People Directory

Our team is the heartbeat of our collaborative efforts, comprising diverse experts from various fields. Each member brings unique skills and perspectives, uniting to drive innovation and impact in the health sector. Together, we are more than just a team; we are a community committed to transforming healthcare across Africa.

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People Directory

Photo of Kofi Akohene Mensah

, MSc, PhD

Proessor, Health policy, Management and Economics

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Photo of Joel Tuwey

, PhD

Professor, School of Business

Moi University

Photo of Tracey Naledi

, MD, PhD

Assoc Professor, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences

University of Cape Town

Photo of Katherine Rouleau

, MDCM CCFP MHSc FCFP

Professor, Family and Community Medicine

University of Toronto

Photo of Jennifer Wilson

, MD

Lecturer at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

University of Toronto

Photo of Susan Cleary

, PhD

Head of Department and Professor of Health Economics in the School of Public Health

University of Cape Town

Photo of Paul Santerre

, PhD

Professor & Baxter Chair in Health Technology & Commercialization (UHN) Director of the Health Innovation Hub

University of Toronto

Photo of Ann Armstrong

, PhD

Director, ICUBE

University of Toronto Mississauga, ICUBE

Photo of Penina Lam

, PhD

Senior Director, International Relations, Africa

University of Toronto

Photo of Notisha Massaquoi

, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Society; Founder & Director, Black Health Equity Lab

University of Toronto Scarborough

Profile

Kofi Akohene Mensah, MSc, PhD

Proessor, Health policy, Management and Economics

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Dr. Kofi Akohene Mensah is an expert in Health Policy and Health Services Management.

His years of experience as a Senior lecturer at the Department of Health Policy, Management and Economics at the School of Public Health has contributed immensely to the successful training of hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate students. Kofi has served as a Head for this Department and is currently the Head for the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and Safety. Prior to joining the University as a lecturer, he was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Aniniwah Medical Centre, a 100-bed private hospital in Kumasi, Ghana

Dr. Akohene Mensah has exceptional coordination skills and has led the implementation of several impactful community-based interventions to improve health outcomes in underserved communities. He has collaborated with local and international organizations such Ghana AIDS Commission, USAIDS, DANIDA, UNICEF, CRS, Word Vision Ghana, etc. in HIV/AIDS, child survival, Nutrition, Health care Financing, Non-communicable diseases, etc. These research collaborations have culminated in national policies in maternal, neonatal, child health and health systems strengthening.

Kofi’s ambitious personality and wealth of experience in research and academia has largely been influenced by his education in different parts of the world in varying fields such as Nutrition, Public Health, Health Policy, Strategic Leadership, Health Technology, Health Systems Research and Strengthening.

Kofi is passionate about mentoring the next generation through capacity building. He is currently the Pillar Advisory Chair and the coordinator of the health employment pillar of the multi-million Mastercard Higher Education Health Collaborative, KNUST.

Email Address
akohenemensah@yahoo.com
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Ghana
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Joel Tuwey, PhD

Professor, School of Business

Moi University

Dr. Joel Tuwey earned his PhD in Finance from Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya.

He is a member of the Kenya Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPAK). He is an Accounting and Finance professional with substantial research and consulting expertise. Interests in research include corporate leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Currently involved in Higher Education Health Collaborative study aimed at improving healthcare in Africa. This is a joint grant project supported by the Mastercard Foundation that brings together around eight African partners with the University of Toronto as the lead. He is the Co-Chair of the Health Employment (HEMP) Pillar Advisory Committee.

Email Address
joeltuwey9@gmail.com
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Kenya
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Tracey Naledi, MD, PhD

Assoc Professor, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences

University of Cape Town

Tracey Naledi is an Associate Professor of Public Health Medicine and the Deputy Dean: Social Accountability and Health Systems at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town.

Tracey has held technical and management positions in Government and NGO sectors in South Africa and Botswana. Her work includes the translation of research into policy and practice, addressing health inequity and strengthening systems for health. Tracey is the Founding Chairperson of Tekano, Atlantic Fellows for Health Equity in South Africa, Chairperson of SHAWCO and the Children’s Institute, a Board Member of the Global Brain Health Institute and the South African Medical Research Council. Tracey is a Discovery Foundation Fellow and the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation Fellow.

Email Address
tracey.naledi@uct.ac.za
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
South Africa
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Katherine Rouleau, MDCM CCFP MHSc FCFP

Professor, Family and Community Medicine

University of Toronto

Katherine Rouleau is a family physician and global health expert. She has practiced and taught team-based family medicine at St-Michael’s Hospital in the St-Jamestown neighborhood of Toronto for over 25 years.  At the University of Toronto, she is director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care, and Global (Primary Health Care -PHC) lead in the Office of Health System Partnerships with the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM).

Her academic, clinical and leadership interests center on collaboration to improve health equity and address the complex health needs of individuals and communities impacted by adverse determinants of health through high-quality comprehensive primary care at the core of PHC-oriented health systems.

Her past leadership and administrative roles include founding director of the Besrour Centre for Global Family Medicine at the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CCFP), vice-chair Global Health and Social Accountability at the DFCM and technical officer for PHC at the World Health Organization headquarters.  

Email Address
kartherine.rouleau@utoronto.ca
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Jennifer Wilson, MD

Lecturer at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

University of Toronto

Dr. Jennifer Wilson, MD CCFP(EM), FCFP, DIM&PH, MPH FCM-AS (in progress) is a comprehensive family physician who practices emergency medicine in Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada.

She is a Lecturer at the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto, mentoring medical students and residents in her community practice. Dr. Wilson is the Director of International Partnerships at the Leyaata Hospital in Savannah Region, Ghana, West Africa where she has been involved in teaching, training, and capacity building since 2007. In 2023 Dr. Wilson was honoured to accept the position as Faculty Lead for the academic collaboration between the DFCM and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) under the umbrella of the African Higher Education Collaborative (AHEC). In Spring 2024, Dr. Wilson will complete a Master of Public Health Family and Community Medicine (Advance Standing) with a Collaborative Specialization in Global Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Upasted-image.jpegniversity of Toronto.

Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Susan Cleary, PhD

Head of Department and Professor of Health Economics in the School of Public Health

University of Cape Town

Susan Cleary is Head of Department and Professor of Health Economics in the School of Public Health at the University of Cape Town.

She joined the School in 2001, becoming the director of the Health Economics Unit (2007-2012), Associate Professor in 2011, Head of School in 2022, and Professor of Health Economics in 2023. She holds a Masters’ in Economics (2001) and a PhD in Public Health specializing in Health Economics (2007), assessing equity and efficiency in HIV-treatment in South Africa. Her work focuses on research, capacity development and policy engagement within the areas of economic evaluation, health care priority setting and universal health coverage. She is interested in considerations of both distributive and procedural justice in health and health care. For the former, areas of interest include cost-effectiveness, affordability and financial risk protection to households from alternative interventions. For the latter, areas of interest include the governance of health technology assessment and related priority setting processes. She plays a key role in teaching health economics at the postgraduate diploma, masters’ and doctoral levels.

Email Address
susan.cleary@uct.ac.za
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
South Africa
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Paul Santerre, PhD

Professor & Baxter Chair in Health Technology & Commercialization (UHN) Director of the Health Innovation Hub

University of Toronto

Professor J. Paul Santerre has published >220 peer reviewed publications and is a listed inventor on >70 patents in the area of medical polymers.

He is co-founder and current director of the Health Innovation Hub at the University of Toronto (a student focused entrepreneur training co-curricular program that has trained > 650 client health science companies which have generated > $430M CAD). He was the 2022 – 2023 Chair of the Health Entrepreneurship Pillar for the Africa Health Collaborative supported by the Mastercard Foundation. He is a co-founder of Interface Biologics, along with having spun-out five other start-up companies from his lab, and has won multiple national awards for his achievements in enabling entrepreneurship, including Canada’s Governor General award for Innovation, and the Professional Engineers of Ontario Entrepreneurship Award in 2017.  He has received multiple awards for his community activity including the 2016 Community award from the Canadian Biomaterials, the 2018 President’s Impact Award from the University of Toronto. 

Email Address
paul.santerre@dentistry.utoronto.ca
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee
Profile

Ann Armstrong, PhD

Director, ICUBE

University of Toronto Mississauga

Ann Armstrong received her PhD in organizational behaviour from the University of Toronto.

She has a BA Honours in philosophy and an MBA from the University of Toronto, as well as a graduate degree in criminology from Cambridge University. Her current teaching focuses on organizational theory and design, change management, social entrepreneurship, and sustainability. She has published on a variety of topics ranging from team-based compensation systems to green curricula to doctoral experiences to the social economy. She has co-authored several books with Drs (the late) Jack Quarter, Laurie Mook, and John Whitman on the social economies of Canada and of the United States. She is now working on the fifth edition of Organization Theory and Design, by Daft, R. and Armstrong, A.

Since July 1, 2022, Ann Armstrong has served as the Director of ICUBE, one of the many incubators on the University of Toronto campus.

Email Address
ann.armstrong@utoronto.ca
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Profile

Penina Lam, PhD

Senior Director, International Relations, Africa

University of Toronto

Dr. Penina Lam is the U of T’s Senior Director of International Relations, where she leads strategic engagement and development of partnerships with Africa.

 She also leads the implementation the Africa Health Collaborative, designed to facilitate talent development and entrepreneurship among African youth. She oversees the Secretariat team and works in close partnership with colleagues across U of T, with African institutions, and the Mastercard Foundation. 

As a scholar-practitioner, she’s passionate about research and programs that foster access to and equity in education, health, and employment opportunities.  Prior to joining U of T, she worked as an Organizational Development (OD) consultant at the World Bank, in healthcare and education sectors. She’s experienced at engaging with diverse stakeholders to design, develop, and deliver impactful learning and talent development program.

Her academic career has spanned research, faculty, staff, and senior leadership roles working with African, Canadian, and US institutions. Dr. Lam holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership & OD, with a focus on Human Resource Development.

Email Address
penina.lam@utoronto.ca
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Governance
Executive Steering Committee
Profile

Notisha Massaquoi, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Society; Founder & Director, Black Health Equity Lab

University of Toronto Scarborough

Notisha Massaquoi is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto, Scarborough with a graduate appointment in the Factor Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

She is also the founder and director of the Black Health Equity Lab (The BHEL) which conducts community-based health research and works with Black communities to develop advocacy tools, strategies and programs to improve health outcomes, wellbeing and success in Canadian systems.  She holds a BA in Psychology from Western University, a Masters in Social Work  and PhD in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto.  Her early health leadership career established several health service organizations which serve Black communities in Canada and she developed and served for two decades as the Executive Director of Women’s Health in Women’s Hands Community Health Centre in Toronto – the only Community Health Centre in North America specializing in primary healthcare for Black and racialized women.

Email Address
notisha.massaquoi@utoronto.ca
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Program
Public Policy
Governance
HECO Pillar Advisory Committee