayemane@addiscontinental.edu.et

Dr. Berhane has participated in various public health research, coordinating/leading large-scale community-based surveys. Her research focuses on nutrition, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and NCDs. She has extensive experience in leading qualitative studies and is well acquainted with theoretical and field applications.

Amare Worku Tadesse, Assistant Professor of Global Health, Addis Continental Institute of Public Health
amarewaciph@gmail.com

Dr. Tadesse’s research focuses on health and nutrition service delivery to improve maternal and child health and nutrition. His background training in clinical medicine and public health has provided an excellent background of the health care delivery system in Ethiopia. Dr. Tadesse has served in various capacities in several intervention evaluation projects, aimed at improving maternal and child health and nutrition, including assessment of the National Nutrition Program (NNP) in Ethiopia. He is an alumnus of the HBNU Fogarty Global Health Fellowship.

Liya Wassie, Senior Researcher, Armauer Hansen Research Institute
liya.wassie@ahri.gov.et

Dr. Wassie is a Senior Researcher at the Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She has extensive experience conducting collaborative clinical and translational research studies in tuberculosis (TB) and other infectious diseases. Dr. Wassie’s research focuses on TB immunology, with the goal of identifying biomarkers with potential applications to improve TB diagnostics and vaccination strategies. Since 2003, the focus of her research has been to understand patterns of host immune response during each stage of TB infection and disease and to characterize the interactions between hormones and host immunity during TB infection.

Meaza Demissie, Professor of Public Health and Deputy Director at Addis Continental Institute of Public Health
meazademissie@gmail.com

Prof. Meaza Demissie has earned her Doctor of Medicine Degree in 1987 and Master of Public Health degree in 1992 from Addis Ababa University; and her PhD/Epidemiology and Public Health in 2002 from University of Bergen, Norway. She has been involved in public health researches mainly on TB and HIV for more than twenty years and has published more than forty articles in reputable peer-reviewed journals; she also contributed a chapter in a book and published monographs.

Alemayehu Worku, Professor of Public Health and Biostatistics at Continental Institute of Public Health
alemayehuwy@yahoo.com

Prof. Alemayehu is an expert in design, planning and implementation of sound health research. He is resourceful in data analysis and this allows him to disseminate pertinent health research findings to policy makers, program planners, civil societies and beneficiaries/communities. He is coinvestigator, for some of the projects technical coordinator, of the meningococcal ACW135 Vaccine trial in Butajira, Optimization of TB and HIV co-treatment in Ethiopian patients: Pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic aspects of drug- drug interactions between Rifampicin and Efavirenz and determining the optimal time for initiation of HAART in TB/HIV co-infected patients which is a randomized clinical trial, a methodological study to compare the WHO non-probability sampling against a rigorous probability sampling technique in EPI coverage survey, the national low vision and blindness survey and other reproductive health and HIV related studies. He has supervised more than 40 PhD candidates and more than 200 publications in pear reviewed international and national journals and chapter author of different public health study reports. Prof. Alemayehu worked as a member of data and safety monitoring board for different trials. He served as an associate editor of the Ethiopian Journal of Health Development for more than ten years. He  received the 2011 Ethiopian Public Health Association Senior Researcher Gold Medal Award and the College of Health Sciences of Addis Ababa University last 10 years best researcher award in 2014.

About

The University of Ghana (UG) was founded as the University College of the Gold Coast by Ordinance on August 11, 1948 for the purpose of providing and promoting university education, learning and research. The vision of the university is to become a  world class research-intensive university with the mission of creating an enabling  environment that makes University of Ghana increasingly relevant to national and global development through cutting-edge research as well as high quality teaching and learning.

UG is administered through a central administration which includes a collegiate system comprising the following colleges and a School of Graduate Studies:

• College of Basic and Applied Sciences
• College of Education
• College of Health Sciences
• College of Humanities

The University has several research institutions and centres for learning and research, within the college.

Additionally, to promote, coordinate, and facilitate research activities within the university, the Office of Research, Innovation and Development (ORID) was established in 2010. ORID provides research administration and grant management services to researchers. It has the specific responsibility of developing and implementing the University’s research policy, ensuring effective distribution and efficient use of research funds and representing the interests of the University in contractual relationships, grant applications and reporting administering contract research.

Site Director

Gordon Awandare, Professor/Director, West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP)
gawandare@ug.edu.gh; gawandare@hotmail.com

Prof. Awandare is the Director of West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP ). His research focuses on the pathogenesis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria in children. There are two main branches of investigations, namely the role of the host immune response on one hand, and the mechanisms used by the parasite to propagate itself and cause disease. From the perspective of the host, we have been investigating the production of inflammatory mediators and the relationship between genetic variation in innate immune response genes and susceptibility to severe malaria in children. Our research on the Plasmodium parasite is aimed at gaining a better understanding of the mechanisms used for invasion of red blood cells. Therefore, a substantial aspect of our research efforts focus on characterizing the sialic acid-independent pathways of invasion and identifying novel receptors and ligands involved.

Site Mentors

Yaw Asare Afrane, Associate Professor
yafrane@ug.edu.gh

Yaw Asare Afrane is trained in malaria vector and parasite biology and epidemiology with over 15 years of research experience in vector borne diseases. The focus of his research is on the ecology of malaria vectors and the Plasmodium parasite they transmit. He is currently studying how insecticide resistance affects the fitness of African malaria vectors and their vectorial capacity. Further, he is studying the interaction between resistant malaria vectors and anti-malaria drug tolerant malaria parasites to understand the potential for parasites to evolve drug tolerance by studying genetic variation. His studies are funded through an NIH/NIAD RO1 (R01AI123074). He has authored 45 peer-reviewed publications.

Koram Kwadwo Ansah, Professor of Epidemiology
kkoram@noguchi.ug.edu.gh

Professor Ansah’s work in rural and deprived communities in Ghana at the beginning of his medical career exposed him early to the challenges of mounting an effective public health response to the high burden of infectious diseases if one is to make a significant contribution to the improvement of health in the country. His broad training in epidemiology and public health with practical hands-on training at the MRC Labs in The Gambia allowed him to develop skills in all aspects of large-scale epidemiologic research, including field organization, data management, and analysis, especially as it relates to vector-borne diseases. Since returning home after my doctorate, Professor Ansah has worked at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) as an infectious disease epidemiologist and, most recently, as the Director NMIMR.

Lidya Mosi, Senior Lecturer, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, University of Ghana
lmosi@ug.edu.gh

Dr. Mosi’s primary research focus is Buruli ulcer, a necrotizing skin disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans. Her lab utilizes multidisciplinary approaches: in silico genomics; functional laboratory studies to investigate gaps in transmission to identify the niche of M. ulcerans and other mycobacteria in the natural environment; and the development of rapid diagnostic and intervention strategies for Buruli ulcer disease. Additionally, she works on characterization of secondary microbial infections in Buruli ulcer lesions and the determination of antimicrobial resistance in microbes from patient and environmental samples. She has extensive experience in both lab and field work.

Osbourne Quaye, Associate Professor
oquaye@ug.edu.gh
 
Dr. Osbourne Quaye is the Head of the Virology Laboratory of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) and very much interested in all viruses as pathogens. His research group currently works on gastrointestinal viruses including rotaviruses, noroviruses and adenoviruses to understand the influence of sanitation and zoonotic transmission on disease burden, virus diversity, and vaccine efficacy. The group also works on HIV latency and drug discovery, host genetic polymorphisms in hepatitis B, C and D infections, and the surveillance of filoviruses in bats, Epstein Barr and yellow fever viruses. Dr. Quaye is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology and the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at WACCBIP, University of Ghana, Legon. He has an M.Phil. degree from the University of Ghana, Legon and a Ph.D. from the Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. His research carrier as a Molecular Virologist started at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA as a Microbiologist in Molecular Virology.

Elvis K Tiburu, Associate Professor of Biophysics
Tiburue@gmail.com; etiburu@ug.edu.gh

Dr. Elvis K. Tiburu is an Associate Professor of Biophysics, and his research is focused on developing biological interphase materials for drug delivery to cancer tumors. His laboratory is also engaged in developing sensing devices for various biomedical applications, including cancer detection. Over the years he has developed expertise in bioinstrumentation, cell signaling, and biomaterials synthesis with specific training in material synthesis, bioinformatics, big data and sensor development.

Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, Professor and Head of Department in Bacteriology
dyeboah-manu@noguchi.ug.edu.gh

Dr. Yeboah-Manu has worked in mycobacterial disease research for the past twenty-one years. The Department of Bacteriology at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, where she is based, acts as the national reference laboratory for tuberculosis and Buruliulcer. The department works to improve the quality of care for both diseases in addition to several bacterial diseases in Ghana. Dr. Yeboah-Manu’s work in TB sought to establish the burden of Mycobacterium africanum (Maf) as a causative agent of TB in Ghana, determine epidemiological associations including potential risk factors for infection, the transmission dynamics of TB and analyze for genomic diversity and drug resistance prevalence as well as target mutation between M. tuberculosis and Maf. The goals of her research in BU have been to improve laboratory diagnosis and therapy by analyzing causes of recurrence or treatment failure as well as understanding the ecology of M. ulcerans (Mu) as the mode of transmission has not yet been elucidated.

Ayaga Agula Bawah, Associate Professor of Population Studies & Director of the Regional Institute for Population Studies
aabawah@ug.edu.gh

Ayaga Agula Bawah, is Associate Professor of Population Studies, and Director, Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana, and a Research Affiliate of the Population Studies Center (PSC), University of Pennsylvania. Professor Bawah has expertise is in population and health research in Africa, particularly in research methodology, longitudinal data analysis and modeling of demographic processes, evaluation of health interventions including maternal and child health, fertility, reproductive health, including family planning programmes, etc. Prior to joining the University of Ghana, he was Assistant Professor at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York. He is a member of Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority’s Technical Advisory Committee on Clinical Trials (TAC-CT), a member of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), Union for African Population Studies (UAPS), and the Population Association of America. He is an internationally acclaimed researcher and academic.

Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe, Professor of Population Studies at the Regional Institute for Population Studies & Provost of the College of Education
scodjoe@ug.edu.gh

Samuel Nii Ardey Codjoe is a Professor of Population Studies at the Regional institute for Population Studies (RIPS), and the Provost of the College of Education, University of Ghana (UG). He obtained his BA (Hons) degree in Geography and Resource Development in 1992 at the University of Ghana, MPhil in Human Geography in 1998 at the University of Oslo, Norway, and PhD in Geography (Major) and Soil Science (Minor) in 2004 at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Prof Codjoe’s research focuses on the population and environment nexus and impacts of climate change on infectious diseases. He has over 90 research publications in some of the leading international journals on population, environment and health. Prof Codjoe’s contributions to science has been to understand the climate change-diseases (cerebrospinal meningitis; schistosomiasis; malaria; and diarrheal) nexus from the point of view of community members through public perception studies.

Eric Sampane-Donkor, Professor of Bacteriology and Global Health & Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology
esampane-donkor@ug.edu.gh

Eric Sampane-Donkor is a Professor of Bacteriology and Global Health, and the current Chair of the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Ghana Medical School. His current research interests focus on understanding the dynamics of infectious pathogens in at-risk populations, such as patients with stroke, sickle cell disease and diabetes. He has authored >120 peer-reviewed articles and data from some these papers have been useful in designing interventions to manage and prevent various types of infections among at-risk populations. His work on the pneumococcus contributed to the introduction of the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Ghana in 2012, and also earned him the African Prize of the Robert Austrian Award in Pneumococcal Vaccinology. Currently, he is the PI of a 5-year NIH grant (RO1 AI169674-01) to unravel the impact of vaccination on the population biology of the pneumococcus with regard to children with sickle cell disease in Ghana.

About

Maseno University and School of Medicine is located in western Kenya and has over 21,000 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduation programs. In collaboration with the UNM Center for Global Health over the last four years, Maseno University established molecular research laboratories at the Maseno University City Campus, which hosts molecular investigations on malaria, HIV, TB, bacteremia, and SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19.

Site Director

Collins Ouma, Professor, Maseno University School of Public Health and Community Development
collinouma@yahoo.com

Prof. Collins Ouma is the Program Leader, Health Challenges and Systems within the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC), where he leads amongst other things translation of research evidence to policy. His research focuses on public health, genetic, and environmental factors that predisposes the human populations to both infectious and non-infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.

Site Mentors

Samuel Bonuke Anyona, Lecturer, Medical Biochemistry, Maseno University
sbonuke@gmail.com

Dr. Anyona is a faculty member in the Department of Medical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Maseno University and a post-doctoral fellow under the career development (K43) grant award. His research activities focus on pediatric populations living under intense malaria transmission in western Kenya, a region holoendemic for Plasmodium falciparum. Dr. Anyona acquired hands-on experience with various techniques including; molecular genetics, molecular biology (including cloning and construct designs), biochemical and immunofluorescence analyses (both by flow cytometry and microscopy), bioinformatics, and statistics. Dr. Anyona is an alumnus of the HBNU Fogarty Global Health Fellowship Program.

Kiprotich Chelimo, Senior Lecturer of Biomedical Sciences and Technology, Maseno University
chelimokiprotich@gmail.com

Dr. Chelimo is involved in a number of long-term active and ongoing training and research collaborations with several international institutions including: University of New Mexico-USA (current institution of affiliation for Dr. Perkins), University of Massachusetts Medical School (MA-USA), Case Western Reserve University (Ohio-USA), Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI, Centre for Global Health Research), and International Cancer Institute (Kenya). His current focus in these collaborations is to work closely with other expert scientist in supporting and nurturing a crop of upcoming scientists in my area of expertise. To date, as a senior Faculty at Maseno University in Kenya, he has mentored over 12 postgraduate students to completion.

Additional mentors who have worked closely with past HBNU fellows

George Ayodo, Senior Lecturer, School of Health Sciences, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology School of Health Sciences
gayodo@gmail.com

Dr. Ayodo is a basic science researcher trained in genetic epidemiology of infectious diseases but now focusing on applied epidemiology and implementation research. The focus of his work is to develop community intervention models to eliminate or sustain low transmission of infectious diseases. I am also actively involved in understanding the origin of man in attempt to understand the biology of diseases of conditions such as sickle cell disease.

Michael Gicheru, Associate Professor of Immunology, Kenyatta University
gicheu.michael@ku.ac.ke

Dr. Gicheru has long-term active and ongoing collaborations with Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI, Centre for Global Health Research), Maseno University, University of New Mexico-USA (current institution of affiliation for Dr. Perkins), and several other institutions with current common interests in Africa with the main aim of forming a consortium to effectively mentor endemic area scientists. To date, as a senior Faculty at Kenyatta University in Kenya, he has mentored over 90 postgraduate students to completion. Dr. Gicheru has contributed to the development of vervet monkey model for leishmaniasis and evaluation of leishmania vaccine candidates in nonhuman primate model.

Evans Raballah, Senior Lecturer, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology
eraballah@mmust.ac.ke

Dr. Raballah is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences. He holds a doctorate degree in Immunology, specializing in Immunogenetics of infectious diseases. His academic and research interests are in the fields of malaria, bacteremia, HIV and COVID-19. His major scholarly contribution was defining the CD4+ cells and their intracellular IFN-g and IL-17 cytokines in severe malarial anemia in a pediatric population of western Kenya. He has further published over 25 manuscripts in peer reviewed refereed journals. In 2016, he received the Junior Researcher of the year award of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. He currently serves as the Co-ordinator of Medical Biotechnology program in the department of Medical Laboratory sciences and a member of the departmental postgraduate committee. Dr. Raballah is an alumnus of the HBNU Fogarty Global Health Fellowship Program.

About

University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB) at the University of Bamako is based in Bamako, Mali. USTTB includes faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy and Basic Sciences, an Institute of Applied Science, and the research laboratories founded by the NIH/NIAID which focus on malaria, tuberculosis and retrovirology. In 2002, the NIH International Centers for Excellence in Research (ICER) program was established; today the Mali ICER at USTTB includes the Malaria Training and Research Center, the Entomology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry, the Centre de Recherche et de Formation sur le VIH et la tuberculose and the University Clinical Research Center. In 2005, NIAID expanded the ICER program to include retrovirology and TB research. An ongoing FIC training grant with Northwestern University seeks to build capacity in HIV/TB research capacity. USTTB has collaborated with Northwestern since 2008 as a major partner of the Northwestern AITRP to train Malian researchers in clinical research and ethics.

Site Director

Seydou Doumbia, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Odontostomatology & Director of University Clinical Research Center (UCRC), University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB).
sdoumbi@icermali.org

Professor Doumbia has experience that covers infectious disease, particularly malaria, neglected tropical infectious diseases, HIV, emerging infectious diseases and community-based interventions. His experience as PI or Co-Investigator of several National Institutes of Health intramural Division of Intramural Research and extramural funded grants including the International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research as Project Leader, the Tropical Medicine Research Center, as Program Director, and the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIAID, and the University of Sciences, Techniques, and Technology of Bamako (USTTB) University Clinical Research Center laid the groundwork for developing sustainable infectious disease research training and career development programs for scientists and health research professionals. In addition contributed to the creation of the African Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Master Training Program in Bioinformatics in collaboration with the NIAID’s Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology, OCICB, and H3-Africa Bioinformatics Consortium.

Site Mentors

Djeneba Dabitao, Assistant Professor, USTTB
ddabitao@icermali.org

Dr. Dabitao is an Assistant Professor at USTTB, with expertise in immunology, microbiology, and molecular biology. She received clinical training in Pharmacy at the same university, followed by graduate training (MS and PhD) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH) in Baltimore. Dr. Dabitao is currently the Principal Investigator of a research and training grant (K43 Emerging Global Leader Award) that is funded by the Fogarty International Center (FIC) and the Office of Women Health Research (OWHR) at NIH. From 2015 to date, she has mentored highly talented young researchers at USTTB and trained up to 5 biologists in acquiring sophisticated laboratory skills for a timely conduct of the research activities she oversees as the Chief of the ImmunoCore Laboratory at the University Clinical Research Center (UCRC) in Mali.

Bassirou Diarra, Assistant Professor, USTTB and Head of Tuberculosis and Viral Hemorrhagic BSL-3 Lab
bdiarra@icermali.org

Dr. Diarra has a broad background in molecular and clinical microbiology, with specific training and expertise on transmission dynamics and the immune response to tuberculosis infection, especially in individuals who are co-infected with HIV, and or with drug resistant tuberculosis. He performs TB diagnosis with sputum smear and culture (in a certified biosafety laboratory level-3) and strain identifications using classical and molecular tools. Both in 2014 with West Africa Ebola outbreak, and since March 2020 for COVID- 19, Dr. Diarra was focused on training on diagnostic capacity for the whole country of Mali. As the reference laboratory for SARS-CoV-2 in Mali, and under his leadership, his laboratory has tested more than 70,000 SARS-CoV-2 samples, and diagnosed more than 8,000 new RT-PCR positive patients. In 2020, he was selected as the best Young Francophone in Antimicrobial resistance research. This project will be complementary and next step to his ongoing efforts to assess the level of antimicrobial resistance to overcome the transmission of emerging and re-emerging diseases.

Amadou Kone, Associate Professor of Molecular Biology, USTTB
amadoukone@icermali.org

Dr. Kone is a molecular and cellular biologist, immunologist and Associate Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies of Bamako in Mali. At USTTB, he leads the Molecular Biology Unit of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)-funded University Clinical Research Center (UCRC). The unit is involved in molecular diagnosis of emerging and re-emerging infections, including the molecular diagnosis of all Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases in Mali during the 2014 EVD outbreak in West Africa and recently in the diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Kone his involved in several NIH-funded projects including NIAID Division of Intramural Research (DIR) and Division of Clinical Research (DCR) projects, Fogarty International Center (FIC) extramural research training grants and an NIAID R01 on M. africanum.

Almoustapha Maiga, Research Associate Professor of Virology, Faculty of Pharmacy, USTTB
amaiga@icermali.org

Dr. Maiga is a researcher and has joined the faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Sciences Techniques and Technologies (USTTB; University of Bamako), where he is Director of the Virology Laboratories at UCRC/SEREFO and the Gabriel Touré Teaching Hospital in Bamako, Mali. At SEREFO, his responsibilities include leading the Molecular and Epidemiology HIV Drug Resistance Laboratory, which he started while working on his PhD. Dr. Maiga’s training includes a PharmD from the USTTB, two masters degrees in immunology from French universities, and a PhD in Virology from University Pierre et Marie Curie-Paris, the top medical school in France, where he studied in the lab of Professor Vincent Calvez. He received post graduate training in molecular virology at Northwestern University in the lab of Professor Steve Wolinsky, a position funded by Northwestern’s NIH/Fogarty International Center AIDS Training and Research Program (AITRP). Dr. Maiga has experience with the National AIDS Program in Mali, SOLTHIS, a French NGO which played a key role in HIV biological and clinical monitoring in Mali, and ESTHER, the French government international HIV/AIDS agency. He is currently the study virologist for two clinical trials in HIV- infected Malian children and adults receiving second line antiretroviral treatment.

Yeya di Sadio Sarro, Assistant Professor in Epidemiology, USTTB
sadio@icermali.org

Dr. Sarro is an associate senior scientist in UCRC-SEREFO laboratory and Associate Professor in Epidemiology at the faculty of medicine and Dentistry (FMOS). This program has a state of art immunology laboratory where they run assays exploring the immune system. Dr. Sarro has lead this Immunology core from 2003 to 2017 and has conducted complex tuberculosis immunological assays. Beside immunological skills, he has more than 10 years of experience in data management. Dr. Sarro is Site PI in an NIH R03 project which is currently evaluating a novel Tuberculosis and Non Tuberculosis Mycobacteria diagnosis tests. He is closely working with the National Tuberculosis program for evaluating all new strategy to improve routine TB diagnosis and patient monitoring. Dr. Sarro teaches Epidemiology of Tuberculosis with MPH students at the faculty of Medicine. Based on the lab experience during 2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, his UCRC lab did the tests for all the suspected cases for Mali and part of Guinea. Based on this successful experience, the Malian ministry of health has requested the UCRC lab for the lab part of COVID-19 riposte. Dr. Sarro is part of the team of the lab for COVID-19 Diagnosis.

Mariam Sylla, Professor of Pediatrics, University Teaching Hospital of Gabriel Touré
drmamesylla@gmail.com

Professor Sylla is Professor of Pediatrics working in the Pediatric Unit of the Gabriel Touré University Teaching Hospital. She teaches pediatrics including symptoms and signs of diseases at the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry at the University of Bamako (USTTB), where she has recently been appointed Vice Dean of the Medical School. In addition to her clinical practice, Prof. Sylla leads the “Centre d’Excellence Pédiatrique pour la prise en charge du VIH/SIDA au Mali” which is the referral center for infected infants with HIV/AIDS in Mali. This center was created in 2010 and is supported by the Global Fund. She has an extensive background in the management of HIV and opportunistic infections including tuberculosis. Prof. Sylla is involved in the training of personnel from the national HIV program in techniques involving care for HIV-infected infants and children.

Yacouba Toloba, Head of TB and Respiratory Diseases Department,  University Teaching Hospital, Point G
toloba71@yahoo.fr

Dr. Toloba has significant experience managing tuberculosis patients in Mali. He is the Head of the Pneumology department at the University Teaching Hospital of Point G. His department with 52 beds for complicated respiratory diseases and 20 beds for MDR/XDR-TB patients is the highest level of reference in tuberculosis care in Mali. This allowed his team to work closely with the National TB program in planning and implementing all the aspects of TB management in the whole country including Diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Toloba’s department has a very long and sustainable collaboration with the University Clinical Research Center (UCRC) since 2003. This collaboration led to many publications and helped them to manage some very complicated TB case. Their collaboration with UCRC also includes diagnosis and follow-up of MDR/XDR-TB in Mali. Lately, this program helped to diagnose the first three cases of XDR-TB. Besides his work in hospital, Dr. Toloba is now leading all teaching aspects of pneumology at the Medical school. He is also leading the Malian society of pneumology which is responsible for all refresh training in pneumology of physicians. In addition, he is leading the largest COVID-19 center care in Mali at Point G Teaching Hospital.

About

University of Jos, Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) was established in 1975 and has eight faculties with an average yearly student intake of 3,500. In 2001, the AIDS Prevention in Nigeria Project in JUTH was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a service and research laboratory, carry out behavioral surveys in high risk groups and commence a PMTCT program. Through this project, JUTH has developed a close and long-standing collaborative relationship with both Northwestern University as well as the Harvard Chan School. An 1800 square foot laboratory and office was constructed for HIV/AIDS and STD work and was commissioned by the Federal Minister of Health in 2002. The JUTH PEPFAR program established in close partnership with Harvard and Northwestern comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment and care services in 14 secondary health facilities and 47 primary healthcare facilities across Plateau State. The JUTH HIV/AIDS Treatment Centre now manages over 10,000 HIV-infected clients on treatment and care.

Site Director

Atiene Sagay, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology University of Jos
atsagay58@yahoo.com

Professor Sagay has been faculty at the University of Jos and Consultant Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) since 1990. He has served as Head of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Head of Nursing Sciences, Deputy Dean of Medicine and Dean of Medicine at various times. Prof. Sagay has been a member of the University of Jos Senate since 1998 and Professor of OBGYN since 2004. He is one of the leaders of the JUTH HIV Program from its inception in 2002 to date. As Program Director, he established the State-wide Satellite PMTCT program comprising over 60 health facilities across Plateau State. He has training in leadership, ethics, mentorship, grants management, data management, research methodology, data analysis, manuscript writing and responsible conduct of research. Prof. Sagay’s research focus areas are prevention of cervical cancer and reproductive health, particularly in the context of HIV in women and prevention of mother-to-child transmission.

Site Mentors

Oche Agbaji, Professor of Nephrology and HIV Medicine and Consultant Physician/Nephrologist, Jos University Teaching Hospital
juth.apin@yahoo.com

Professor Agbaji, is Professor of Nephrology and HIV Medicine and Consultant Physician at Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, in Nigeria where he has been involved with the care of HIV patients since 1997. Prof. Agbaji was appointed as the antiretroviral therapy (ART) team lead by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) of Nigeria for the JUTH ART program in 2004, and PI of the JUTH Harvard PEPFAR program in July of 2009. He was appointed as Head of Department of Medicine at JUTH and University of Jos in August of 2018. Prof. Agbaji coordinates the HIV outcomes theme of the Support of Training and Mentoring in Nigeria for Academics (STAMINA) grant (D43TW010130-FIC/NIH) at the University of Jos. He was a Co-Investigator on the Northwestern and Jos University Research Training Program in HIV and Malignancies (1D43TW009575 NIH/ FIC). He currently works in a busy HIV clinic that has cumulatively enrolled over 26,000 HIV-infected patients, teaches Resident Doctors and Medical Students on HIV and other related subjects.

Godwin Imade, Research Professor/Laboratory Director, University of Jos
ereimade@gmail.com

Dr. Imade is a Research Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Health Sciences, University of Jos (UniJos), Jos, Nigeria where he has worked for about 35 years. He has a solid research and laboratory background with research interests in HIV/AIDS Genomics and drug resistance, Reproductive health including infertility, STIs, HPV related Cancers and infectious diseases. Dr. Imade is currently the Pathology Genomics Core Lead for the US, Northwestern University and Nigeria, University of Jos NIH/NCI funded U54 Co-operative Agreement – Epigenomics biomarkers of HIV associated Cervical and Liver Cancers in Nigeria and Co-investigator for D43 HIV and Malignancies – Northwestern Nigeria -NN-HAM training grant, the Genomics and Informatics theme of the Fogarty/NIH Funded Support of Training and Mentoring in Nigeria for Academics (STAMINA) grant at the University of Jos. Dr. Imade was co-investigator in the Harvard/CDC/JUTH Reaching 90% target of HIV viral suppression: The role of point of care viral load monitoring in resources constrained settings and NIH Funded Harvard/JUTH Zika in Pregnancy Study. He is also the Laboratory Director for the ISO 15189 accredited AIDS Prevention Initiative Nigeria (APIN)/PEPFAR/Harvard Supported state-of-the-art HIV/AIDS Laboratory at the Jos University Teaching Hospital  and the Genomics and Post Graduate research laboratory, College of Health Sciences, UniJos where he has provided effective and efficient leadership since 2001 and 2018 respectively.

Jonah Musa, Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Jos
jmusa71@gmail.com

Professor Musa is a trained obstetrician and gynecologist and Professor at University of Jos. He has over a decade of clinical and research experience in gynecological oncology with a special focus on cervical cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment in Nigeria. Prof. Musa’s clinical and research collaborations in the reproductive health care of HIV infected women has resulted in the publication of peer-reviewed articles on the epidemiology of mother to child transmission of HIV in Jos Nigeria. His current research focuses on HIV-associated malignancies, particularly cervical cancer.

Stephen Oguche, Professor of Paediatrics Infectious Disease
soguche2001@gmail.com

Professor Oguche is a trained Pediatrician with more than twenty years of clinical practice and research involving children and adolescents. His research focus has been in the subspecialty of infectious diseases affecting children, particularly malaria, HIV and TB and other co-infections in the main among others. He has served as PI and co-investigator in several studies. Prof. Oguche also participated in many studies investigating different pharmacological molecules some of which are now in the market. He has been involved in providing care to patients (Children), building the capacity of hundreds of health workers in Nigeria, and participating in implementation research that provide data useful for treatment policy on infectious diseases. Prof. Oguche has participated inthe  development and revision of Nigerian national treatment guidelines for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.

Basil Okeahialam, Professor of Medicine, Consultant Physician (Cardiology), University of Jos
basokeam@yahoo.com

Professor Okeahialam is Professor of Medicine and Cardiology at the University of Jos. He has been involved in cardiovascular diseases research for over 25 years, focusing on hypertension, dilated cardiomyopathy, cardiovascular disease risk factors, cardiovascular disease in women and HIV associated heart disease. Prof. Okeahialam’s  research has significantly contributed to the better understanding of cardiovascular diseases among Africans, particularly in the area of “black” hypertension. He has played important roles in medical education in Nigeria serving as the coordinator of postgraduate medical training at the Jos University Teaching Hospital and Chairman Quality assurance committee & Faculty training co-ordinator of the West African College of Physicians among others. Prof. Okeahialam was a former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Medicine in the Tropics, the official publication of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Jos.

Ibrahim Zoakah, Professor of Community Medicine at the University of Jos
adizoakah@yahoo.com

Professor Ibrahim Zoakah is currently a Professor of Community Medicine at the University of Jos, a position he has held since 2005. He is also the research coordinator of the Department of Community Medicine, University of Jos, a mentoring position to equip staff in my department to produce sound manuscripts for publication. Dr. Zoakah jointly co-authored many publications with junior faculty members through this process. He also served as the Head of Department of Community Medicine, University of Jos and Jos University Teaching Hospital. He has a wide range of training in Community Medicine in Nigeria and abroad and I have also held various academic and administrative positions at the University of Jos and Jos University Teaching Hospital. Being an accomplished Professor of Community Medicine in Nigeria, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with several non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and federal ministry of health (FMOH) in executing relevant public health projects in Nigeria.

About

University of Ibadan, University College Hospital, Nigeria is located in the Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The University began in 1948 with 104 students and has grown to a full-fledged university with a drive for excellence in postgraduate and undergraduate studies. The University College Hospital (UCH), is the country’s national leader in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. It is the premier medical school in Nigeria and has graduated one quarter of all medical doctors in the country. In addition to undergraduate and postgraduate medical programs, in the College of Medicine of the University of Ibadan, the teaching hospital also provides facilities for Post-graduate Residency Programs in various specialties. The UCH is one of the USG PEPFAR implementing institutions in Nigeria, partnering with the Harvard Chan. It has a strong HIV research program dating back to the establishment of the Harvard and Northwestern University AIDS International Training and Research Programs (AITRP) in 2000 and 2008 respectively. Active research includes ongoing NINDS/NIH-funded collaboration on neurological complications of HIV/AIDS.

Site Director

Adesola Ogunniyi, Professor of Medicine, University of Ibadan
aogunniyi@com.ui.edu.ng

Professor Ogunniyi is a Clinician, Neurologist, Neuroepidemiologist, and Professor of Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. He has been a faculty member for two decades and involved with dementia research for three decades. As the pioneer Chairman of the College of Medicine Research and Innovation Management Unit (CRIM), Prof. Ogunniyi supervises grant management and oversees research activities in the College. He previously served as the Director, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training (IAMRAT) at the College of Medicine between 2011 and 2014. His background training was in Internal Medicine and Neurology with post-residency fellowship in Neuroepidemiology at the National Institutes of Health, USA utilizing a WHO/FIC/NINCDS award between January 1986 and April 1987. He was an investigator in the cross-cultural study of dementia in community-dwelling African Americans and Yoruba which involved collaboration between researchers at the Indiana School of Medicine, Indianapolis and the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. The study generated data on the epidemiology of dementia and focused on interaction between genes and environmental factors in determining disease phenotypes. The study was funded for two decades by the National Institute of Aging, USA and involved genome wide association analysis for novel genes. His research group developed the Community Screening Instrument for dementia that is used worldwide for cognitive assessment in disparate populations.

Site Mentors

Rufus Akinyemi, Senior Research Fellow/Consultant Neurologist
rufusakinyemi@yahoo.com

Dr. Akinyemi is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Genomics and Precision Medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan; Consultant Neurologist at the Department of Medicine, University College Hospital; and Senior Research Fellow, Neuroscience & Ageing Unit, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has given over 60 international scientific presentations and >100 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Akinyemi’s work focuses on the public perception of stroke. He has been involved in international collaborative studies on dementia and stroke while working on projects which include the INTERSTROKE Study and GACD THRIVES Study (site investigator); project leader and co-principal investigator of the COGFAST–Nigeria Study; PI (Genomics and Biorepository) of the SIREN Study; PI of the IBADAN Brain Bank Project and recently, PI for the African Neurobiobank for Precision Stroke Medicine (ELSI) study.

Okechukwu Ogah, Senior Lecturer in Cardiology, University of Ibadan
osogah56156@gmail.com

Dr. Ogah is a Senior Lecturer in Cardiology at the Department of Medicine, University of Ibadan and Consultant Physician/Cardiologist in the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. He is also a fellow of the West African College of Physicians, Nigerian Cardiac Society, European Cardiac Society and American College of Cardiology. Dr. Ogah’s professional goal is to be a leader in the care of persons with cardiovascular diseases as well as a champion in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria through the conduct of regular national registries and surveys, as well as efficient and effective health education and health promotion initiatives. His recent research interests are in the areas of population surveys on cardiovascular risk factors, national heart disease registries, continental heart failure and other disease registries such as pericarditis, rheumatic heart disease, pulmonary hypertension and systemic hypertension.

Mayowa Owolabi, Professor of Neurology and Director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine
mayowaowolabi@yahoo.com; mayowaowolabi@gmail.com

Professor Owolabi is Professor of Neurology, Dean Faculty of Clinical Sciences; pioneer director, Center for Genomic and Precision Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria is a scholar and entrepreneur with a stroke phenotyping software patent. He has more than 100 international scientific presentations and more than 280 publications in peer-reviewed journals. Prof. Owolabi is a recognized global leader in science covering neurology, cardiovascular diseases, neuro-rehabilitation, and community-based genomic epidemiology of stroke in Africa. He led the largest stroke study in Africa titled Stroke Investigative Research & Educational Network (SIREN), a U54HG007479 Collaborative Center Research Grant from National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA under the H3Africa initiative. Currently, Prof. Owolabi is the Principal Investigator of the Systematic Investigation of Blacks with Stroke using Genomics (SIBS Genomics) R01NS107900 and African Rigorous Innovative Stroke Epidemiological Surveillance (ARISES) 1R01NS115944. He is also the Recipient Country Partner for the GCRF-COVID-19 Study. He is the pioneer Chair, H3Africa-CVD WG (with >55 000 subjects); pioneer Regional Vice-President, World Federation of Neurorehabilitation (Africa); Co-Chair, Joint Publication Committee-Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, Board of Directors, World Stroke Organization; member GBD group, WSO; Lead Co-Chair, WHO- Lancet Commission on stroke in developing countries and World Hypertension League Sub-Sahara Regional Office Director (2019-2021). He is Associate Editor of BMC Neurology and on the editorial board of many high impact journals.

About

University of Lagos, College of Medicine and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), established by an Act of the South African Parliament in 1962, is the first and only medical and dental school in Nigeria. LUTH offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Physiotherapy, Pharmacology, Physiology, Nursing, Radiography and Laboratory Technology as well as Medicine and Dentistry. Through the APIN Project, Harvard has worked closely with LUTH since the early 2000s. Currently, Harvard and Northwestern collaborate with LUTH on capacity building through the Building Research and Innovation in Nigeria’s Science (BRAINS) proposal. This project extends a decade of research and collaboration in the areas of HIV outcomes research, community medicine, genomics of infectious disease, and innovation in biomedical engineering that have resulted in over 74 joint publications.

Site Director

Folasade Ogunsola, Professor of Medical Microbiology, Chairman, Academic Publishing Centre, University of Lagos
sadeogunsola@gmail.com

Professor Ogunsola is a Professor of Clinical Microbiology at the College of Medicine University of Lagos, Nigeria and a Deputy Vice Chancellor Development services University of Lagos. As a Clinical Microbiologist, her research interest has been in diagnosis and prevention of infectious diseases. From community intervention programs to laboratory studies, clinical trials as well as outbreak responses, she has led research focused in these areas to improve patient safety and prevent infections. She has been involved in Infection Control for 20 years and contributed significantly to raising awareness of infection Control in Nigeria. She was a founding member of the Nigerian Society for Infection Control (Formerly Nigerian Infection Control Association, NICA) in 1998 and has assisted in setting up infection control programs in institutions in the country. She was the Chair of the Infection Control Committee of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital till 2012 and the team lead for Infection Prevention and Control during the 2014 Ebola disease outbreak in Nigeria. She has worked as a consultant in IPC with the World Health Organisation since 2009 and is interested in the community applications of Infection Control principles in under resourced communities. She recently with her team wrote a curriculum for a 6month diploma in Infection Control. She is a member of the Global Infection Prevention and control Network, board member of the Nigerian Society of Infection Control and Chair of the Infection Control African Network.

Site Mentors

Olayinka Abosede, Professor of Community Health and Primary Health Care, College of Medicine, University of Lagos
yinkabosede02@yahoo.com

Olayinka Akanke Abosede is a Professor of Community Health and Primary Health Care at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, an Associate Professor at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Nigeria and Chairman of the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board. She is interested in sustainable community-based health interventions, poverty amelioration and early life education for under-fives.

Wasiu Lanre Adeyemo, Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Lagos
wadeyemo@unilag.edu.ng

Professor Adeyemo is a Professor of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Lagos. His major area of research interest is genetics and genomics and environmental influence in the aetiology of orofacial clefts. As a cleft surgeon, Prof. Adeyemo has been involved in clinical and surgical management of orofacial clefts since 1999. His research group has published research works on prevalence, clinical presentations and management of orofacial clefts in Nigerian population. Prof. Adeyemo’s present research focus is in the area of gene-environmental interactions in the etiology of craniofacial defects, particularly orofacial clefting. Through collaborative efforts with University of Dundee, University of Iowa, University of Pittsburgh and several other Nigerian universities, has been involved in investigating genetic etiology of orofacial cleft in Nigerians and Africans (Butali et al., 2011; Butali et al 2014; Butali et al; Butali et al 2015; Gowans et 2016; Leslie et al 2016; Butali et al 2018). The understanding of the molecular genetics orofacial clefts will go a long way in understanding the pathogenesis, prevention and possibly gene therapy application in orofacial cleft prevention. Presently, he serves as a reviewer to more than 50 international and national reputable journals. He has presented more than 100 research papers at both international and local conferences and workshops.

Bosede Bukola Afolabi, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Lagos
bosedeafolabi2003@yahoo.com

Professor Afolabi is internationally recognized for her research in sickle cell pregnancy. Her interests are in maternal and fetal medicine, minimal access (laparoscopic) surgery and medical education. She is a fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists UK, West African College of Surgeons, and the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. Prof. Afolabi has 74 peer-reviewed publications including six systematic reviews published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists UK, the West African College of Surgeons and the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. She is also a Fellow of the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), USA and a member of the Nigerian Association of Medical Educators. Prof. Afolabi was recently awarded a $2.5 million research grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for her project titled, “Intravenous Versus Oral Iron for Iron Deficiency Anaemia in Pregnant Nigerian Women (IVON): a randomised controlled trial.”

Alani Sulaimon Akanmu, Professor of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, University of Lagos and Lagos University Teaching Hospital
asulaimona@gmail.com

Professor Akanmu is a Professor of Haematology and transfusion medicine with special interests in immunohaematology haemato-oncology and HIV medicine. He chairs the National Task Team on antiretroviral therapy. Prof. Akanmu currently leads the antiretroviral services programme for the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). He also chairs the National technical working group on HIVDR surveillance working to implement WHO strategies for HIVDR surveys in Nigeria. As the Director of antiretroviral services for the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Prof. Akanmu provides leadership and heads the Harvard PEPFAR investments at the hospital since 2004- the clinic which has enrolled over 22,000 patients since inception and the laboratory that provides viral load and DNA PCR assay to monitor antiretroviral therapy and for early infant diagnosis of HIV infection. Together, his team has demonstrated increased aggressiveness in biological behaviour of HIV associated malignancies. Prof. Akanmu has over 160 publications appearing in local and international journals.

Olufemi Fasanmade, Professor of Medicine, University of Lagos and Lagos University Teaching Hospital
ofasanmade@gmail.com

Professor Fasanmade has a wealth of experience in endocrinology, having trained as a medical practitioner with specialisation in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. His research has covered genetic epidemiology of diabetes, insulin resistance and thyroid diseases. Prof. Fasanmade has been the co PI or assistance PI in a number of international grants and has been part of many international, regional and national study or research groups. He currently heads the Endocrine, Diabetes and Metabolism division of the Department of Medicine at the Lagos University Teaching hospital (LUTH). Prof. Fasanmade was the chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of LUTH, which is tasked with supervising all the clinical and non clinical heads of department in the hospital, supervising research, training and clinical services. Currently, he is the Chief clinical coordinator of the NSIA-LUTH Cancer centre which is the biggest cancer centre in West Africa. Prof. Fasanmadewas the chairman of the Nigerian Chapter of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and president of the Endocrinology and Metabolism Society of Nigeria.

Njideka Okubadejo, Professor of Medicine/Neurology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos
Njide_okubadejo@yahoo.com

Professor Okubadejo has 20 years of experience as an academic researcher/neurologist and clinician. She has gained considerable expertise as a mentor, capcity-builder, trainer and research administrator through several collaborative opportunities. Prof. Okubadejo’s major research interests are in Neurodegenerative Disorders (Parkinson disease, Neurodegenerative dementias and atypical parkinsonism). She currently leads a national research team investigating the genetic epidemiology and clinical perspectives of Parkinson’s disease in Nigerians, and a national study on environmental risk and gene interactions in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) and Parkinson’s disease and Atypical Parkinsonisms (PDAP).

About

In 1988, the Federal Government of Nigeria transformed a local hospital in Kano to the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH). The hospital was founded with a mission to provide excellent services with a dedicated workforce that is fully committed to utilizing the available resources judiciously, effectively and efficiently in an environment that treats patients with utmost care and encourages community contribution to its development. With a HIV prevalence rate of 1.3% in Nigeria, AKTH provides care and services to thousands of HIV-positive citizens in the nation. AKTH also has a PEPFAR-funded HIV clinic that provides multiple opportunities for clinical trials for Nigerian citizens.

Site Director

Abhurrahman Abba Sheshe, Chief Medical Director and Professor of General Surgery, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital
a_asheshe@yahoo.co.uk

Dr. Abhurrahman Abba Sheshe is currently the Chief Medical Director (CEO) for Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Nigeria (AKTH). He has had many years of administrative experience in Nigeria. Prior to his current position, he was the Chairman of the AKTH Medical Advisory Committee, overseeing residency training and research administration activities for the entire hospital. Dr. Sheshe’s clinical background is in general surgery, and his research interests are in studying cancer outcomes in resource-limited settings, including examination of larger trends in cancer occurrence and case reports of unique cases. He also collaborates with global surgery colleagues to build capacity in management of trauma across the African subcontinent. AKTH is the site for several Fogarty International Center/National Institutes for Health-funded research and training programs.

About

The University of Global Health Equity, UGHE is positioned as a leader in the field of equitable global health care delivery. The University has a local and international network of faculty who are experts in global health delivery, strategic problem solving, monitoring and evaluation, quality improvement, leadership and management, and implementation science. These faculty, and our staff, are leaders in the field of global health and would serve as invaluable mentors to Fogarty fellows.

Located in rural Rwanda, our campus is an ideal location for a Fogarty fellow to experience first-hand the challenges and rewards of delivering high quality health care and global health education in a rural setting. Our newly-constructed, state-of-the-art facilities will serve as a unique and enriching place in which to conduct research and learn strategies for addressing new, neglected, and emerging global health issues, with a mindset for community involvement, strategic thinking, and equity.

Site Director

Abebe Bekele, Professor of Surgery, Consultant General and Thoracic Surgery
abekele@ughe.org

Professor Abebe Bekele is a full Professor of Surgery and a consultant thoracic surgeon at University of Global Health Equity where he is serving as Dean of the University. In addition to his busy clinical practice, he is responsible for teaching undergraduate and post-graduate medical students, and sub-specialty trainees in thoracic surgery. He also advises and mentors between 6 and 10 masters and PhD students every year, for a total of approximately 20 over my career. His mentees have frequently published their theses in peer-reviewed journals. He served as Secretary General of the Surgical Society of Ethiopia for 6 years. During that time, he was the PI of an effective collaborative project concerning adult circumcision to prevent HIV/AIDS, which trained nearly 450 health workers to perform safe male circumcision. Over the past three years, he has served as the Dean of the School of Medicine at AAU and the CEO of the Tikur Anbessa Hospital, the teaching hospital affiliated with the university and the biggest referral hospital in Ethiopia.

Site Mentors

Phaedra Henley, Chair, Center for One Health and Assistant Professor
phenley@ughe.org

Phaedra Henley (PhD, MES, BMSc) is the One Health Faculty Director at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. She oversees the development of its One Health programming including research, training and community and student engagement as well as currently runs its Master of Science in Global Health Delivery program. Prior to joining UGHE, Dr. Henley worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Program Coordinator for the Africa Institute at Western University, Canada where she contributed to establishing, implementing, and teaching two new graduate programs in global health. Dr. Henley has a PhD in Pathology, a MSc in Environment and Sustainability, and a BMSc in Medical Sciences. Her research interests include investigating the relationship between environmental and human health.

Deogratias Ruhangaza, Consultant Anatomical Pathologist
deoruhangaza@gmail.com

Dr. Ruhangaza is an anatomic pathologist and currently serves as the Director of Pathology lab at Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence (BCCOE). He has served as the clinical, administrative, and research lead at the lab since 2016. He has engaged in research projects that have described the epidemiology and pathological features of diseases in our setting. He has worked closely with Dr Milner at the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), who has facilitated the establishment of the pathology lab at Butaro Hospital and supported a progressive capacity building of the lab. Dr. Ruhangaza has an excellent working relationship with the entire oncology clinical team, and is faculty (Pathology) at the University of Global Health Equity (Rwanda).

Additional mentors who have worked closely with past HBNU fellows

Edmond Ntaganda, Consultant Pediatric Surgeon
edmondntaganda@gmail.com

Dr. Ntaganda is a pediatric surgeon practicing at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Kigali (CHUK), in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda, since January 2017. From 2014 to 2016 Dr. Ntaganda pursued accredited fellowship training in pediatric surgery, returning to Rwanda as the only pediatric surgeon in the country. Building the pediatric surgery service into a comprehensive national referral program upon his return, it was also incumbent upon he and his colleagues to start thinking on ways to improve pediatric surgery care. In 2018, working with a team from McGill University, they started on a project to revive the trauma registry with a special emphasis on pediatric trauma. Part of this work included a validation of the PRESTO (The Pediatric Resuscitation and Trauma Outcome) score. He served as the local mentor and senior author to the Canadian postgraduate researcher for this study, which was published in the journal of pediatric surgery in November 2020. Currently, he serves as the Clinical Head of Surgery at CHUK and Program Director for a COSECSA accredited pediatric surgery fellowship program. He is engaged in teaching medical students, residents (postgraduates) in general surgery, pediatrics, and pediatric surgery.

About

Mbarara University of Science and Technology also known as MUST is a public university accredited by the National Council for Higher Education in Uganda. It has acclaimed national and international recognition for best practices in outreach and community relations from Association of Commonwealth Universities, European Union, Civil Society of Uganda, produces the best development workers and health care professionals. Its vision as a leading institution is to be a centre of academic and professional excellence in Science and Technology with the goal of providing quality and relevant education at national and international level with particular emphasis on Science and Technology and its application to community development.

Site Director

Francis Bajunirwe, Senior Lecturer, Department of Community Health, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda
fbaj@must.ac.ug

Dr. Bajunirwe completed his medical degree training at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and thereafter served as a Medical Officer in the Department of Surgery at Mbarara University Teaching Hospital. He chose a career in research and was accepted as a Fogarty fellow at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio under the AIDS International Training and Research Program. He completed a Master’s degree in Epidemiology under the supervision of Dr. Christopher Whalen and returned to Cleveland for a PhD program, also in Epidemiology which he completed in 2008.

On completion of his PhD, he returned to Mbarara University of Science and Technology where he assumed a position of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Community. In that same year, he received a grant from Doris Duke to implement a mobile pharmacy to deliver antiretroviral therapy to patients living in remote areas in two rural districts in south western Uganda. He supported the initiation of the Masters of Public Health at Mbarara University, and he coordinates this program to-date.

His current research involves implementation of community based initiatives to expand screening for HIV and non-communicable diseases, uptake and adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV among key populations. He has an interest in research ethics and recently supported a successful application to the NIH to start a Masters in Public Health with a concentration in research ethics at Mbarara University. He also serves as chair of the Research Ethics Committee at Mbarara University.

Site Mentors

Stephen Asiimwe, Principal Research Scientist, Program Director
sasiimwe@mustresearch.org

Dr. Stephen Asiimwe is the Program Director of the Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST)-Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Global Health Collaborative (GHC). He is a Physician Scientist with many years of collaborative clinical and population based research as well as program design and implementation in Uganda. Previously, he was the Executive Director of ICOBI, a national NGO with leading community interventions and research into HIV, TB and Malaria. He has a degree in Medicine & Surgery from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda (1999) and a Masters Degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Case Western Reserve University Ohio (2006) as well as a doctorate in public health Epidemiology and Health Policy at the University of Georgia, USA (2013). Before taking on the role of Program Director, he was involved in 8-10 years of active clinical practice (general medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology and surgery). His work seeing patients in the clinic with preventable illnesses led to his interest in population health, particularly in work related to HIV and STI prevention and management.  Stephen is now Principal and Co Principal Investigator at the Kabwohe Clinical Research Center (KCRC) and Integrated Community Based Initiatives (ICOBI) respectively in Uganda, both of which are centers of excellence in clinical and community-based medical research in Uganda that conduct, multi-center HIV prevention clinical/community trials among others. He is also an attending Clinician, and Co-Investigator, involved with teaching and collaborative research projects with colleagues at the University of Washington (Seattle), University of Georgia, Harvard Center for Global Health, Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Uganda. Stephen is also an adjunct faculty and honorary lecturer of epidemiology and biostatistics at the MUST department of community health and assists train for the NIH supported MURTI program at MUST.

Joseph Ngonzi, Senior Lecturer (Obstetrics/Gynecology) and Dean-Elect, Faculty of Medicine at Mbarara University of Science and Technology
jngonzi@must.ac.ug

Dr. Ngonzi is a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology department at Mbarara University in southwestern Uganda. He has done work in HIV/AIDS among pregnant and postpartum women in Uganda. He has researched on HIV disclosure facilitators and hinderances among pregnant women in Uganda as well as on HIV Infection and risk of postpartum infection, complications and mortality in rural Uganda. He has interest in cervical cancer control among HIV infected women. His focus in gynecology work and research has been in cervical cancer screening, while his focus in Obstetrics has been in maternal safety, including management of maternal HIV infections, maternal hemorrhage and maternal sepsis.

Dr. Ngonzi has also personally witnessed numerous maternal deaths and obstetrical near misses, many of which have been caused by postpartum sepsis. These experiences have also inspired his  research interests on understanding causes of sepsis, means to prevent it, and the responsible use of antibiotics especially among HIV infected women. His research focus now is to improve maternal outcomes through appropriate antibiotic use and sepsis prevention in resource-limited settings among HIV infected and un-infected women.

Sam Maling, Associate Professor of Psychiatry
sammaling@must.ac.ug

Professor Maling has a 22-year history of health care services and health professionals training in Uganda.  He is the immediate former Dean of Faculty of Medicine and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Mbarara University of Science and Technology in which he is responsible for the training and mentorship of medical doctors, medical laboratory scientists, pharmacists, graduate nurses, physiotherapists and pharmaceutical scientists in the faculty of medicine. In addition, he oversaw and guided the curriculum review and implementation of both undergraduate and postgraduate programs in the faculty, in improving clinical training in both the hospital and community setting, student assessment and planning and implementing community based medical education.

As a faculty leader, he has nurtured both local and international collaborations and guided departments in achieving their academic missions. He is the core trainer in the Leadership Development Program in the Faculty of Medicine, MUST. He has previously been co-investigator of MEPI-Medical Education program in Uganda named Medical Education for Equitable Services to All Ugandans (MESAU) funded by NIH (Grant No. R24 TW008886 (PI-Nelson Sewankambo). Currently, he is a Co-Program Director of another NIH-funded training program: Mbarara University Research Training Initiative (MURTI) being implemented at Mbarara University of Science and Technology. As a MURTI Co-PD he is directly responsible for the mentor-mentee relationship, coordinate and oversee the mentor-mentee relationship, monitor trainee progress including their research projects and career development.  He is a member of the MURTI Program Implementation Committee and the Training Advisory Committee.  He is a fellow of the Foundation for Advancement of Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) undertaken with Sub-Saharan Africa-FAIMER Regional Institute (SAFRI) in which he underwent training in medical education principles, curriculum development, assessment, teaching, mentorship, leadership and scholarship. He is a recipient of the Rogers Fellowship under the Medical Research Council in which he studied HIV/AIDS infection among severely ill mental patients in Uganda.

Conrad Muzoora, Senior Lecturer in Internal Medicine
conradmuzoora@must.ac.ug

Dr. Muzoora is a HIV physician-scientist with formal training in clinical research.  He has been involved in HIV care for the last 10 years with special interest in tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis. He jointly runs the TB HIV clinic and the infectious disease unit of the Medical ward at Mbarara regional referral hospital. His main research goals have been in the improving the diagnosis of Tuberculosis especially in HIV infected patients and the improved treatment of HIV-associated cryptococol meningitis. He has conducted three clinical trials involving cryptococcal meningitis and several other projects in HIV and TB. As a result of his expertise, he was invited as by the World Health Organization to participate in the writing the recently published Cryptococcal meningitis management guidelines. Additionally, Dr. Muzoora is the Mbarara site PI for two clinical trials: Ambition and RIFT.

Samson Okello, Lecturer, Department of Internal Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology
okello.samson@must.ac.ug

Dr. Okello’s major research interests are cardiovascular diseases and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Uganda. Much of his work focuses on the evaluation of peculiar local risk factors for CVD and Esophageal cancer specifically in the older adults. In addition, he has been a co- investigator for the Uganda cardiovascular disease cohort study conducting epidemiologic studies of in HIV infected and uninfected persons to estimate the interactions of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, HIV per say and antiretroviral therapy as risk factors for cardiovascular disease in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past 1 year, he and his colleagues have published over six articles from their cohort. His research group’s publications have been key in informing formulation of national clinical guidelines.

About

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and is a designated Center of Excellence for the United Health Group and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the NIH, and a member of the Chronic Disease Initiative (CDIA). This site focuses on improving primary health care and reducing the burden of chronic disease in South Africa and in the integration of non-communicable diseases care into the community through increased training and education of community health workers. CDIA draws multidisciplinary researchers from three major tertiary academic institutions in Cape Town (the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University and the University of the Western Cape), the South African Medical Research Council, Harvard University, and Shree Hindu Mandal Hospital, Tanzania, as well as representatives from local and national Departments of Health. UCT also has long standing collaboration with Dr. David Henderson and colleagues in the area of mental health research, and is a site for T32 program at BU and Harvard on global mental health.

Site Director

Landon Myer, Director and Head of the School of Public Health & Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
landon.myer@uct.ac.za 

Professor Landon Myer has training in social anthropology, clinical medicine and epidemiology. His research focuses on women’s, maternal and child health in the context of HIV. He has lead multiple clinical and health systems studies investigating the health of HIV-infected women receiving ART during pregnancy and postpartum, as well as the health and development of HIV-exposed and -infected children and adolescents.

Site Mentors

Peter Delobelle, Senior Research Officer
peter.delobelle@uct.ac.za

Dr. Delobelle is the Deputy Director of the Chronic Diseases Initiative for Africa, Department of Health at the University of Cape Town and Ass Prof at the Department of Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). He is a medical doctor and public health specialist with over twenty years’ experience in public health research, education, and services delivery in the global South. His background is in health promotion, health policy & systems research, and he is experienced in multidisciplinary mixed methods and implementation research, and integrated knowledge translation. As Co-Investigator on several internationally funded research projects, he has worked in the field of HIV/ADS, maternal-and-child health, non-communicable diseases, and health information and engaged in the capacity building of local and international students from low- and middle-income countries for the past fifteen years.

Naomi Levitt, Senior Scholar, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town
dinky.levitt@uct.ac.za

Professor Levitt is a diabetologist/endocrinologist, public health scientist and Senior Scholar in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cape Town. She is Director of the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA).  CDIA was originally funded by NHLBI and United Health Care as one of 11 Centers of Excellence aimed at reducing the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in low- and middle-income countries.  CDIA remit is to reduce the impact of chronic diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa and exists as a network of researchers drawn from a number of South African Universities, the South African Medical Research Council, and other African countries, with close links with policy makers. Areas of research include the burden of diabetes, health services research for chronic diseases particularly diabetes, metabolic consequences of antiretroviral therapy and pathogenesis of obesity.

Graeme Meintjes, Professor of Medicine, Second Chair and Deputy Head of the Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town
graeme.meintjes@uct.ac.za

Professor Meintjes leads a research programme that focuses on the clinical conditions affecting patients with advanced HIV disease including disseminated HIV-associated tuberculosis, the tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS) and cryptococcal meningitis. His group also investigates drug-resistant tuberculosis and diagnostics for TB. He has been the PI or local PI of several clinical trials and conducts observational cohort studies that address questions related to disease pathogenesis.

Mpiko Ntsekhe, Helen and Morris Mauerberger Professor Cardiology, University of Cape Town
mpiko.ntsekhe@uct.ac.za

Professor Ntsekhe currently serves as the Hellen and Morris Mauerberger Professor and Chair of Cardiology, at the University of Cape Town and Head of Clinical Cardiology at Groote Schuur  Hospital. His interests include the interrelationship and impact of infectious diseases prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa (HIV and tuberculosis) and their direct and indirect impact on the cardiovascular system and the design and conduct of registries and clinical trials of low-cost interventions in endemic and emerging cardiovascular disorders in sub-Saharan Africa (with a focus on heart failure, rheumatic and ischemic heart disease).

Dan Stein, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health, University of Cape Town
dan.stein@uct.ac.za

Professor Stein is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Unit on Anxiety Disorders, and Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Medical School in New York. He is interested in the psychobiology and management of the anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and related, and traumatic and stress disorders. He has also mentored work in other areas that are of particular relevance to South Africa and Africa, including neuroHIV/AIDS and substance use disorders.

Estelle Verburgh, Associate Professor in Clinical Hematology, Dept. of Medicine, University of Cape Town
estelle.verburgh@uct.ac.za

Dr. Verburgh is a clinical haematologist and associate professor in Clinical Haematology at the University of Cape Town heading up the bone marrow transplantation unit at Groote Schuur Hospital. Her doctoral work in Belgium was on the diagnosis and classification of the myelodysplastic syndromes. Her research vision in South Africa is to devise timely and cost-effective strategies for haematological care and to make haematological diagnostic approaches more accessible to non-specialists. Also the promotion of appropriate clinical care pathways and national cooperative groups in African haematology.

Nicola Wearne, Associate Professor of Nephrology, Dept. of Medicine, University of Cape Town
nicola.wearne@uct.az.za

Dr. Wearne has clinical interest in peritoneal dialysis and is actively involved in research activities involving peritoneal dialysis outcomes in South Africa. She has a keen interest in HIV associated kidney disease and has published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters in this field.  She is also very involved in both postgraduate and undergraduate teaching programs at the University of Cape Town where she convenes the 4^th year medical program and part 1 physician examination. She is a member of the International Society of Nephrology and South African Renal Society.

Additional mentors who have worked closely with past HBNU fellows

Dr. Soraya Seedat, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Executive Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University
sseedat@sun.ac.za

Dr. Soraya Seedat is a distinguished professor of psychiatry and holds the South African Research Chair in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation. In addition, she co-directs the Medical Research Council Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders. She has been the recipient of several awards including a World Federation of the Society of Biological Psychiatry Fellowship, a Lundbeck Institute Fellowship Award in Psychiatry, an MRC mid-career award, and an Anxiety Disorders Association of America Career Development Award. She has co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and has extensive research experience in the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders, with a special interest in clinical and translational work in childhood and adult posttraumatic stress disorder.

Ashraf Kagee, Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University
skagee@sun.ac.za

Professor Kagee’s work is broadly located at the nexus of psychology and public health and is specifically focused on mental health among persons living with HIV and psychological and structural factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART). His work currently involves training patient advocates in providing psychosocial support to ART and in testing models of problem solving aimed at helping patients overcome structural barriers to ART adherence. His other interests include stress and trauma, mental health and chronic illness, and evidence-based practice and scientific thinking in psychology.

About

University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), HIV Pathogenesis Program (HPP), Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine is based in Durban, South Africa. HPP is a research initiative that was collaboratively founded by UKZN and Harvard Medical School in 2002. The HPP laboratory is located at the Doris Duke Medical Research Institute and serves as a center for training of African scientists through regular workshops. UKZN and Harvard work closely on research and training efforts, and approximately 5-10 African students and researchers annually have been sponsored to visit the Ragon Institute at Harvard and MIT in Boston for short-term training. The HPP laboratory serves as both a facility for exploratory pathogenesis and translational research into HIV and TB, as well as a sample repository for all HPP studies samples. UKZN is also an integral part of the Wellcome Trust funded Africa Centre for Population Studies (recently renamed as Africa Health Research Institute), with a large rural population based research program, with which Harvard faculty have had a longstanding research and training collaboration.

Site Director

Thumbi Ndung’u, Deputy Director (Science) and Max Planck Group Leader, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI); Professor and Victor Daitz Chair in HIV/TB Research, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Ndungu@ukzn.ac.za

Scientific Director of the HIV Pathogenesis Programme at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa. He is a virologist with a PhD from Harvard University, Boston, USA. His main research interests are in host-virus interactions and immune responses in HIV-1 infection. He is also interested in the development of biomedical interventions that can be used in resource-limited settings to prevent or treat HIV/AIDS. He is an Associate Professor in HIV/AIDS Research at the the Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal. He holds the South African Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation (DST/NRF) Research Chair in Systems Biology of HIV/AIDS.

Site Mentors

Mohlopheni Marakalala, Faculty, Africa Health Research Institute & Associate Professor, University College London
mohlopheni.marakalala@ahri.org

Dr. Marakalala is a Faculty Member and Wellcome Trust Intermediate Fellow at AHRI, an Associate Professor at University College London’s Division of Infection and Immunity, Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Visiting Scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. He received his PhD in Chemical Pathology at UCT in 2008, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in innate immunity at UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine. He then joined Harvard in 2012 for a four-year postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology and Infectious Diseases. In 2016, he rejoined UCT as a Senior Lecturer until his current appointment at AHRI and UCL. His research focuses on developing TB biomarkers and host-directed therapies by studying factors associated with disease progression using lung tissue and blood samples from TB patients. He is also interested in cell death modalities in the mononuclear phagocyte system and their role in TB immunopathogenesis and on understanding strategies utilized by Mycobacterium tuberculosis to subvert the host immune system.

Henry Mwambi, Professor, University of KwaZulu-Natal
MwambiH@ukzn.ac.za

Professor Mwambi has taught theory and applied courses, among them a Biostatistics course covering key areas in biostatistics, namely general epidemiology principles, cohort studies, case-control studies, survival analysis and clinical trials. He is currently working with and has supervised a number of PhD and Masters students on various topics in biostatistics and epidemiology such as the analysis of non-Gaussian longitudinal and clustered disease outcome data, survival analysis, modelling recurrent events, longitudinal data analysis including missing data, and infectious disease modelling.

Saloshni Naidoo, Associate Professor/Chief Specialist/Head of Discipline, Public Health Medicine, School of Nursing and Public Health, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Naidoos71@ukzn.ac.za

Dr. Naidoo is currently the Head of the Department (HOD) of Public Health Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her interest in Public Health and Occupational Medicine started with her Postgraduate Degree in Occupational Health at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This formed the basis for her career and research path which started as a Medical Office employed by the National Centre for Occupational Health (1998). She was responsible for “Assessing Occupational Health Service Provision in Public Sector Hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).” During this time, she was exposed to Pesticide Toxicology having coordinated a Pesticide Safety workshop, jointly funded by the CDC (USA) and NIOSH (USA). She received a short-term Fogarty Fellowship at the University of Iowa, USA furthering her training in Occupational Health and Pesticide Toxicology. Returning to South Africa and working in Public Health Medicine would evolve as her research interest namely, (1) Tuberculosis (TB) exposure and disease in HCWs and (2) Pesticide exposure in agricultural populations including women and children.

Inge Petersen, Scientific Director, Centre for Rural Health
peterseni@ukzn.ac.za

Dr. Petersen is the Scientific Director of the Centre for Rural Health and a Research Professor in the School of Nursing and Public Health, College of Health Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal as well as visiting Professor in the Department of Health Service and Population Research, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College, London. Her research foci are in public mental health, having extensive experience in systems strengthening for scaling up integrated mental health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs); as well more recently health systems strengthening of integrated people-centred health. She has published over 120 peer review publications, 2 books, over 20 book chapters and supervised over 40 PhD and Masters completed dissertations.

Gabriel Kallah-Dagadu, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Ghana & Postdoc Fellow of WASHA Takwimu Health Data Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal
kallahdagadug@ukzn.ac.za

Dr. Gabriel Kallah-Dagadu is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Ghana. Dr. Kallah-Dagadu is a postdoctoral fellow in Health Data Science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (host), and two partner universities: Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, USA, and Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Germany.

He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Cape Coast and an MPhil in Statistics from the University of Ghana. Dr. Kallah-Dagadu joined the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science as a faculty member in September 2014 and has great experience supervising and teaching Statistics, Probability, and Data Science at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His research interests are centered on applied probability, computational statistics, and machine learning with real-life applications to genome sequencing, climate change, nutrition, and health outcomes.

About

HE²RO and its partner organizations have more than 15 years of experience in identifying, developing, and evaluating innovations aimed at improving the South African response to the HIV and TB epidemics in the setting of the world’s largest ARV roll-out in the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. HE²RO has a proven track record of conducting research in the setting of the world’s largest ARV roll-out in the epicenter of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

HE²RO is one of the few organizations in South Africa with expertise in both health economics and epidemiologic outcomes evaluations and conducts rigorous, quantitative cost, cost-effectiveness, and epidemiological analysis of high priority questions, often at the direct request of the National Department of Health (NDoH) and other government agencies. HE²RO’s purpose is to conduct applied, policy- and program-relevant research and evaluation on issues of public health importance, and in particular on interventions to address HIV, TB, and related problems

HE²RO is currently conducting research across Africa (Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda) through the EQUIP Health project.

Site Director

Jacqui Miot, Division Director, Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Unit (HE²RO)
jmiot@heroza.org

Dr. Jacqui Miot, BPharm, PhD, joined HE2RO as Division Director in September 2017. She has worked in the field of health economics, evidence-based medicine and healthcare policy for over 20 years. Jacqui was previously a senior lecturer in the Division of Pharmacology in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits University as well as a health economics consultant to Department of Health, various healthcare companies and NGOs. She has also worked as a consultant in Tanzania. Prior to that she was Head of the Health Economics Unit at Discovery Health, the largest healthcare insurer in South Africa, providing support and expertise in building health economics and budget impact models. Her research focuses on costing and health economic models in medicine interventions with a particular interest in the non-communicable diseases and oncology. She has supervised a number of Masters and PhD students and will continue to provide mentorship in this capacity. Jacqui is Vice-chair of the Pricing Committee, Chair of the Pharmacoeconomics Task Team of the PC, member of the Gauteng Provincial PTC as well as the Chairperson of the Clinical Advisory Board of HQA and serves on the Editorial Guidelines Sub-Committee of the South African Medical Journal. Jacqui is currently on the Board of Trustees of CAMAF medical scheme and on the ExCo of PCMA (Pharmaceutical Care Management Association SA). She holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Rhodes University, South Africa and a PhD in Neuropharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine, London University.

Site Mentors

Mhairi Maskew, Principal Researcher, Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE²RO)
mmaskew@heroza.org

Dr. Mhairi Maskew, MBBCh, PhD, is a physician and epidemiologist. Mhairi has been involved in the management and analysis of large HIV treatment cohorts’ databases for more than 10 years. She joined the HE²RO team in 2010 and as a Principal Researcher, provides leadership to projects involving big data linkages. Mhairi has worked at Themba Lethu clinic, one of South Africa’s largest antiretroviral treatment sites. She also has an interest in HIV-related malignancies which she developed during her work in the hospital’s Oncology unit. She has explored the epidemiology of Kaposi Sarcoma and its etiologic virus, the Kaposi sarcoma Herpes-virus. Mhairi has been involved in randomised clinical trials investigating simplified clinical treatment algorithms for same-day ART treatment eligibility in South Africa. In addition, she was awarded a five-year R01 which resulted in the development of the first National HIV Cohort created from routinely collected laboratory data and some of the first national-level estimates of retention on ART robust to transfers, with a focus on adolescents. She was recently awarded a second R01 to further develop the lab-based National HIV Cohort to focus on pregnant women. Mhairi has mentored several Master’s level students and her work has been published in several international peer-reviewed journals including Lancet HIV, AIDS, JAIDS, Clinical Infectious Diseases and the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Gesine Meyer-Rath, Research Associate Professor
gesine@bu.edu

Professor Gesine Meyer-Rath, MD, PhD, is a physician, health economist, and infectious disease modeller with fourteen years’ experience in economic evaluations of health care interventions. She is a Research Assistant Professor of International Health at the Boston University Center for Global Health & Development. She has been resident in South Africa since 2006, and joined HE2RO in 2009. Dr. Meyer-Rath’s research focus lies on modelling methods for economic evaluation, including infectious disease modelling and decision analysis, and translating research into recommendations for public policy. Most of her work has centered on providing recommendations and budgets based on economic analysis for the South African HIV Programme, including a well-used budget impact model for ART, the National ART Cost Model, work on optimising HIV testing modalities, and leading the modelling work on the South African HIV Investment Case. Before joining HE2RO, she worked in the Paediatrics Department of Charité University Hospital Berlin, with the CHOICE team of the World Health Organization, and as a researcher at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Reproductive Health and HIV Research Unit of the University of the Witwatersrand (now Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Research Institute). She is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters on HIV economics. She holds an MD/PhD from Humboldt University and Free University, Berlin, Germany, and a PhD in Health Economics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Aneesa Moolla, Principal Researcher, Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE²RO)
amoolla@heroza.org

Dr. Aneesa Moolla is a Principal Researcher at the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office since 2017. She is also a Clinical Supervisor and Lecturer within the Community Dentistry Faculty at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Previously, she worked with the Red Cross Flying Doctor Association, offering dental care to children in remote rural areas where healthcare was totally inaccessible. Aneesa has worked across all sectors and has gained a diverse work experience in dental private practice, corporate organisations, health systems strengthening, research institutions and clinical research trials. In her current lecturing post, she combines both her Psychology and Dental qualifications in the training and clinical supervision of dental students. She was also selected and participated successfully in the UNESCO International Bioethics Teachers Training Course. Aneesa is currently the PI of a CFAR funded study estimating the prevalence of oral diseases and malignancies; and understanding oral disease progression by HIV status at a Johannesburg academic hospital. In addition, she is also the co-investigator on a USAID funded study utilising a discrete choice experiment to assess the preferences of high school learners for accessing HIV and reproductive health services. She holds a BA Clinical Psychology (Honours) degree and a masters and doctorate in Psychology of Education (Programme Development) obtained from the University of Johannesburg.  Aneesa has edited books and has published a varied array of journal articles in several international journals.

Sophie Pascoe, Principal Researcher, Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office (HE²RO)
spascoe@heroza.org

Dr. Sophie Pascoe is an Epidemiologist and Principal Researcher at the Health Economics and Epidemiology Research Office and holds a joint appointment in the School of Clinical Medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She joined HE2RO in 2015 and holds a Masters and Doctorate degree in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). Sophie has over 15 years of experience in HIV and sexual and reproductive health research, implementation of randomised control trials, and operational research evaluating health systems strengthening interventions in the region. Her research focuses on linkage to care, treatment adherence and retention in care among people living with HIV and the implementation of differentiated models of care as well as exploring the preferences of young people for HIV and contraceptive services. She was the local Principal Investigator for a large collaborative study with the World Bank, South African National Department of Health (NDoH) and Boston University evaluating the NDoH’s National Adherence Guidelines for Chronic Diseases. She is currently the Principle Investigator for two large USAID funded studies exploring the preferences of high school students for HIV and contraceptive services and evaluating viral load monitoring and reporting at primary healthcare sites in South Africa. Sophie is also a Deputy Editor for the Journal of the International AIDS Society, frequently reviews manuscripts for both local and international journals in the HIV filed and has authored and co-authored more than 28 peer-reviewed articles in several international journals.

About

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and has a long standing collaboration with the Harvard Chan School on a number of public health research and training efforts. This relationship, which began more than 35 years ago, has grown even stronger during the last 20 years through joint large research studies, and both programmatic and training activities. Building human capacity has been a long-term goal of the collaboration. Each year numerous Tanzanian physicians, scientists, and researchers attend degree programs or participate in non-degree training programs or academic sabbaticals at the Harvard Chan School. Several training programs have been, and currently are, supported by the Fogarty International Center. The collaboration has recently initiated training activities in Dar es Salaam aimed at strengthening the MPH and Doctoral programs at MUHAS. The site’s areas of health expertise include maternal and child health, nutrition, and infectious diseases, particularly HIV, TB and malaria, mental health, and NCDs.

Site Director

Gasto Frumence, Associate Professor, Department of Development Studies, MUHAS
gasto.frumence65@gmail.com

Dr. Frumence is the current Dean of the School of Public Health and Social Sciences and has worked in collaboration with the School of Public Health Makerere University in the development of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation proposal on Leadership and Management Capacity Building Program. The project aims at building the capacity of managers in high burden Malaria countries including Tanzania and Uganda to achieve Malaria eradication. The proposal is now in the final stage of approval and its implementation is expected to start in the near future. Apart from conducting research and community service (consultancy activities) as an Associate Professor, he teaches Health System Management and Leadership and Qualitative Research Methods to postgraduate and undergraduate students, supervise and mentor students in Master dissertations and PhD thesis and he has been an external examiner for Master and PhD candidates in various Universities including University of Dar es Salaam and Mzumbe University in Tanzania.

Site Mentors

Said Aboud, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Director of Research and Publications
drp@muhas.ac.tz

Prof. Said Aboud is a Medical Doctor and a Clinical Microbiologist/Immunologist with over 20 years of experience in HIV research including HIV diagnosis and disease monitoring including HIV drug resistance testing, HIV and nutrition, HIV pathogenesis and genotyping, and HIV vaccinology. He has served as the Laboratory Coordinator since 2004 for the Harvard PEPFAR HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Program in Tanzania and in that capacity has been involved in the planning and monitoring of laboratory testing related to HIV diagnosis and care, has conducted lab trainings, and provided supportive supervision for all laboratory activities. For the last 10 years, he has worked as the Laboratory Manager and Laboratory Director of the Harvard Muhimbili Partnership Research Laboratory at MUHAS and has been instrumental in developing QA/QC standardized operating procedures for laboratory assays and protocols for several large-scale international clinical trials. Dr. Aboud has mentored and supervised several dissertations and theses. Dr. Aboud’s experience in HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and antimicrobial resistance research makes him well prepared to serve on grant application.   

Emmanuel Balandya, Associate Professor of Psychology
ebalandya@yahoo.com

Dr. Balandya is a physician-scientist with expertise in biomedical sciences encompassing Physiology, Hematology, Immunology and Vaccinology. He obtained his Medical Degree at University of Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania. Doctorate Degree at Dartmouth College USA and Post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School USA. Following his return to Tanzania in 2014, he has researched on immunity and infections in Sickle Cell Disease (through the NIH-Fogarty/NHLBI/UCSF GloCal Fellowship) and is currently PI for the Sickle Pan African Research Consortium (SPARCO)-Tanzania a U01 grant funded by NHLBI with the goal to advance research as a strategy for improving health, advocacy and training for sickle cell disease in Tanzania as part of the larger Sub-Saharan Africa Network. He is also Co-Investigator in several ongoing health research and education capacity building projects. He is published and has presented his work at national and international platforms. Dr. Balandya is Member of the Organizing Committees for the MUHAS Scientific Conference and National NCD Conference. Dr. Balandya is Director of Postgraduate Studies at MUHAS Board Member of Young Scientists Tanzania (YST) a nation-wide Science Outreach Programme and consults with the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) and Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) on matters related to health research and education.

Sylvia Kaaya, Dean, School of Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health
skaaya@gmail.com

Dr. Sylvia Kaaya, serves as the dean, School of Medicine, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania-East Africa). She holds a doctor of medicine, master of science in medicine and a diploma in psychiatry. Supported by Carnegie Foundation grants, she has completed two fellowship programs in health and behavior through Harvard Medical School. Areas of expertise include epidemiology, adolescent sexuality, biostatistics and health services research.

Japhet Killewo, Professor of Epidemiology
jkillewo@yahoo.co.uk

Dr. Japhet Killewo (JK) has been working for Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) for the past 39 years in various positions from assistant lecturer to the current position as professor. The university mandate is to do research, teach and provide services to communities. JK has been teaching epidemiology and research methodology to undergraduates and postgraduates in various health sciences in the university, coordinated teaching programmes and implemented research in communicable as well as non-communicable diseases. JK has also conducted research in reproductive health and health systems. JK’s areas of interest are outbreak investigations for communicable diseases using one health approaches, reproductive health and disease surveillance systems for non-communicable diseases in an urban area in Tanzania where JK established a cohort for follow-up and interventions of non-communicable diseases.

Gideon Kwesigabo, Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, MUHAS
gpkwesigabo@gmail.com

Dr. Kwesigabo is an Epidemiologist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. Dr Kwesigabo served as Head of Department Epidemiology and Biostatistics and later as Dean, School of Public Health and Social Sciences, currently he is the Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development-MUHAS. He has devoted much of his research activities to HIV and AIDS related issues, however more recently Dr. Kwesigabo has also been involved in gender matters, specifically, women’s health and violence against children, and issues of human resources health, disease surveillance, monitoring and evaluation and maternal and child health.

Ferdinand Mugusi, Professor of Internal Medicine
fm.mugusi@gmail.com

Prof. Mugusi was a Professor and former Chair of Medicine at MUHAS and has been involved in a number of HIV-related research training grants and studies, which have been mostly supported by the NIH. He was Principal Investigator of the ICOHRTA training grant, which ended last year. Currently he is a Co-Investigator and Site PI on the HIV implementation science (HIS) D43 Fogarty training grant that trains Tanzanian Researchers on HIV/AIDS Implementation Science. He has been involved in a number of research clinical trials of HIV and TB since 1994. Studies he has led and collaborated on include the effect of HIV on TB disease, the effect of nutritional supplements on TB, HIV and malaria, the effect of nutritional supplements in HIV patients on ART and Phase I and II HIV vaccine trials. Through these activities, he has mentored over 100 medical students, over 70 MMed students and 16 pre-and post doctoral fellows. He has an extensive research background in HIV and has been highly involvement in international collaborative trials and research training grants.

About

The idea to build Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) was born 1961. Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre is one among the four Zonal Consultant hospitals in Tanzania. Its record in Medical Services, Research, and Education has significant influence in East Africa and beyond. In 2011, KCMC continued to carry out its services to people according to the mission statement, “To render God’s healing services to set mankind free from the bondage of sickness, suffering and sin”, “To reflect Christ’s character of love, mercy, compassion and faithfulness in the course of fulfilling the call to care and heal the sick” and “To share God’s grace and love through the power of the Holy Spirit in the course of treating and caring for the sick”. Since 1971 the Hospital has continued to grow, serving the northern, eastern and central zones of Tanzania as a world-class centre for patient care, teaching and research with leading clinical specialty areas and an internationally renowned research institute. KCMC has ability to create a culture of excellence and care and therefore this has made KCMC as an institution where patients want to come for care and staff and trainees want to work. We remain inspired by the dedication of our founders and we are committed to their vision of providing excellent care, now and in the future.

Site Director

Blandina Mmbaga, Director of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute
blaymt@gmail.com

Dr. Mmbaga is a paediatrician at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC) participating in clinical, teaching, and research activities. She is also a senior lecturer at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College of the Tumaini University Makumira. She graduated with a PhD in 2013 from the University of Bergen Centre for International Health and Department of Public Health and Primary Health Care. Currently, she is also working as the Site Co-leader for the KCMC-Duke Collaboration in clinical research in which CFAR, IMPAACT and ACTG studies are part of the ongoing activities. She has been working with the KCMC HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Clinic as well as research activities at the institution since 2004. She was a member of IMPAACT Vaccine Immunology Scientific Committee for six years (2006-2012) and received a NICHD/Westat contract for IMPAACT studies from June 2014 as Principal Investigator. As a Senior Lecturer at the college, she is also supervises students on their research proposals and thesis work for Master’s and PhD courses. Currently Dr. Mmbaga is the Director of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI), leading and participating in numerous research activities including studies of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma within the ESCCAPE network, clinical trials of tuberculosis second-line drugs, clinical trials on prevention of HIV/AIDS mother to child transmission, and antibacterial resistance.

About

The Weill Bugando Medical College in Mwanza, Tanzania opened in September 2004 and has been affiliated with Cornell University in New York since its inception. The college offers an MD training program, and a Masters in Medicine in Adult Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics and Surgery, and graduate degrees in basic sciences. Weill Bugando’s main teaching hospital is the Bugando Medical Centre, a 900 bed tertiary referral hospital for the people of the Lake and Western regions of Tanzania.

The goal of the Weill Cornell program in Tanzania is to support research, medical education, and clinical services in the city of Mwanza, Tanzania. Research is conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), an internationally recognized center conducting epidemiologic studies and clinical trials on HIV, sexually transmitted infections, schistosomiasis, and chronic diseases. Cornell-NIMR research training focuses on interactions between HIV and schistosomiasis and on chronic diseases. Medical education and clinical services are provided with the Weill Bugando Medical College and teaching hospital. The medical college has collaborated with Cornell since its inception in 2006 and graduated its first students in 2010.

Site Director

Robert Peck, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medicine and Bugando Medical Center
rnp2002@gmail.com

Dr. Peck is a clinical epidemiologist, and his research is focused on the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases in low-income countries including hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD). After completing his combined medicine-pediatrics residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he was recruited as a Global Health Fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) to work full-time in Mwanza, Tanzania at the newly established Weill Bugando School of Medicine at Bugando Hospital. He was one of only 5 physicians in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. His early years of working full-time on the wards of Bugando taught him about the rapidly rising epidemic of hypertension-related disease in East Africa. Inspired to combat this epidemic of hypertension-related disease through collaborative research, he completed an MS in Epidemiology in 2015 and a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology in 2019.

Dr. Peck has been living and working in Tanzania since 2007. In addition to his work as a physician and medical educator with Weill Bugando School of Medicine, he also developed partnerships with both the Mwanza Interventions Trial Unit (MITU) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). These partnerships provide him with a unique environment to study chronic diseases in the context of Africa while also combating healthcare disparities in partnership with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health.

Site Mentors

Jennifer Downs, Associate Professor Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine and Bugando Medical Center
jna2002@med.cornell.edu

Dr. Downs is a physician-scientist trained in Infectious Diseases and Parasitology and she has conducted research at the Weill Bugando School of Medicine in Mwanza, Tanzania since 2008. She has gained fluency in Kiswahili, obtained a Tanzanian medical license, and built collaborations with a team of Tanzanian research scientists. The major focus of her research has been determining the relationship between schistosome infection and mucosal immunity in rural communities in Tanzania.

Dr. Downs also conducts community-based implementation studies to promote public health behavior in rural Tanzanian communities. In addition, she trains and mentors students interested in global health careers including undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, post-doctoral fellows, and junior faculty in both New York and Tanzania.

Hyasinta Jaka, Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Bugando Medical Center
yasintaliwa5@gmail.com

Dr. Jaka is a senior lecturer and practicing physician at the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences/Bugando Medical Centre (CUHAS/BMC) in Mwanza, Tanzania. Her research focus is in gastroenterological and hepatological infectious diseases and in gastrointestinal malignancies, and her PhD was focused on the persistence of Helicobacter pylori infection and antibiotic resistance rates in Mwanza and demonstrated the high rate of antibiotic resistance to standard triple therapy and the need for quadruple therapy and test of cure. Dr. Jaka has also conducted studies on Schistosoma mansoni infection, as there is an urgent need for better prevention and treatment.

Humphrey Mazigo, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Parasitology, Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences and Bugando Medical Center
humphreymazigo@gmail.com

Dr. Mazigo is a Tanzanian research scientist whose career is focused on improving the health of rural populations who lack access to the public health system and are highly affected by neglected tropical diseases. Together with his research group, he provides the epidemiological evidence for intervention programmes against these diseases to stakeholders including the World Health Organization and Ministry of Health in Tanzania. His research particularly focuses on the epidemiology, immunology and morbidity of schistosomiasis, which affects 50% of the population in Tanzania. He has studied the effects of age and sex on schistosome infections in children and adults living in fishing villages, where Schistosoma mansoni infection is highly endemic. He has been actively involved in the Tanzanian National Neglected Tropical Diseases Control Program in designing strategies for involving the adult population in Mass Drug Administration against schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths.

About

The University of Zambia School of Public Health operates under the main goals, outlined by Act No.11 of the University of Zambia, which include providing higher education, promoting research and the advancement of learning, and disseminating knowledge to all persons without discrimination. Under this broad mandate, the school trains professionals in Bioethics, Environmental Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Family Medicine, Health Policy and Management, Health Promotion and Education, Public Health Demography, Community Health, Implementation Science, Nutrition and other health disciplines. The qualifications offered in these disciplines include diploma, Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, Doctor of Philosophy degree and post-doctoral training.

The School of Public Health’s research areas of focus include, but are not limited to, Health systems research; HIV/AIDS; One-health; Neglected tropical diseases; Community Based Interventions; Non Communicable diseases; Health economics; Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and adolescent health; Public health nutrition; Implementation research; TB; Malaria; WASH; Exposure and effects of lead exposure; Bioethics; The health of key populations; Genomics; Pollution; Food safety and hygiene.

The school has strong strong linkages and networks locally, which include the Central Statistical Office (CSO), Macha Research Trust, Tropical Disease Research Centre (TDRC), Ministry of Health, UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, CIDRZ, ZAMBART, and internationally, which include the Norwegian Research Council, NOMA and NUFU programs through the Centre for International Health, University of Bergen, the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Wellcome Trust, and The Africa Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (ARNTD). Additionally, the school houses a training partnership with Fogarty African Bioethics Training Programme through the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, with funding from NIH to enhance training in Bioethics for both faculty and students. The school collaborates with other international universities that include Cardiff University (UK), Wits University (South Africa), Umea University (Sweden), Vanderbilt University (USA), and College of Medicine (Malawi) among others.

Site Director

Cosmas Zyambo, Chair for the Community and Family Health Medicine department, School of Public Health at the University of Zambia
czyambo256@gmail.com

Dr. Cosmas Zyambo is currently the Chair for the Community and Family Health Medicine department at the University of Zambia School of Public Health. He also holds an adjunct assistant professor position in the department of Health Behavior at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Public Health. His work focuses on a number of HIV-related studies, such as NCDs, smoking, smoking cessation, alcohol consumption, mental health, and substance abuse in adolescents and the HIV population in Zambia. Dr. Zyambo received his medical degree from the University of Zambia, his Masters of Philosophy from the University of Bergen in Norway, and his PhD from the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Site Mentors

Lawrence Mwananyanda, Research Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
lawyanda@bu.edu

Dr. Lawrence Mwananyanda is a clinician/scientist with a wealth of experience in conducting medical and public health research. He has been Principal Investigator or Co-PI on multiple research project. His portfolio includes being the Director of the HIV Vaccines Trials Unit at the Botswana Harvard Partnership where he and colleagues worked on the first Phase 1 HIV vaccine trials to be conducted in Africa. His interest with HIV vaccines research continued with his stint at the Emory University under the Zambia HIV Research Project where they studied conformational changes of the HIV at infection in a cohort of discordant couples to aid in design of next generation HIV trial vaccines.

Fastone Goma, Professor of Physiology and Cardiovascular Health, University of Zambia
gomafm@yahoo.co.uk

Dr. Goma is an Associate Professor of Physiology and Cardiovascular Health at the University of Zambia School of Medicine. He has also studied International Public Health at University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), USA and Tobacco Dependency Management at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), University of Toronto, Canada. He is the Director for the Centre for Primary Care Research (CPCR) at the University of Zambia, School of Medicine which has been the secretariat for the Zambia Non-Communicable Diseases Alliance (ZANOCODA). His main research interests include risk factors for Non-Communicable Diseases (Tobacco & Hypertension), Palliative Care, knowledge translation (KT) and human resources for health (HRH) within the health systems arena.

Choolwe Jacobs, Lecturer, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
choolwe2003@yahoo.com

Dr. Choolwe Nkwemu Jacobs is a Social Epidemiologist and public health specialist with a nursing background. I conduct research, lecture and supervise student’s research projects in the University of Zambia, School of Public Health at postgraduate level. I have expertise, leadership, training and research interest is in HIV/AIDs, bioethics, reproductive, maternal and newborn health, child health, adolescent health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, and implementation research. I am competent on a range of teaching and research methodologies including implementation research, quantitative and qualitative methods/studies, case-control studies, randomized controlled trials, cohort studies and household surveys.

William Kilembe, Project Director, Zambia HIV Research Project
wkilembe@rzhrg-mail.org

Dr. Kilembe has worked at the Zambia Emory HIV Research Project (ZEHRP) now called Center for Family Health Research in Zambia (CFHRZ) since 2001 and currently serves as the Project Director in Lusaka. He is the Principal Investigator on an International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) study to recruit a cohort of high-risk women (HRW: female sex workers (FSW) and single mothers (SM)) for studies on incidence and risk factors for HIV and STI, acute HIV infection, and preparedness activities for HIV vaccine clinical trials. In addition, he managed NIH, IAVI, and CDC funded research and program activities with heterosexual cohabiting couples, including expansion of couples voluntary counseling and testing (CVCT) within Zambia, integration of CVCT into public health facility service delivery and followed prospective cohorts to study correlates of HIV transmission and pathogenesis in order to inform HIV vaccine development and prepare for HIV vaccine efficacy trials. Currently, he is the principal investigator for a Phase 2b HIV vaccine efficacy trial sponsored the HIV Vaccine Trials Network and Janssen and Janssen (HVTN 705), into which their two Zambia research centers have enrolled 218 participants from the cohort of HRW. He is also the PI of other vaccine and therapeutic trials for HIV and COVID 19.

Geoffrey Kwenda, Senior Lecturer in Medical Microbiology & Molecular Biology
kwenda.geoffrey@unza.zm

Dr. Kwenda is a molecular biologist with significant research, administrative and mentoring experience, and the immediate past Head of the Department of Biomedical Sciences in the School of Health Sciences at UNZA. He is also a former Fogarty Fellow at the University of Nebraska, where he was involved in studying the transmission of Kaposi’ Sarcoma-associated Human Herpesvirus (KSHV) in a Zambian population. His research interests are mainly in infectious diseases, where he uses evolutionary genomics, molecular taxonomy, field ecology, bioinformatics and experimentation to investigate clinical and environmental factors that are driving infectious diseases. Most of his work focuses on the genomic epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in enterobacteria, respiratory pathogens, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Cryptococcus. His ultimate research goal is focused on understanding the natural reservoir of infection and comparing it to what we already know about infectious agents that will help us understand the mechanisms behind disease, informing prevention and treatment strategies, thereby reducing the burden of disease.