Speaker Biographies

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Permanent Secretary

National Malaria Control Program

Ministry of Public Health, Cameroon

Dorothy Fosah Achu is a Permanent Secretary for the National Malaria Control Program in Cameroon. Dr Achu has played a significant role in the development, implementation, and evaluation of malaria policy in Cameroon.  A physician by training, she has also conducted research on malaria control. Dr Achu also holds an advanced Master's degree in Public Health Methods and a Diploma and Malaria studies

Director

Global Malaria Programme

World Health Organization

Dr Pedro L. Alonso is the director of the Global Malaria Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. The Global Malaria Programme is responsible for the coordination of WHO’s global efforts to control and eliminate malaria and sets evidence-based norms, standards, policies, and guidelines to support malaria-affected countries around the world.

Dr Alonso has spent over 30 years in public health, having started his career as a physician working in West Africa. His past scientific research focused on the key determinants of morbidity and mortality in the most vulnerable population groups. He has published over 300 articles in international peer-revised journals, primarily on malaria treatment, vaccine trials, and preventive therapies, and he has served on several national and international committees. Dr Alonso is committed to the capacity building of both institutions and individuals, primarily in Africa.

Prior to taking on his current position at WHO, Dr Alonso served as director of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, professor of Global Health at the University of Barcelona, and president of the governing board of the Manhiça Foundation and the Manhiça Health Research Center in Mozambique.

Professor

Department of Parasitology and Entomology 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria

Uche Amazigo is a Professor in the Department of Parasitology and Entomology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria. She is a recognized global expert on community engagement and participation in strengthening health systems. Prof Amazigo has over forty years of experience in national and global public health with a bias in Community-Directed interventions (CDI) for the control and elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). She served as Scientist, Chief of Sustainable Drug Distribution Unit (1996-2005), and the Director of the World Health Organization African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (WHO/APOC) from 2006 to 2011. Professor Amazigo is one of the few female Africans to head a UN Agency.

She is recognized for her pioneering research which shed greater light on the causes and effect of Onchocerciasis (River blindness) in Sub-Saharan Africa and for her scientific contributions and leadership in the scaling up of community-directed treatment (CDT) strategy for the distribution of ivermectin by over 146,000 communities to control River blindness and other Neglected Tropical Diseases in sub­ Saharan Africa. In 2009, she provided the scientific evidence of the interruption of transmission of Onchocerca volvulus infection in APOC countries and launched the repositioning global effort from control to elimination of River blindness in Africa. She has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and contributed to book chapters. Professor Amazigo has received numerous national and international awards including the prestigious Prince Mahidol Award in Public Health, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science.

She was a member of the selection sub-committee for the Japanese Government Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Services Category in 2013 and 2019, and for the Al-Sumait Prize 2018 (Health) for Africa. She serves on the Merck for Mothers Global Advisory Board on Maternal Mortality and WHO/TDR Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) Advisory Committee. Professor Amazigo is a member of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinating Committee; chair of the Anambra State VISION 2070 development plan committee on Social Agenda (Education, Health Social Security and Housing). She serves as Trustee to several national and global Boards and currently heads a Non-Governmental Organization, Pan-African Community Initiative on Education and Health (PACIEH).

Senior Research Scientist

Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation, Nigeria

Ifeyinwa (Ify) Aniebo is a molecular geneticist and infectious disease expert, currently working on malaria drug resistance surveillance in Nigeria. At the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation in Lagos, Nigeria, she is  Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator, leading malaria research and program implementation. 

Ify is also a former Takemi Fellow in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to serving as a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard Chan, she worked as a Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) on a Department for International Development funded project on strengthening the use of data for malaria decision making in 13 African countries. 

Ify previously worked as a HIV Research Associate at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, and a researcher at the Sanger Institute and Illumina, the two top genetic research institutions in the world, both in Cambridge, UK. She has vast experience in molecular biology, infectious diseases and global health and has worked in many countries in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia. She is the founder of Afroscientric, a social enterprise which mentors and trains young women and encourages them to pursue careers in science. Ify earned Master's degrees in Global Health Science and Research from the University of Oxford and a Doctoral degree in Clinical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the LSHTM. 

Professor of Clinical Epidemiology

Director, Centre for Malaria Research

University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana

Co-Chair, Integrated Service Delivery for Malaria Working Group

Professor Evelyn Korkor Ansah is the Director of the Centre for Malaria Research, University of Health and Allied Science in Ghana. She is a Public Health Physician, an Epidemiologist, and Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow. She holds a medical degree and a master’s in Public Health from Ghana and a doctoral degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Ansah has served and continues to provide service at Global, International and National levels. She was the Vice Chair of the Technical Review Panel (TRP) of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She currently serves on the World Health Organization’s Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG) and Malaria Elimination Oversight Committee (MEOC). She also serves on the Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Professor Ansah previously served as a member of the Bellagio Academic Selection Panel of the Rockefeller Foundation, member of the Steering Committee of the ACT Consortium (involving over 15 institutions in several countries) and the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium. She was Deputy Director responsible for Research at the Research & Development Division of the Ghana Health Service. As the Deputy Director responsible for research at the National Level she led the development of the Ghana Health Service Research Agenda for the period 2015-2019. She contributes to building capacity among the next generation of Public Health Professionals and has supervised several PhD and Masters students both locally and internationally. She has served and continues to serve as adjunct faculty at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and The School of Public Health, University of Ghana.

Senior Research Fellow

Societies and Cultures Section 

Institute of African Studies

University of Ghana

Dr Deborah Atobrah  is Senior Research Fellow in the Societies and Cultures Section of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. She is serves as Treasurer of the African Studies Association of Africa and Coordinator of required courses. Since 2018, Deborah has been a member of the Gender Working Group of the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation on the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Support Programme on Climate Change.

In 2015, she served as a Fellow of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health’s prestigious Takemi Program in International Health. She is also a Catalyst Fellow at Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh. In 2014, she was invited to evaluate the gendered impacts of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s water projects in Ghana. She also contributed a chapter on Ghana to the Progress of the World’s Women 2019-2020: Families in a Changing World, commissioned by UNWomen. Dr Atobrah was awarded a Residency Award at the Bellagio Center from the Rockefeller Foundation in 2012 and a Duke University Provost Travel Award 2013.

She originally trained as an administrator, with a BSc in Administration from the University of Ghana Business School (1996). She previously worked as a Customer Operations Officer for five years with Millicom Ghana Limited, operators of TIGO cellular communication. She earned a Master of Philosophy and Doctoral degree in African Studies from the Institute of African Studies at University of Ghana, in 2003 and 2010 respectively. She holds two Post Graduate Certificates in Global Health Challenges (2010) and in Global Poverty and Development (2008) from the University of Bergen Norway. 

Epicentre Representative for Africa

(the research arm of Medecins sans Frontières) 

Professor Yap Boum is the Epicentre Representative for Africa, the research arm of Medecins sans Frontières (MSF). For the last ten years, he has led several research activities of diseases affecting Africa such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, Ebola and COVID-19. He is Co-Founder of Kmerpad, a social innovation that produces reusable sanitary pads for women, and iDocta, an organization that provides quality healthcare by relying on technology to connect patients and health professionals. 

He earned a Degree in Engineering with a focus on Quality Management, a Master’s degree in Microbiology, and a Master’s degree in Public Health, and a Doctoral degree in Biology.

Executive Director

Takemi Program in International Health 

Lecturer on Global Health Policy 

Department of Global Health and Population

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The overarching goal of Bump’s research is to analyze the evolution of ideas and institutions that promote better societal performance in health. His work has focused on the special opportunities to build health systems and advance social protections during and after widespread disruption by infectious disease epidemics, colonial extraction, conflict, industrialization, globalization, and other processes. 

Using historical and political economy perspectives, Bump investigates how and when societies develop ways to understand and manage the largest threats to lives and livelihoods. His multi-disciplinary work leverages deeply historical scholarship with social science theories and methods to produce strategies for the present and future.

At the national level, he has examined how governments, citizens, and the private sector organize around health objectives, including environmental protections, epidemic responses, disease surveillance, universal health coverage, and related public health institutions. At the global level, he has studied the development of international organizations, analyzed their political economy, and advanced the struggle to make them more fair, more accountable, and more effective. Bump has collaborated with leading institutions to address some of the most significant issues in global health, including designing more equitable methods for setting priorities and allocating resources, developing strategies for managing the political economy of health reform, and navigating the politics of building institutions for public health. His research projects have generated solutions in many focused areas, as well, such as tobacco control, diarrheal diseases, onchocerciasis, congenital syphilis, and nutrition governance. 

In addition to his role at the Harvard Chan, he is a member of the Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting at the University of Bergen. Bump is an award-winning teacher and passionate advocate for his students. He offers popular courses on the history and political economy of global health and has delivered dozens of invited lectures around the world. He earned an Baccalaureate degree in Astronomy and History from Amherst College, a Doctoral degree in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology from Johns Hopkins University, and a Master's degree from Harvard University.

Andelot Professor of Demography and Chair

Department of Global Health and Population 

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Co-Chair, Training & Capacity Building for Malaria  Working Group

Marcia Castro is Andelot Professor of Demography and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also associate faculty at the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. At Harvard, she serves as a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Brazil Studies Program, a member of the Executive Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and a member of the Center for Geographic Analysis Steering Committee.

Professor Castro’s research focuses on the identification of social, biological, and environmental risks associated with vector-borne diseases in the tropics, with the ultimate goal of informing the planning, implementation, and evaluation of control interventions. 

From 2004­–2010, she worked with the Dar es Salaam Urban Malaria Control Program to promote the use of environmental management approaches and larviciding to improve urban health. Professor Castro is currently conducting a study to evaluate the use of larviciding in fish ponds in the Brazilian Amazon, and she is part of the Amazonia International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Professor Castro is also working on the epidemiology and impacts of arboviruses (dengue, Zika virus, and chikungunya) in Brazil, on issues of human mobility and asymptomatic malaria infections in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as on the potential impacts of extreme climatic events on malaria transmission in the Amazon. 

Her research interests include assessing the impact of human mobility and asymptomatic infections in the pattern and level of malaria transmission; testing a new strategy to identify residual reservoirs of P. vivax in areas of declining transmission; evaluating the role of behavior change communication campaigns in malaria control; and modeling the impact of extreme climatic events on the transmission of malaria.

Professor Castro earned a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Rio de Janeiro State University, a master’s degree in Demography from Minas Gerais Federal University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Demography from Princeton University. Professor Castro received a Mentoring award in 2011, the Alice Hamilton award in 2014, and was the 2018 recipient of the Roger L. Nichols Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Consultant

Dr Nii Ayite Coleman is a consultant in health systems policy, financing and governance. He studied Medicine at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana and served as a Takemi Fellow in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has extensive experience as a public health practitioner, a policy maker, and a teacher; he has worked in both private and public health sectors. 

Earlier in his career, Dr Coleman rose through the ranks of the Ghana health system serving in succession as a District Medical Officer of Health, Regional Director of Health Service, and Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Ministry of Health. He also served as Director of the National Health Insurance Scheme. Until his retirement from Ghana’s public service in April 2020, he was an Advisor on health systems policy and financing to Ghana’s Minister of Health. 

Founder & President

Africa Research Excellence Fund

As Founder and President of the African Research Excellence Fund (AREF), his focus is to support bright, early postdoctoral African scientists at the most vulnerable point in their careers. The charity aims to provide the foundation for these young scientists and clinicians to compete and win grants, enabling them to continue their health research careers in Africa. Since its inception in 2015, AREF has witnessed a growing number of its alumni winning significant awards that will help to propel their careers in research of relevance to African populations.

Professor Tumani Corrah also serves as the UK Medical Research Council's foundation Director of Africa Research Development and the first Emeritus Director of the MRC Unit, The Gambia. For over thirty years, he has pursued three passions: improving outcomes in patient care in challenging environments; research into diseases that impact the developing world disproportionately; and building human capacity in health research in West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa.

Tumani Corrah played a significant role in the establishment of the Medical School in The Gambia and as Unit Director, developed health research capacity for hundreds of Africans. As a clinician, he established the first endoscopy unit in The Gambia. He also maintains strong links with the Methodist Mission's medical and dental work in rural villages in The Gambia, where he continues to raise funds, share his medical expertise and direct the vision of the medical mission's work.

His role as the MRC's pioneer Director of Africa Development is the latest incarnation of his quest for growing a new generation of outstanding African health researchers working in Africa. During his long career at MRC Unit, The Gambia, Tumani Corrah rose through the ranks from ward clinician to Director of one of Africa's leading research institutions. a position he held through many challenges for over ten years. He retains active research interests in Tropical and Infectious Diseases, including tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. He holds a PhD from his studies on tuberculosis which included the ground- breaking science of the introduction of immunotherapy as an adjunct treatment for tuberculosis in The Gambia.

An expert on research governance, he was a long-standing member of The Gambia Government/MRC Joint Ethics Committee, including 4 years as Chairman. He is a joint recipient of a Gold Medal awarded by the International Medical Informatics Association and serves on the committees of numerous international bodies including the Wellcome Trust, World Health Organization, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Union. Tumani Corrah continues to place his experience as a scientist, MRC Unit Director clinician and his professional links with governmental and non-governmental organisations globally at the service of African research.

President

Chestrad Global, Nigeria

Lola Dare is an award-winning community physician, epidemiologist, public health practitioner, development consultant, sociopreneur, and an irrepressible global health advocate for women, girls, and young persons. She champions the application of evidence and data for policy, evaluation, and accountability demand functions of non-state actors including civil society and community-based organizations, the private sector, and the media. Lola is at the forefront of advocacy for resilient, accountable right based health care services and systems strengthening driven by the PHC approach. She engages policymakers, parliamentarians, donor-funded programmes, and national governments including bilateral, multilateral, and intergovernmental organizations. She has nimbly linked investments in health to social protection, with resultant multi-sector actions for large-scale impact.

Lola, an innovative thought leader whose impact on global health development is expansive has served in governance mechanisms of major initiatives and is currently a member of the Transition Independent Monitoring Board (TIMB), Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. In recognition of her competence and knowledge of much-needed country context to development dialogues, Lola has been awarded membership of the UK Based Game Changers Women’s Leadership Network with recognition on its Wall of Wonder Women. She is President of Chestrad Global, a trail-blazing global social enterprise with network members in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Lola Dare is well-published beyond her immediate spheres of influence.

Chair, Rethinking Malaria in the Context of COVID-19

Emeritus Professor of Immunology and Parasitology

University of Yaoundé I

Rose Leke is Emeritus Professor of Immunology and Parasitology at the University of Yaoundé I. Her primary research interests center on the immunology of parasitic infections, in particular, malaria. Professor Leke has a keen interest in global health issues and has been involved in the worldwide Polio Eradication Initiative, global malaria elimination activities, and health systems strengthening efforts. She has been very effective in the training of the next generation of scientists, namely the empowerment of the young female scientists and women overall. Higher Women Cameroon, a high-impact mentoring program, is one of her primary initiatives. 

In March 2013, she stepped down as Head of Department of Immunology and Parasitology at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Biotechnology Centre at the University of Yaounde.Professor Leke is Executive Director of the Cameroon Coalition against malaria, and Chair of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Secretariat, member of the Canada Gairdner Foundation Global Health Award Advisory Committee, President of the Federation of African Immunological Societies, fellow of the Cameroon Academy of Sciences CAS, fellow of the African Academy of Science AAS, fellow of the World Academy of Science, and two-term Council member of the International Union of Immunological Societies. 

Professor Leke is co-Chair of Harvard's Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative Executive Board (alongside Michelle Williams, Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard Chan) and Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Medical Research Institute. She serves as Vice President of the Scientific Committee of Cameroon First Lady’s Research Centre. She is a member and Chair of the African Advisory Committee for Health Research (ACHR) and Global ACHR; Board member of the Global Forum for Health Research; and served as Vice-Chair of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) of the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB, and Malaria. She was awarded a Plaque of Honor in recognition of her “outstanding Services and dedication in leading the TERG” in 2009.

She has served as a consultant on several past/current committees of the WHO, including Malaria Policy Advisory Committee, Malaria Elimination Oversight Committee, Global Certification Commission, Emergency Committee for Polio Eradication, and the Chair of the African Regional Commission for the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis. She also served as Chair of the Data Management Committee for a trial on Azithromycin-chloroquine, was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Ebola vaccine trials in Guinea. In 2011, she was one of six women who received the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award for Women and received the 2012 award for Excellence in Science from the Cameroon Professional Society. In 2014, she served as the Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lecturer at the University of Ghana and was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa (DSc). In 2015, she was elected International Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 

In 2018, she was elected one of nine women as Heroine of Health and was celebrated in a special event in Geneva in the presence of the Director-General World Health Organization (WHO), the Regional Director WHO/African Regional Office, and the Cameroon Minister of Health. On November 23, 2018, she was crowned by the Cameroon Medical Council as Queen Mother of the Cameroonian Medical Community.

Professor Emeritus

University of Colombo

Former Malaria Expert

World Health Organization 

Professor Mendiis established the Malaria Research Unit (MRU) in 1988 in the Department of Parasitology of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo which functioned as a Centre for post-graduate research training and malaria research on Immunology, Molecular biology, Epidemiology as well as Genetics. In 1998, she moved to WHO Geneva to plan and launch the Roll Back Malaria initiative and then lead malaria treatment and elimination efforts with WHO’s Global Malaria Programme. She conducted research on immunology and transmission blocking vaccines for her PhD thesis in London. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in 1972. Her original work on malaria research has been honoured by National Presidential Award, the Chalmers Medal of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, and the Ashford Bailey Medal of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.  

Associate Professor

Department of Health Policy and Management University of California, Los Angeles 

Associate Director, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research

Co-Chair, Integrated Service Delivery for Malaria Working Group

Professor Moucheraud is a global health policy and systems researcher, focused on the question: how can we deliver high-quality, efficient, equitable, sustainable health services in low-resource, system-constrained settings? She conducts both quantitative and qualitative research, including primary data (surveys, interviews, focus groups, clinical observation) and secondary data, as well as economic evaluation research such as cost-effectiveness analyses. The main topic areas include HIV, maternal health, and non-communicable diseases, and she primarily conducts research in sub-Saharan Africa.

Research Scientist

Kenya Medical Research Institute

Research Care and Training Program 

Felix Ong’era Mogaka is a Research Scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Research Care and Training Program (KEMRI-RCTP). As a research medical officer and coordinator for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) studies, his area of research centers on prevention studies of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) in Kisumu, Kenya. His interests range from the development and scale-up of innovative, sustainable, and community-responsive strategies of delivering HIV and STI prevention options to adolescent girls and young women in Kenya. He also has interests in cultivating critical reflection among researchers and healthcare stakeholders working in low- and middle-income countries concerning colonial legacy across healthcare determinants and its manifestation in how they think about and respond to healthcare needs. He studied Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) at the University of Nairobi and is currently a Master’s degree candidate in the Global Health department at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Professor of Pediatrics and Child Health

University of Ilorin & Ilorin Teaching Hospital

Director,  National Malaria Technical Director, Nigeria

Professor Olugbenga Ayodeji Olugbenga is a biomedical researcher with over 25 years of experience in competencies that cut across clinical, academic and programmatic issues, primarily about malaria control and care of the newborn diverse public health activities. He is also a medical leader serving in different administrative and technical capacities at the national and international level. 

His research has focused on the two prongs of newborn care and malaria. In neonatal care his research areas involved the thermoregulation, anthropometry and preterm care. In this regard, he projected the use of oxygen concentrators as an efficient means of oxygen supply in resource challenge settings with high demand of oxygen for neonatal care. He partnered with colleagues from the Imperial College in the UK to develop the digitally recycled incubation technique to address thermo-regulatory challenges in the newborn. 

On malaria, he collaborated to conduct one of the largest studies on perinatal malaria, antimalarial chemotherapy and understanding the spread of artemisinin resistance. He currently provides Technical Lead for National Therapeutic Efficacy Studies for antimalarials in the country and a host of other studies being conducted by the National Malaria Program.

Malaria Expert and Global Health Consultant

Dr Halima Mwenesi is currently an independent Global Health consultant and the immediate former Director of Infectious Diseases Division at FHI 360, Washington, DC; where she oversaw a portfolio of Malaria, Tuberculosis (TB), Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) including: Lymphatic Filariasis, Schistosomiasis, Trachoma, Onchocerciasis and Helminths, Diarrheal diseases; across Africa and Asia. Her focus was on the utilization of integrated, multi sectoral approaches to respond to these public health priorities as well as techniques and methods relevant to each program area and objectives, context and geography. Innovative use of technology to strengthen communication and reporting as well as capacity building are core features of her work. 

She has worked on malaria since 1985 and work over the years has collaborated with governments at regional, national and local levels, bilateral and multilateral organizations, academia and as well other implementing partners and donors. Her interest in health policy led to a secondment with the African Leaders Malaria Alliance where she served as the Senior Director and Country Liaison for two years. Her major focus on programs has been on project design, monitoring and evaluation; social and behavior change, advocacy and interventions/proposals evaluations/reviews for major funders including the Wellcome Trust, UK; the Global Fund Against HIV, TB, and Malaria and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership among others. She also has a major interest in private sector engagement for public health and livelihood programs as well as advocacy for domestic resources for health interventions. Halima continues to contribute to global thought leadership on malaria through membership in various infectious diseases think-tanks, Committees, task forces, and working groups.

Mwenesi previously served as the Senior Project Director and Technical Director of two multimillion-dollar US Government Flagship malaria projects - The Malaria Action Program for States (MAPS) project in Nigeria (2010-2016) working in nine out of thirty-seven States to increase access and availability of insecticide treated nets (ITNs) to the population; and the NetMark Africa Malaria Program (1999-2009), a public-private partnership project which introduced insecticide treated nets to seven African countries, respectively. She was also amongst the first to work on research/projects to address taxes, tariffs and non-tariff barriers on antimalarial commodities as the Director of the Malaria Taxes and Tariffs Advocacy Project (M-TAP), in Africa and Asia with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation  (2008-2011) which led to African countries reducing or removing these barriers partially or completely. Other assignments were as Technical Lead for two other USAID projects, the Integrated Malaria Program (IMaP) in Mozambique, aimed at strengthening the National Malaria Program’s capacity to deliver quality preventative, diagnostic and treatment services; as well as capacity to collect and collate data to measure progress and for decision-making, the Comprehensive Health Service Delivery – Boresha Afya Project in Tanzania, aimed at implementing evidence-based interventions to deliver comprehensive integrated services for HIV/AIDS, MNCH, FP, TB and Malaria (2017-2020); and the GSK Community Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases project which worked to integrate malaria control interventions with soil helminths interventions through primary schools in Ghana (2014-2017).

Prior to her international career, Dr. Mwenesi worked for the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) for 16 years and was attached to the Center for Public Health Research and the KEMRI-Kilifi Center for Geographic Medicine where she laid the ground work for understanding psycho-social aspects of malaria – including local definitions of the disease, health-seeking and home-treatment behaviors for fever and malaria-like disease. These work laid a foundation on national and international policy on home-management of malaria/fever in children. Halima further worked for the UNDP/WHO/UNICEF Special Program for Research and training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) for three years where she coordinated malaria prevention operational research projects in 24 countries in Africa funded by TDR, identified and encouraged research teams in the countries to carry out ITNs effectiveness studies after proof of concept on their efficacy was concluded (1996-1999).

As a social scientist trained in public health and policy, Halima over the years has continued to champion and promote the interface of social and biomedical sciences to inform policy and malaria interventions in Africa as well as capacity building for all areas of malaria. She chaired the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria’s Taskforce on capacity building for malaria for six years; represented Northern International non-governmental organizations on the RBM Board for eight years, co-chaired the Taskforce on the Architecture and Governance of the RBM and due to her commitment to developing science and especially social science capacity in Africa, still has a chair/membership on various funding mechanisms that promote science in Africa and especially on malaria. She has just completed four years on the Technical Review Panel of the Global Fund against HIV, TB and Malaria as a malaria expert and one of the two focal points for malaria. She counts mentors and colleagues across the whole spectrum of the malaria response in Africa and beyond. Halima holds a BA and MA from the University of Nairobi, and a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London. 

Professor and Chief

Department of Parasitology and Mycology

Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal

Professor Daouda Ndiaye is Professor and Head of the Department of Parasitology and Mycology in the Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy at Cheikh Anta Diop University. He is also head of the parasitology laboratories at LeDantec Research and Teaching Hospital in Dakar, Senegal. Professor Ndiaye manages field site activities in Senegal for a number of collaborating institutions, including Harvard University, Tulane University, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He serves as director of the International Research and Training Center on Infectious Pathogens and Genomics, and Senegal-Director of the Senegal Harvard Malaria Initiative. 

Professor Ndiaye has extensive experience interacting with international collaborators and scientific bodies, having worked with collaborators from other malaria endemic countries as well as with partners in Europe and the US. At the World Health Organization (WHO), He serves as a consultant on behalf of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, including service as a technical advisor on malaria diagnostics, an expert on drug resistance and response, and a malaria expert and member of the WHO Malaria Elimination Certification Panel. Professor Ndiaye earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacy and Parasitology from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal and received a Fogarty Fellowship to study molecular biology in the laboratory of Professor Dyann F. Wirth at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2017, he was named a Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. 

Founder & Executive Director

Impact Sante Afrique, Cameroon

Olivia Ngou is the Founding Executive Director of Impact Santé Afrique, an African based NGO. Prior to launching the ISA, she had a 10-year tenure at Malaria No More where she led the Cameroonian and other Africa-based programs to advocate for malaria control and eradication among politicians, celebrities, private sector stakeholders, and community leaders. She co-founded and established the first Global Network of Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME), which she now coordinates with over 300 members from 43 countries.
Her work on malaria control began at the Special Envoy for Malaria at the United Nations and teaching a public health course for undergraduate students at The City College in New York City. She also worked with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control as a research assistant. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and is an alumnus of the “Science of Eradication: Malaria” leadership development course organized by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health , Harvard University, and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.

Chief Executive Officer 

Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation, Nigeria Founder, Healthcare Leadership Academy

Visiting Scientist, Department of Immunology & Infectious Diseases

Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

Dr Ohiri previously served as the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance as well as two Ministers of Health in Nigeria and  Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in London, where he served clients in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He also worked with the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, having joined through the Young Professionals' Programme. His focus was on Social Protection and strengthening Health Systems in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
Dr Ohiri has written policy papers, peer-reviewed publications and co-authored books on health-systems. He has served on expert advisory committees for the Institute of Medicine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, and the World Health Organization (WHO). He served on the Board of the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and is currently a member of the Program and Policy Committee of the GAVI Board.
Dr Ohiri earned a Medical degree from the University of Lagos and Master's degrees in Public Health and Science in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Chan School of Public Health. He is a Desmond Tutu Fellow of the African Leadership Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Professor Friday Okonofua

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Director, Grants & Research Administration

University of Benin, Nigeria

Co-Chair, Training & Capacity Building for Malaria  Working Group

Professor Okonofua obtained the fellowships of the West African College of Surgeons in 1984 and the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1985. He earned a doctorate in public health from the Karolinka University in Sweden in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a Takemi Fellow in International Health at Harvard University, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science. He joined the services of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Nigeria) in 1986, and rose through the ranks to become a full professor in 1992. His research interests include reproductive health, especially maternal, child, and adolescent reproductive health. 

His research focuses on identifying the causal pathways for reproductive health mishaps and pinpointing innovative solutions through interventional and translational research. He previously served as the head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Benin (Nigeria), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the two Universities, and Provost of the College of Medical Sciences at the University of Benin. He is currently the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences in Ondo City, Nigeria.  
He has been the Adviser on health to President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the Executive Director of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Program Officer at the Ford Foundation. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of Reproductive Health, founder of the Women’s Health and Action Research Centre the Centre Leader of the World Bank African Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation at the University of Benin (Nigeria) and a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has 277 publications (2018).

Program Manager 

National Malaria Program, Uganda

Dr Jimmy Opigo is a Medical Doctor with specialized training in Public Health and Health Systems. He is an expert in malaria control with deep experience in management as the Program Manager of the National Malaria Program of Uganda. Over the past 5 years, he has been responsible for planning, organizing, resourcing, and implementing program activities for impact while maintaining donors and stakeholders engaged through strategic communication. 

Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

In July 2019, Pate was appointed Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Professor Muhammad Ali Pate formerly served as Global Director of Health, Nutrition, and Population at the World Bank Group. He also served as Director, Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, an NGO in Washington, DC. 

Dr Pate is the former Minister of State for Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 2011–2013 and former member of the President’s Economic Management Team. During his tenure at the Minister of Health, he helped mobilize more than US$1 billion in additional financing for primary health care, chaired the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication in Nigeria, and developed innovative results-based initiatives, including a prevention program to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV and a clinical governance effort. Since June 2010, Dr Pate has co-chaired the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, which raised US$24 million domestically for investments to complement the Nigerian government’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative. Prior to his ministerial appointment, he served as chief executive of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency from 2008–2011, where he pioneered innovative strategies and interventions to address major primary health care issues in Nigeria. Dr Pate served as co-chair of the Harvard-London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine panel to review and advise the global health system on the lessons learned from the 2014 West African Ebola Outbreak. He is an adjunct professor of Global Health at Duke University and served as a 2016 Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is a Board Member of Harvard University's Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative.

During the course of his career, Dr Pate spent several years at the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, which included serving as senior health specialist and human development sector coordinator in the East Asia Pacific Region and also as a senior health specialist in the African Region.  He also served as chief executive officer of Big Win Philanthropy, a foundation that invests in maternal, child and reproductive health, nutrition and education, among other areas. Dr Pate is a medical doctor with US Board Certifications in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He trained in sub-specialty of Infectious Diseases at the University of Rochester, NY. He earned a master’s degree in Business Administration with a health sector concentration from Duke University and a master’s degree in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He earned a Medical degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria in 1990. He has been honored with numerous global health awards, including the 2012 Harvard Health Leadership Award, and has authored or contributed to dozens of peer-reviewed publications and contributed book chapters.

ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence

Harvard University

Director & International Scholar

Malaria Elimination Initiative 

Barcelona Institute for Global Health

Since 2012, Dr Regina Rabinovich has served as the ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence at Harvard University. She is a global health leader with over 25 years’ experience in the research, public health, and philanthropic sectors, with focus on strategy, analytics, global health product development, and the introduction and scale-up of tools and strategies resulting in a positive impact on endemic populations.

Prior to joining Harvard University, she served as director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (2003–2012), overseeing the development and implementation of strategies for the prevention, treatment, and control of diseases of particular relevance to global health, including malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea, and neglected infectious diseases.

Dr Rabinovich has also served in various positions at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), focusing on the development and evaluation of vaccines. She participated in the Children’s Vaccine Initiative, a global effort to prevent infectious diseases in children in the developing world, and served as liaison to the National Vaccine Program Office, focusing on vaccine safety and vaccine research. As chief of the Clinical and Regulatory Affairs Branch of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, she managed the evaluation of candidate vaccines through a network of US clinical research units.

In 1999, Dr Rabinovich became director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to advance efforts to develop promising malaria vaccine candidates. She serves on the boards of several organizations focused on global health and infectious diseases, including the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and the Sabin Vaccine Institute. She is an advisor to the Board of Harvard University’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative and past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene. Dr Rabinovich earned a Medical degree from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of North Carolina.

Taro Takemi Research Professor Emeritus of International Health Policy

Department of Global Health and Population

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Co-Chair, Malaria Governance Working Group

Professor Reich's research addresses the political dimensions of public health policy, health system reform, and pharmaceutical policy. Professor Reich is a core faculty member and current course director of the World Bank Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing. He co-authored a landmark textbook on health systems with Harvard colleagues, Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Health Systems & Reform now in its fifth year; most articles are available open-access. Professor Reich has provided policy advice for national governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, private foundations, and private corporations. His software for political analysis, PolicyMaker 4.0, is available for free online.

Professor Reich was appointed a member of the Harvard faculty In 1983 and, in addition to teaching responsibilities, he served as the director of the Takemi Program in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2015, the Japanese government awarded Professor Reich the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of Japan’s policy for global public health as well as for advancing public health in Japan. Professor Reich earned a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science from Yale University.

Public Health Specialist 

World Health Organization

Kafui Senya is responsible for providing technical support and guidance to the Ministry of Health in Ghana. This work includes working with its implementing agencies on policy interventions including policy development, implementation and evaluation for HIV, Tuberculosis, Viral Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections.

He is an experienced Public Health Specialist with experience working in health administration and communicable diseases at sub national,  national, and international levels. He holds a Master's Degree with a focus on in Health Policy, Planning, and Management.

Senior Presidential Advisor

Population & Health

Vice President Emeritus

Republic of Uganda

Co-Chair, Malaria Governance Working Group

Specioza Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe, is a Ugandan surgeon and politician who served as Vice President of Uganda from 1994 to 2003. She was the first woman in Africa to hold the position of vice-president of a sovereign nation. Dr Kazibwe began her political career as a member of the youth and women’s wings of the Ugandan Democratic Party. She won her first election as a village leader, on the ticket of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) in 1987. She was later elected Women’s Representative for Kampala District and became Chairperson of the Advisory Committee for Museveni’s election campaign. She first began serving the administration of Yoweri Museveni in 1989, when she was appointed Deputy Minister for Industry, a post she held until 1991. From 1991 until 1994, she served as Minister for Gender and Community Development. 

She was a member of the Constitution Assembly, which drafted Uganda’s new constitution in 1994. In 1996, she was elected Member of Parliament for the constituency of Kigulu South in Iganga District. From 1994 until 2003, Specioza Kazibwe served as Uganda’s Vice President and as Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries. Dr Kazibwe has been an advocate for women in their position in Africa. In collaboration with the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, she founded the African Women Committee on Peace and Development (AWCPD) in 1998; an organization she has also chaired.

Professor and Dean 

School of Public Health 

Makerere University 

Rhoda Wanyenze is a Professor and Dean of Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH). She has vast experience in infectious diseases research, capacity building and program management, especially in HIV and TB, and has also conducted several studies in maternal and child health. Prior to joining MakSPH, Professor Wanyenze was the Program Manager for the Makerere University Joint AIDS Program.

Her work has been funded by the US National Institutes of Health, US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, The Global Fund, among others. She has developed and sustained several national and international research and service collaborations.

Wanyenze is very active in public health policy leadership in Uganda. She has served on various technical committees of the MoH and other agencies, and boards of several organizations.

Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Chair, WHO Malaria Advisory Group 

co-Chair, Rethinking Malaria in the Context of COVID–19

Professor Dyann F. Wirth has been a major leader in malaria research for more than 30 years. Recognizing the importance of bringing cutting-edge genomic science to the study of infectious diseases, she joined the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard shortly after its establishment to lead its infectious diseases initiative. two-term Using a multidisciplinary approach, her group explores challenges related to mosquito biology and the malaria parasite.

Leveraging the genomic tools of the human genomic project, the group has applied state-of-the-art technologies and novel approaches to better understand the fundamental biology of the malaria parasite, evolution, and mechanisms of drug and insecticide resistance. This work has provided completely new insight into how the malaria parasite has evolved, specifically in the areas of population biology, drug resistance, and antigenicity. The group’s current efforts seek to determine both the number and identity of genes expressed by the parasite in response to drug treatment and to evaluate the role of these genes for parasite survival. This work aims to understand basic molecular mechanisms in protozoan parasites. Current findings have made significant contributions to advancing our understanding of malaria vaccine efficacy with long-term R&D goals to discover and apply preventive and therapeutic interventions against malaria infection. The group’s research activities are made possible through collaborative research partnerships with investigators, universities, and clinical centers in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

In addition to her research and teaching efforts, Professor Wirth directs Harvard’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative, a university-wide effort to produce, transmit, and translate knowledge to support the control and eradication of malaria. Wirth is past chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard Chan (2006–2018). She is a member and current Chair of the World Health Organization’s Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG), fellow and past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH), a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Wirth is a recipient of the ASTMH’s Joseph Augustine LePrince Medal and honored with BioMalPar’s Lifetime Achievement Award and USF Presidents Global Leadership Award in 2018. She is a past board member of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Marine Biological Laboratory.