Prof. Celia Gregson
Celia Gregson holds the position of a Clinical Epidemiology Professor and is also an NIHR Global Health Research Professor specializing in Healthy Ageing in sub-Saharan Africa. She leads the Global Health and Ageing Research Unit at the University of Bristol, as well as the Health Research Unit of Zimbabwe within the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Harare. Additionally, she serves as an Honorary Consultant Orthogeriatrician at the Royal United Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Bath, UK.
Celia holds the position of Chair for the National Osteoporosis Guideline Group in the UK and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme Scientific and Publications Committee. She is also recognized as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Twitter @celiagregson
Dr Anthony Muchai Manyara
Dr Anthony Muchai Manyara, Senior Research Associate (Epidemiologist in Global Health and Ageing). His research interests include noncommunicable disease epidemiology, prevention, and control, health systems and policy research, and clinical trial methodology and reporting. He works in the epidemiology of ageing in The Gambia, Zimbabwe & South Africa project and leads the TEPSO project. Twitter @AnthonyManyara_
Chipo A Nyamayaro
Chipo A Nyamayaro is a Junior Social Scientist in KOSHESAI STUDY based at The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU ZIM) at Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI). She is a dedicated Researcher with a strong background in psychology and public mental health. Chipo possesses a BSc Psychology Honors Degree, a PGDip in Public Mental Health and is currently pursuing an MPhil in Public Mental Health at the University of Cape Town under AMARI fellowship. With a keen interest in improving health systems and mental health outcomes. Chipo has actively contributed to numerous research projects in Zimbabwe, such as the Y Check Intervention Project which screened and referred adolescents for a number of health conditions, a project on antimicrobial resistance and another on Covid-19 where she played a vital role in co-developing evaluation tools, data collection and analysing data. She has skills in facilitating workshops and focused group discussions, employing participatory techniques to engage adolescents and key stakeholders. She has also gained valuable experience in conducting in-depth interviews and observations in various healthcare settings. Chipo is committed to collaborative and results-oriented approaches to make a positive impact in global health and mental health research.
Dr Claire Calderwood
Claire is a Respiratory physician, a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD fellow in Global Health Research at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Honorary Research Fellow within the Global Health and Ageing Research Unit at the University of Bristol. She is based in Zimbabwe with the Health Research Unit Zimbabwe at the Biomedical Research & Training Institute. Her PhD research uses mixed methods to explore the relationship between tuberculosis and chronic diseases, such as diabetes, chronic lung disease and undernutrition and opportunities for integration of TB screening and care with other health services. She contributes to a number of other research projects, including describing multimorbidity among older people (Fractures-E3), and healthcare workers (ICAROZ) in Zimbabwe, and evaluating point-of-care diagnostics for diabetes in Africa.
Dapo Awobeku
Dapo Awobeku is a researcher and programs strategist with extensive expertise in non-profit, for-profit, management consulting, and public sectors. Dapo has supported governments at the federal and sub-national levels in the design and implementation of strategies to strengthen Nigeria’s health system. He is a research support assistant for the TEPSO (Towards Equitable Partnership with Global South research partners) project at the University of Bristol, where he is also studying for his master’s degree in public policy.
Eilish Foxen-McGough
Eilish provides project support to the Global Health and Ageing Research project and Executive Assistant support to Celia Gregson. Eilish has worked in healthcare for 11 years, both in a clinical and professional services capacity for the NHS and University of Bristol. Her passions include working with members of the public in a Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement capacity to see how healthcare projects are implemented and benefit the communities they work with.
Ethel Duaya
Ms Ethel Dauya works on the KOSHESAI STUDY and is a Community Engagement Advisor health researcher based at The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU ZIM) at Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI). She has more than 20 years research experience and is the Director of Field Work at THRU ZIM. She holds a Master in Public Health Degree. She has coordinated clinical trials, randomised trials and implementation research work on HIV/AIDS in children, adolescents and adults, TB research communities and in industrial factory settings, Sexual Reproductive Health in young people. She has supervised research work and worked with different stake holders at government ministry level and community-based organisations. She has coordinated a large population-based survey of more than 17000 young people in different communities in Zimbabwe. She coordinates the PIMS and MAGUS studies. She has acted for the MENOPAUSE study film and looks forward to extending her expertise in healthy ageing research in Zimbabwe.
Dr Grace Pearson
Pronouns: She/Her
Grace is a qualified doctor who graduated from Bristol Medical School with distinction in 2017, and is currently working as a Specialty Doctor (SAS) in geriatric medicine at the Royal United Hospital, Bath. Grace’s doctoral research was innovating and evaluating undergraduate education in geriatric medicine in the UK, supervised by Dr Emily Henderson and Prof Yoav Ben-Shlomo. Since completing her PhD, Grace has been working as a Clinical Lecturer in the Global Health and Ageing Research Unit, and Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, developing an undergraduate case-based curriculum in geriatrics for African medical schools, and also establishing a postgraduate teaching and mentorship network for early-career clinicians with an interest in geriatric medicine (The Zimbabwe Geriatrics Network, Zim-GeN). Grace continues her work with the British Geriatrics Society as an Education and Training Representative and remains Deputy Lead for the ‘Complex Medicine in Older People’ clerkship at Bristol Medical School. Her educational research achievements have been recognised with Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and Membership of the Academy of Medical Educators.
Twitter: @GraceInvaders
Dr Hannah Wilson
Hannah Wilson completed her PhD in genetic epidemiology at University of Bristol within the Integrative Epidemiology Unit. The focus of her PhD was to classify mechanisms of pleiotropy to improve causal modelling such as Mendelian randomisation. She has an interest in public and global health and is currently working as the Data Manager for the Fractures-E3 study, within the Musculoskeletal Research Unit at the University of Bristol. Hannah also enjoys participating in public engagement and encouraging people to get involved with research.
Kate Mattick
Kate Mattick is a Wellcome Trust funded CREATE PhD fellow working on the KOSHESAI project at THRU-Zim. Her clinical background is as a Physiotherapist, where she has experienced working in the UK, Malawi, and Bangladesh. Her interests are within frailty, healthy ageing, access to rehabilitation and assistive devices as well as more broadly disability across the lifespan.
Her PhD is centred on co-developing community rehabilitation services to promote functional ability and quality of life of older people in Zimbabwe. Throughout the next 3 years, she will be using a mixed methods approach including Photovoice to identify the health priorities of older adults, a survey to understand the unmet need of assistive device access and process evaluation tools to measure the impact of community group interventions.
Kate is really excited to be working with the multidisciplinary KOSHESAI team, where her PhD will contribute towards the wider 5-year programmes aims to inform new models of care for healthy ageing that are low cost and scalable.
Dr Mandi Tembo
Dr Tembo is a social scientist and postdoctoral research fellow with a research focus on participatory research methods, menstrual health, reproductive health service delivery, and public engagement. She has vast experience coordinating and implementing interventions focusing on SRHR, addressing the needs of marginalized groups such as people with disabilities and the LGBTQI community, and women’s health. She holds a PhD (Epidemiology) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an MSc in Global Health and Development from UCL and a BA in Public Health and Women’s Gender Studies.
Maureen Tshuma
Maureen Tshuma is a social scientist with extensive experience in public health research and clinical trials. She holds a MSc Degree in Sociology and Social Anthropology and a BSc (Honours) Degree in Sociology from the University of Zimbabwe. Her passion lies in producing research findings grounded in evidence to shape interventions and policies. She is eager to embark on research focused on promoting and maintaining the functional ability of older adults.
Maureen is a CREATE PhD Programme student and is currently registering at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, the programme will run for 3 years, starting February 2024. Her PhD Development, implementation and evaluation of a community-based assessment and management of cognitive and psychological ability for older people living in urban Zimbabwe is embedded within KOSHESAI (Keeping older people healthy: designing and evaluating effective health services to maintain functional ability) led by Professor Celia Gregson. Her main study aim is to develop a community-based health intervention for older adults with special focus on cognitive and psychological ability. This study will be conducted in Highfields and Mufakose suburbs in Harare, Zimbabwe starting with formative work this January 2024, followed by implementation in 2025, with process and cost evaluation in 2026.
Mohamad Nasser
Mohamad is currently working as an epidemiologist and a data manager for the Fractures-E3 study, within the Musculoskeletal Research Unit at the University of Bristol. His research revolves around investigating health outcomes associated with hip fractures, aimed at uncovering factors that impact patient well-being.
Dr Rudo Chingono
Dr Rudo Chingono is a Lead Social Scientist for the KOSHESAI STUDY and Global Mental Health Researcher based at The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU ZIM) at Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI). She is also one of the training and mentorship leads at THRU ZIM. She have a PhD, with University College London, which focused on the burden of maternal mental health on mother’s living with HIV and its impact on their parenting abilities. Her work has included research on HIV/AIDS, mental health, adolescents reproductive health, maternal and child health, antimicrobial resistance and more recently infectious diseases, and non-communicable diseases. She is currently the co-investigator on a recently UKRI funded study, exploring the impact of setting up community hypertension groups in Zimbabwe. She has recently worked on a Fractures e-3 study as a Post-doctoral Social Scientist in Musculoskeletal Research in older people and looks forward to extending her expertise in healthy ageing research in Zimbabwe.
Dr Sarah Drew
Dr Drew is a sociologist who uses qualitative research methods in applied health research with a focus on ageing. Her research interests include service delivery, treatment seeking behaviour and the evaluation of complex interventions using sociological theory and frameworks. She has experience of these both within the UK and in Southern Africa.
Dr Stephen Spencer
Stephen is a specialist registrar in intensive care and acute internal medicine. In 2021, Stephen secured a Wellcome Trust Clinical PhD Fellowship in Global Health Research (2021-2025) with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine; based at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust, Blantyre, Malawi. Stephen’s research focuses on on complex care and multimorbidity-associated hospitalisation in sub-Saharan Africa, with development of health-system pathways for disease management (MultiLink cohort study and trial). Stephen also conducts research to describe pathology and develop diagnostic pathways for breathless patients using resources available in Malawi (BLU cohort study); and on oxygen delivery in East Africa (BREATHE trial).
Ted Manyanga
Ted is an accomplished research coordinator with over 10 years of dedicated experience in Clinical Trials management. Ted has a robust academic foundation, with strong roots in project management, and a proactive eagerness to embrace new concepts and perspectives. I am currently the Ethics and research governance lead for the Health Research Unit Zimbabwe
Tendai Chiweshe
Tendai Chiweshe is a Research Assistant based at The Health Research Unit Zimbabwe (THRU ZIM) at Biomedical Research and Training Institute (BRTI). He holds a masters degree in Child Sensitive Social Policies. He possess over 10 years of research experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods especially in Sexual Reproductive health related programs and adolescent health programs. He has worked with diverse population groups such as children, adolescents, women, men, stakeholders and community leaders.
Tsitsi Bandason
Tsitsi Bandason is the KOSHESAI Study Data Management Lead and an accomplished epidemiologist and researcher with a demonstrated history of effective 20 years of experience in research data management and analysis and overseeing high-level health-related research initiatives. She currently serves as the overall Data Management Director for THRU-ZIM Unit at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe and holds a first degree in Statistics and an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology.
With a diverse portfolio, her data management expertise spans various critical research areas which include single and multi-site clinical trials, cluster-randomized, and qualitative research studies focusing on TB, HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Infections, Multimorbidity, Adolescent and Older People health. She has a track record of authored and co-authored papers and continues to make significant contributions to the field of epidemiology and health services research, driving advancements in understanding and improving health outcomes in Zimbabwe and beyond.