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 Trevor Young

, PhD

Vice-President, Provost

University of Toronto

Photo of Dawit Wondimagegn Gebreamlak

, MD

Associate Professor, Addis Ababa University Consultant Psychiatrist, Tikur Anbessa Hospital Associate professor, Addis Ababa University, Co-chair and Director, Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration-TAAAC National Lead, African Health Observatory Platform- Ethiopia National Centre

Addis Ababa University

Photo of Wilfred Ndifon

, PhD

Professor, Theoretical Biology and Chief Scientific Officer at AIMS

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

Photo of Nhlanhla Thwala

, PhD

Vice - Chancellor of Africa Leadership University

African Leadership University

Photo of Joachim Osur

, PhD

Vice Chancellor, Amref International University

Amref International University

Photo of Kwame Norvixoxo

Lecturer, Design, Teaching, Evaluating Research

African Leadership University

Photo of Joseph Owusu

, BA, MBA, PhD

Professor, School of Business; Co-Chair, Health Ecosystem Pillar

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Photo of Arti Singh

, PhD

Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the KNUST School of Public Health

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Photo of Steve Reid

, MD

(Chair, Family and Community and Emergency Medicine)

University of Cape Town

Photo of Dancan Irungu

, PhD

Dean, Graduate School and Director of Enterprises

Amref International University

Profile

Trevor Young, PhD

Vice-President, Provost

University of Toronto

Trevor Young is Acting Vice-President & Provost at the University of Toronto.

Professor Young is Dean of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and and Vice Provost, Relations with Health Care Institutions since 2015.

Previously, he was Physician-in-Chief, Executive Vice President Programs at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Professor Young is a clinician-scientist who studies the molecular basis of bipolar disorder and its treatment. He has published more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and has held more than 35 peer-reviewed grants.

Email Address
trevor.young@utoronto.ca
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Canada
Governance
Executive Steering Committee
Profile

Dawit Wondimagegn Gebreamlak, MD

Associate Professor, Addis Ababa University Consultant Psychiatrist, Tikur Anbessa Hospital Associate professor, Addis Ababa University, Co-chair and Director, Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration-TAAAC National Lead, African Health Observatory Platform- Ethiopia National Centre

Addis Ababa University

Dr. Dawit Wondimagegn is the former Chief Executive Director of the College of Health Sciences (CHS), Vice President of Addis Ababa University (AAU), Chair of AAU’s, Department of Psychiatry and Director of Graduate Programs for AAU, CHS in Ethiopia. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at AAU, a Consultant Psychiatrist, Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Co-chair and Director, Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration-TAAAC and the National Lead, African Health Observatory Platform- Ethiopia National Centre.

Through his numerous activities as a clinical and health systems leader, global mental health expert, IPT expert, and researcher, he is helping to decrease stigma and improve access to mental healthcare. An Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at AAU, he co-leads with Marci Rose the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration to develop post-graduate subspecialty training programs in numerous areas of medicine, primary care and nursing in Ethiopia.

He has published in the areas of global mental health, family medicine, medical ethics, psychotherapy knowledge translation, and post-partum depression. He was a primary investigator of two Grand Challenges Canada funded projects – The Biaber Project, to scale up screening and mental health care in Ethiopian primary care settings; and to engage with Ethiopian traditional healers, using a collaborative care model to increase the identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders. He has culturally adapted IPT for Ethiopia (IPT-E) and led IPT workshops for psychiatry residents at AAU and University of Toronto. The Biaber Project enabled the training of >500 Ethiopian primary care nurses in IPT-E.

Email Address
dawit.wondimagegn@aau.edu.et
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Ethiopia
Governance
Executive Steering Committee
Profile

Wilfred Ndifon, PhD

Professor, Theoretical Biology and Chief Scientific Officer at AIMS

African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

Wilfred Ndifon is Professor of Theoretical Biology and the Chief Scientific Officer at AIMS, a Pan-African network of higher-education institutes dedicated to catalyzing Africa’s socio-economic transformation through advanced training and research in mathematical sciences.

He has made important contributions to a range of topics at the interface of mathematics and biology, including discovering a mechanism that allows flu viruses to escape from antibodies, with significant implications for the design of more effective flu vaccines; a physical mechanism that governs the generation of T-cell diversity via genetic recombination; and a unified mechanistic explanation for the age-old problem of the original antigenic sin. Recently, he led the development of a new mathematical approach to pooled testing, which has produced substantial testing-efficiency gains in field applications conducted in both Rwanda and South Africa. He took his PhD at Princeton.

Email Address
wndifon@nexteinstein.org
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Rwanda
Governance
Executive Steering Committee
Profile

Nhlanhla Thwala, PhD

Vice - Chancellor of Africa Leadership University

African Leadership University

Dr. Nhlanhla Thwala started his career in 1986 as a high school teacher in his native Eswatini after completing a BA in History and English, and a Diploma in Education.

In 1990, he completed an MA in Linguistics at Syracuse University. In 1994, he completed a PhD in formal Linguistics from the University of California in Los Angeles.

His post-PhD career started in Indiana University, Bloomington where he was a Visiting Scholar and Coordinator of the African Language Program from 1996 to June 1998. He then spent 16 years at Wits University, Johannesburg from June 1998 to May 2014 in various capacities including serving as the founding Head of the School of Literature, Language and Media (2001-2003), Director of the Wits Language School (2007-2014), Researcher at SOAS while on Sabbatical at Wits (2004-2006). In 2014, he left Wits and first joined Advtech (one the largest JSE listed private education companies in South Africa) as Head of the Institute of Independent Education (IIE). He then joined Pearson South Africa as Managing Director of CTI Education Group (a higher education company acquired by Pearson in 2013) from September 2014. In that time, he also served as the Academic Director of Pearson Institute of Higher Education from 2016 until his departure in September 2020 this year.

Nhlanhla’s education professional career spans 34 years. After starting as a Higher School teacher, in June 1996, he returned to the University of Swaziland in January 1997 as a Teaching Assistant in the English Department until June 1988.

During his graduate studies, he worked as a teaching assistant at Syracuse University and UCLA. He also had Summer Teaching roles at Yale University (1993), Boston University (1994), and Ohio State University (1996). In 1998, he started at Wits as Lecturer and rose to Senior Lecturer in 1999 before his appointment as Head of the School of Literature Language and Media in 2001.

Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Rwanda
Governance
Executive Steering Committee
Profile

Joachim Osur, PhD

Vice Chancellor, Amref International University

Amref International University

Joachim Osur is a Professor of Public Health as well as a Sexual and Reproductive Health practitioner. He is the Vice Chancellor, Amref International University.

He is a leader with wide experience in building sustainable health systems in Africa. He is also a specialist in higher education with a focus in building fit for purpose health workforce for African health systems. He is a medical practitioner specialized in Sexual Medicine and continues to attend to patients in his line of specialization.

Email Address
joachim.osur@amref.org
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Kenya
Governance
Executive Steering Committee
Profile

Kwame Norvixoxo

Lecturer, Design, Teaching, Evaluating Research

African Leadership University

Kwame Norvixoxo is currently a Lecturer (designing, teaching and evaluating Research) at the African Leadership University, as well as the Director and Senior Consultant for Knorx Consulting Services.

His other roles in African Leadership University (ALU) include, Capstone Manager for the Global Challenges Faculty, Research Committee Chair for ALU, Head of Ethics and Research Faculty Lead.

Email Address
knorvixoxo@alueducation.com
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Rwanda
Profile

Joseph Owusu, BA, MBA, PhD

Professor, School of Business; Co-Chair, Health Ecosystem Pillar

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Joseph Owusu is the Pillar Lead for Health Ecosystem at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Mastercard Foundation Africa Health Collaborative and Academic Programme Coordinator for O. R. Tambo Africa Research Chair Initiative in Entrepreneurship and Employability.

He is a Lecturer of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at KNUST, Ghana. He also serves as the Co-Chair for the Health Ecosystem Pillar Advisory Committee and Chairman of the Technical Committee to develop MSc. Health Entrepreneurship Management for the Health Collaborative. His research has been published in the International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, Journal of Business and Management, Cogent Business and Management, Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, Investment Management and Financial Innovations, and International Journal of Research in Business and Social Sciences. Joseph received his Ph.D. from the University Malaysia Kelantan.

Email Address
Josephowusu87@yahoo.com
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Ghana
Governance
HECO Pillar Advisory Committee
Profile

Arti Singh, PhD

Professor, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the KNUST School of Public Health

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology

Dr. Arti Singh, a public health physician and faculty member at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana.

Her research areas of interest are non-communicable disease and tobacco control. She is also an advisory committee member on the Health Ecosystem Pillar of the Mastercard Foundation Health Collaborative program.

Email Address
artisingh_uk@yahoo.com
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Ghana
Governance
HECO Pillar Advisory Committee
Profile

Steve Reid, MD

(Chair, Family and Community and Emergency Medicine)

University of Cape Town

Professor Steve Reid is a Professor of Primary Health Care at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

He is a Family Physician with extensive experience in clinical practice, education and research in the field of rural health in South Africa. He is the Chair of the Primary Health Care and the Head of Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care in the Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT.

Email Address
steve.reid@uct.ac.za
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
South Africa
Profile

Dancan Irungu, PhD

Dean, Graduate School and Director of Enterprises

Amref International University

Dr. Dancan Irungu is the Dean Graduate School and Director of Enterprises at Amref International University.

He holds a BED (Business & Mathematics) an MA in Project Management & Planning and a Doctorate in Business Administration and Management. He is a scholar and an expert in Entrepreneurship, Corporate strategy, Organizational Development (OD), and Project Management. He has been a member of think tank, technical advisor and lead consultant for projects funded by GOK, World Bank, Global Fund, UNDP, USAID and European Union.  Dancan has a passion for social economic empowerment and transformation of the youth of Africa through enterprises development. 

Email Address
Dancan.Irungu@amref.ac.ke
Profile Type
Faculty
Country
Kenya
Governance
HEMP Pillar Advisory Commitee