Isabel Kazanga, Malawi

Isabel holds a BSc Degree in Nursing (2005) and a University Certificate in Midwifery (2008) obtained from the University of Malawi. She has also completed the European Masters in Sustainable Regional Health Systems (EMSRHS) which was awarded in June 2010. EMSRHS is a 2 years Joint Masters program which is coordinated by four European Universities:  University of Deusto (Spain), Corvinus University of the Budapest (Hungary), University of Verona (Italy) and Vilnius University (Lithuania). Her masters study was sponsored by the European Union Commission under the Erasmus Mundus scholarship program. Isabel is currently pursuing a PhD in Global Health at Trinity College Dublin under Irish Aid sponsorship. Her areas of research interest include public health policy, health equity, health systems, quality improvement and patient safety. Isabel's PhD research study is entitled “Effectiveness of Essential Health Package (EHP) in improving access to health services in Malawi: An Equity Perspective”.

Akinmayowa Lawal, Nigeria

Saheed Akinmayọwa Lawal holds a B.Sc and M.Sc in Sociology (specialising in Demography and Population Studies) completed in 2005 and 2009 respectively from University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has volunteered with the World Health Organisation on the National Programme on Immunization as an Independent Monitor in Ebonyi State of South Eastern, Nigeria and as a Peer Educator in the National Youth Service Corp, Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Prevention Project supported by United Nations Children’s Fund. In 2008, he co-founded Leadership and Entrepreneurship Club (L.E.C), University of Ibadan, Nigeria to promote entrepreneurship among youths and produce an emerging class of new entrepreneurs and business leaders.

He is currently undertaking a PhD in Global Health at Trinity College Dublin. His research topic is entitled “Health Care Delivery, Access and Utilisation in Emerging Communities of Urban South West, Nigeria. It will explore the processes by which health care services develop in emerging communities in urban areas in southwest Nigeria, the pattern of communicable diseases and the specific factors influencing spread of communicable diseases in emerging communities in southwestern Nigeria. His areas of interest include health systems, health policy and management, medical sociology, environmental demography, sociology of development, social research and theory.

Frederique Vallieres, Canada

Frédérique holds a BSc. in Psychology from McGill University in Montréal (2006) and a MSc. in Global Health from Trinity College Dublin (2010).   Her research experience includes working as a research assistant at the Montréal Institute for Research on Youth Depression; research co-ordinator for a longitudinal study examining cognitive vulnerabilities to depression in youth at Peking University in Beijing; and as the principal investigator conducting a situational analysis of orphans and vulnerable children in Nakuru, Kenya.  In 2006 she co-founded Reach Out To Humanity (ROTH), a Canadian registered charity she currently chairs.  She has experience working on global health projects in Peru, Kenya and Tanzania. 

Her current research interests include community health workers (CHWs) and the important role they play in linking communities to existing health systems.  Her doctorate research project will examine access to maternal and infant access to health care in 10 area development programs active in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritania and Sierra Leone.  Frédérique's research will seek to understand what motivates and empowers community-based volunteer groups and health workers to coalesce and provide access to health care amongst the world’s most vulnerable populations as well as to measure their contribution to health systems strengthening in resource limited settings.  Furthermore, this research will be used to develop recruitment, training and supervision criteria for CHW programmes and to increase CHW involvement in strategic planning.

Bonnix Kayabu, Democratic Republic of Congo

Bonnix Kayabu is a medical doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRCongo) with five years of professional experience in both conflict and post-conflict setting. In 2004, he graduated from Universite Evangelique en Afrique (UEA). His final thesis was on surgical treatment of vaginal fistula in south-Kivu. He worked in both Eastern Congo and Rwanda before moving to Ireland and he is familiar with tropical diseases management and general surgical procedures at District hospital level. Bonnix holds a Masters in Science degree in Global Health from Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) and he has a particular interest on ageing population. His Master’s thesis was focussed on older people’s participation in the decision-making process before moving from hospital to a nursing home (Ireland).

Bonnix is currently undertaking a PhD in Global health at Trinity College Dublin, his research area is on the area of Internally Displaced People in DRCongo, focussing on HIV positive women and their access and utilisation of HIV health services. His project title is "Services for internally displaced HIV positive women in North-Kivu (DRCongo) during times of increased conflict- Lesson learnt". The focus of this qualitative research is on internally displaced HIV + women in North-Kivu province. The research questions are: what are typical barriers to access and utilisation of HIV services for these women; what are the differences in adherence to ART between IDPs HIV + women and others HIV positive women living around the IDPs camps; how do health planners prevent disruption of HIV services when insecurity increases; identify other unmet needs in the health sector related to HIV. My main objectives are to identify barriers to access and utilisation of services for IDPs HIV+ women and identify ways to prevent important disruption when a sudden war occurs.

Nuha Ibrahim, Sudan

Nuha Ibrahim is originally from Sudan. She holds a BA in Biology from University of Khartoum, Sudan (2004) and master of Global Health from Centre for Global Health, Trinity College Dublin (2010). She is currently undertaking a PhD in Global Health at Trinity College Dublin. Her research area is around hospital Management and Physicians’ satisfaction in Sudan. Scales to measure both the hospital performance and doctors’ satisfaction will be developed to suit the Sudanese context from previous and similar research in developed and developing countries. The expected outcomes for this research would help to understand how the non financial management for hospitals could contribute in doctors’ satisfaction and how low income countries such as Sudan could improve physicians’’ satisfaction in context of scarce financial resources. Nuha’s academic areas of interest include Health System Strengthening, Nutritional challenges & Food security.

The title of her PhD research is "Hospital management performance and satisfaction of physicians/doctors in Sudan". A key factor in providing medical care is the availability of qualified and motivated health care professionals. The deficiency of health human resources is one of the main constraints to improve health conditions in developing countries. Sudan currently has approximately 21,000 doctors registered with the Sudanese medical council. However, of these approximately 12,000 are not working in Sudan and instead are working overseas. This project is mainly trying to measure the performance of hospitals management in Sudan and the satisfaction rate of Sudanese doctors in the selected hospitals in relation to that management. Scales to measure both the hospital performance and doctors’ satisfaction will be developed to suit the Sudanese context from previous and similar research in developed and developing countries. The expected outcomes for this research would help to understand how the non financial management to hospitals contribute in doctors’ satisfaction and how low income countries such as Sudan could improve physicians’ satisfaction in context of scarce financial resources.

Karen Hand, Ireland

Karen Hand completed a Batchelor’s Degree in Business Studies in Trinity College Dublin in 1989 and has worked internationally and domestically in marketing, branding and qualitative research for 20 years. In 2010 she completed a Higher Diploma in Psychology in Trinity, where her research focused on the effects of unequal pay systems on societal motivation. Under the INDIGO PhD programme, she is investigating the role of brands within Aid and Development.

Annariina Koivu, Finland

Annariina Koivu is from Finland where she completed her first Masters degree on literature and communication at the University of Tampere. In her dissertation she focused on text messages. Having developed an interest in international issues and being active in the civil society, she ended up working as an intern for the United Nations in Brussels and at the UN Headquarters in New York. In between the internships Annariina worked in Finnish public health as an analyst and later on as a project manager for the Information Management Unit of Pirkanmaa Hospital District. Since she felt that her original degree did not reflect her interests and experience any more, she completed another Masters degree Global Health & Public Policy at the Edinburgh University in 2009. Annariina Koivu is currently pursuing her PhD on the area of health information and ICTs in developing countries. She has also promoted MDGs in Nigeria as part of UNDP's advocacy programme.

Amarech Guda, Ethiopia

Amarech Guda holds a BA and MSC in Economics completed in 2004 and 2007 respectively from Addis Ababa University Faculty of Business and Economics.  She is currently undertaking a PhD in Global Health at Trinity College Dublin.  Her research topic is entitled “Assessment of changes in health care seeking behavior and health service provision following the introduction of community-based health insurance in Ethiopia”.  It will be a comparative analysis of pilot and control districts to assess the contribution of community based health insurance to health care seeking behavior/utilization of the population and the changes in health systems in terms of providing efficient and equitable health services.  Amarech’s areas of academic interest include health care financing and health systems.

Richard Mugambe, Uganda

Richard Mugambe holds a bachelor of Environmental Health Sciences from Makerere University, Uganda (2003), and a Masters degree in Environmental Sciences majoring in Environmental Health and technology from Wageningen University, The Netherlands (2007).  He has over 5 years of professional experience in Environmental and Public Health research especially in the areas of water and sanitation, communicable diseases and climate change. He works with Makerere University School of Public Health, Uganda. His current PhD research at Trinity College Dublin is entitled: Integrating water, sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) into HIV/AIDS care and support programmes. His focus is: access to and use of WASH as well as interventions for reducing diarrhoeal diseases amongst people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in rural Uganda.

Vincent Jumbe, Malawi

Vincent Chipiliro Jumbe was born on 18 December 1976 in Malawi, a country in South Eastern Africa. He attended his undergraduate school at University of Malawi (UNIMA), Chancellor College, graduating in 1999 with a Bachelors Degree in Humanities majoring in English Literature/Linguistics and Philosophy. In 2004, he pursued postgraduate studies at College of Medicine (CoM), a constituent college under UNIMA, in Public Health (MPH).  After completing his MPH is 2006, he pursued another MA in Bioethics jointly offered by Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, Padua University in Italy and University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. This was a programme sponsored by the European Union under Erasmus Mundus mobility programme. Vincent has conducted research in the fields of Bioethics, traditional medicine, disability and health policy. He is currently working with the University of Malawi, College of Medicine under the Centre for Bioethics in Eastern and Southern Africa (CEBESA). Under the INDIGO PhD program in Global health, his research area is on research governance.

Camille Boostrom, United States of America

Camille Boostrom is pursuing a PhD with the Centre for Global Health. Her research will focus on human resources for health in Ethiopia. Specifically she is exploring the links between supervision practices and job satisfaction and motivation among volunteer Community Health Workers, Health Extension Workers, and Health Extension Worker supervisors in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. She completed her BA in International Relations at American University, in Washington DC, and an MSc in Development Studies at University College Dublin, where her research focused on the health system in the West Bank. She has worked with the Georgetown University Medical Centre as a Research Associate and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as a Research Consultant.