The NCDI Poverty Network is administered by the Co-Secretariat, with hubs based at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, USA, and at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo, Mozambique.
The Co-Secretariat provides operational support to the NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee for coordination, communication, administration, and fund mobilization for activities of the NCDI Poverty Network.
The Co-Secretariat works in teams across multiple areas of work:
Research to inform the design, implementation, evaluation, and scale-up of the NCDI Poverty Network’s integrated care delivery strategy, PEN-Plus
Policy to develop policies based on equity-informed priority-setting and service delivery design
Training to give mid-level providers the knowledge and skills to lead decentralized PEN-Plus clinics
Implementation to provide technical support for implementation of PEN-Plus in lower-income countries
Advocacy & Communication to promote technical, policy, and financing support for PEN-Plus
NCDI Poverty Network Co-Secretariat
US Co-Secretariat Team
Gene Bukhman, MD, PhD, is a cardiologist and medical anthropologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where he founded the Center for Integration Science and serves as its Executive Director. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he also directs the Program in Global Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Social Change. He is the Senior Health and Policy Advisor on NCDs to Partners In Health (PIH), the Director of the BWH Advanced Clinical Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity, and the Director of the BWH Research Fellowship in Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity. Dr. Bukhman completed his medical training and doctorate in medical anthropology at the University of Arizona, an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a cardiology fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Bukhman has argued that for those living in extreme poverty, NCDs are best understood as part of the “long tail” of global health equity that demands a new “science of integration.” He has translated this critique into practical delivery strategies such as the Package of Essential NCD Interventions – Plus (PEN-Plus), that are now impacting patients' lives in more than a dozen countries.
Dr. Bukhman is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters that apply a range of methodologies from ethnography and archival research to epidemiology and mathematical modeling to identify solutions to the problem of “NCDI Poverty.” Dr. Bukhman was the lead-author and co-chair of the 1996-2020 Lancet Commission on Reframing NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion, and is co-chair of the 22-country NCDI Poverty Network launched in December of 2020 to support implementation of the Lancet Commission’s recommendations.
Dr. Emily Wroe (MD, MPH) is an internist and expert in global health, serving as the Director of Programs for the NCDI Poverty Network and the Center for Integration Science. In this role she supports the implementation and expansion of PEN-Plus programs. Dr. Wroe’s expertise in health systems for chronic diseases stems from several years working as Partners In Health’s Chief Medical Officer in Malawi, where she worked closely with the Ministry of Health to strengthen health care in the rural district of Neno. In Malawi she led the team to integrate HIV and NCD clinics, spearheaded a stepped-wedge study of a community health worker program, and helped launch two clinics for patients with severe NCDs, which was the beginning of the PEN-Plus programming in Malawi. Her role expanded to support southern Africa as NCD Synergies’ Associate Director of Policy & Implementation and as the co-chair to the Ministry of Health for Malawi’s National NCDs & Injuries of Poverty Commission.
Dr. Wroe is also deeply experienced in pandemic response and acts as a Senior Advisor for PIH’s COVID-19 response. She graduated from Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health and completed her residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital. She is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at BWH.
Neil Gupta is the Policy Director for the NCDI Poverty Network and serves a lead role in facilitating and supporting National NCDI Poverty Commissions and the NCDI Poverty Network Steering Committee. An internist and pediatrician by training, Dr. Gupta was previously the Chief Medical Officer for Partners In Health in Rwanda, where he was responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of clinical programs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. He later joined PIH's NCD Synergies team and supported the development of the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Gupta is also the Primary Investigator for the Simplifying Hepatitis C Antiviral Therapy for Elsewhere in the Developing World study, which aims to promote access and availability of Hepatitis C treatment. Dr. Gupta is a graduate of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health, and he completed his residency training at Brigham & Women’s and Boston Children’s Hospitals. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Emily Yale (MPH) is the Director of Finance and Operations for the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity. She holds an MPH in Global Health from Boston University School of Public Health and a BA in Public Health from Elon University. Emily has worked for several global health organizations dedicated to improving the health of vulnerable populations. She has primarily worked in the areas of program management, finance and administration, operations, compliance, and business development.
Prior to joining the Center, Emily worked at the Center for Global Health at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), supporting community health projects in rural Uganda. Before MGH, Emily worked for an International NGO, John Snow, Inc. (JSI), where she managed large USAID-funded HIV/AIDS projects in East Africa and frequently traveled to field offices to provide local staff with training on operations, finance, and U.S. government contract compliance.
Alma Adler (PhD, MSc, MA) is the Research and Monitoring and Evaluation Director for the Center for Integration Science (CIS) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital since 2018. Dr. Adler began her career as a bioanthropologist receiving her PhD in 2005, but later received an MSc in Public Health/Developing Countries, Epidemiology Stream from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Before joining CIS, Dr. Adler was an Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where she was a member of the Centre for Chronic Diseases and the Centre for Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive, & Child Health. Other positions Dr. Adler has held include systematic review specialist at the Cochrane Heart Group and Science Officer at the World Heart Federation. Dr. Adler’s research focuses on three areas: Implementation science, mixed methods evaluations of complex interventions, and evidence synthesis. She has led implementation research projects in nine countries on three continents. Dr. Adler has over 50 publications and numerous media appearances.
Dr. Chantelle Boudreaux (ScD, MA) is the Associate Director for Integration Research at the Center for Integration Science. She is focused on understanding how to build better health systems, specifically how to merge a country’s epidemiologic profile with their existing resources to best respond to current and anticipated health needs.
At the Center for Integration Science, her research focuses this question at the hospital level. This requires an understanding of the optimal clustering of tasks among providers, and a consideration of the interfaces both within and outside of the health system, to better understand how diverse clinical skills and interdisciplinary roles, programs, and service tiers can influence the delivery of healthcare services and population health outcomes.
Chantelle completed her doctoral studies at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She also holds Masters degrees from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.
Gedeon Ngoga (MPH) is the Director of PEN-Plus Training for the NCDI Poverty Network. Over the last decade, Gedeon’s work has focused on the implementation of NCD care delivery models in low-resource settings including developing a dedicated training and mentoring program for PEN-Plus health care workers dominated mainly by nurses and clinical officers in the PIH supported clinics. This has involved clinical duties as well as a wide programmatic and leadership role for the NCD program which eventually led to national implementation of the model and scale-up of NCD services to all district hospitals of Rwanda.
Mr. Ngoga has a Master of Public Health in International Health and Development and his current role supports Network countries in addressing knowledge gaps to achieve global health equity by developing career pathways. Gedeon works on training models that teach and equip non-specialist NCD providers with needed competencies to manage severe NCD conditions in their home countries, which prevents suffering and death among the most vulnerable.
Paula Brewer Byron is the Network Communications Director. She has spent most of her communications career in the fields of medicine, public health, and human rights. Most recently she worked at Virginia Tech, first as communications director for a startup medical school and biomedical research institute, then as senior editor at the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. For the previous dozen years, she was editor of Harvard Medical School’s magazine, and before that she served as communications director for what was then the Harvard AIDS Institute, an initiative of the Harvard School of Public Health. One of Byron’s principal specialties is publications. In addition to editing Harvard Medicine, she has served as editor of Illumination, an annual magazine at Virginia Tech; Carilion Medicine, the biannual magazine of a regional health system; Silent Spring Review, a publication focused on the environmental causes of breast cancer; Baobab, the daily newspaper for an AIDS in Africa conference in Senegal; and a range of publications for the AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria, the Reebok Human Rights Awards Program, and the Harvard AIDS Institute. Byron has also edited three books on AIDS in Africa and coauthored a book on human rights heroes around the world.
Prior to her appointment to Associate Advocacy Director, Dr. Apoorva Gomber (MD, MPH) served an NCDI Poverty Network is a Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity Research Fellow. She is a physician from India with an interest in global health centered around pediatric diabetes, health equity, disease epidemiology, and improving access to care in low- and middle-income countries. She graduated with a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in the Department of Global Health and Population from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is now a Global Health Equity Fellow in the Division of Global Health Equity.
Dr. Gomber has worked on various advocacy initiatives with global organizations to improve access to insulin and understanding childhood diabetes. Her research interests focus to overcome health disparities in diabetes care globally and looking for solutions to complex problems using evidence-based data and cross-sectoral collaborations. She also serves as one of the WHO Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Diabetes to further WHO’s leadership and coordination role in promoting and monitoring global action against diabetes.
Apoorva served as the South East Asia Regional Representative-elect from 2017-2019 for the Young Leaders in Diabetes Program by International Diabetes Federation and also for the Young Leadership Program at NCD Child.
Apoorva advocates for overcoming stigma among people living with diabetes and the prevention of diabetes-related complications. Outside of research, she spends her time traveling, hiking, and running marathons.
Andrew Marx is a Communications Consultant and the former NCDI Poverty Network Communications Director. Before joining the Network, Andrew worked for over 25 years as writer/editor, communications specialist, and program manager with organizations dedicated to global health, social justice, and equitable and sustainable development, including seven years as Director of Communications for Partners In Health, three years as Deputy Director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, and nine years as Chief of the Public Information and Multimedia unit at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Andrew got his start in journalism and communications working at an activist news agency (Liberation News Service) for seven years, including one year reporting from Africa, and later led editorial and information technology projects at the New York Times Company for 11 years.
Dr. Maureen Okam Achebe (MD) is the Assistant Director for Hematology Integration for the NCDI Poverty Network. Dr. Achebe is Clinical Director of Hematology at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Clinical director of Hematology Services at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). In these roles she devises strategies for clinical operations improvements and oversees all classical hematology patient care at BWH and DFCI. She is the director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Center at BWH that delivers state-of-the-art care to adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). She is deeply involved in the care of individuals with SCD in the US and internationally. She is the co-chair of the data subcommittee of the American Society of Hematology Consortium on newborn screening for SCD in Africa (CONSA) that seeks to demonstrate the benefits of screening and early intervention for SCD underway in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She has represented ASH and CONSA at 2019 World Health Assembly side meeting in Geneva and at WHO Afro regional meetings in Brazzaville, Congo to advance support for the care of individuals with SCD worldwide. Dr. Achebe serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Non-Communicable Disease and Injuries (NCDI) Nigeria Poverty Commission as the sickle cell disease expert and guides the identification and prioritization of policies, interventions and integrated delivery platforms to effectively address and reduce SCD burden in the country. She is actively involved in clinical trials and translational research at BWH and was an investigator in the development of two of the most recently US FDA-approved drugs for SCD. She is Co-Director of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology ICM: Hematology Clinic for Harvard Medical students.
Dr. Achebe is a graduate of University of Port Harcourt medical school, specialty training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Yale School of Medicine and is a graduate of Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Katie Player (MA) is the Membership & Engagement Manager for the NCDI Poverty Network and serves as the Senior Program Coordinator for the Program in Global NCDs and Social Change within the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Previously, she was involved in U.S. health policy research post-doctoral training as the Deputy Director for the RWJF Scholars in Health Policy Research Program based at Boston University. Over her career, she has been involved in managing various academic activities, initiatives, and international education programs from the Big Ten Academic Alliance at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to Queen Mary College, University of London. She received her BA in political science from Emmanuel College and her MA in International Relations from Boston University.
Dr. Wubaye Walelgne Dagnaw (MD, MMSc) is the NCDI Poverty Network East Africa Regional Advisor.
He was born and educated in Gondar, Ethiopia. Dr. Dagnaw earned his MD in 1997 and a postgraduate Specialty Certificate in Internal Medicine in 2006, both from the Faculty of Medicine of Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He completed his Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery from the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts in 2021.
Dr. Dagnaw has 20 years of experience in clinical and programmatic management of tropical health problems in East Africa, specifically Ethiopia and South Sudan. He has worked with many international NGOs, including the Johns Hopkins University TSEHAI Project, ICAP at Columbia University, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, as well as for Partners in Health and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dagnaw has helped implement programs for chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, HIV and noncommunicable diseases. He has worked in the public sector at both the primary health care level and in tertiary hospitals. Additionally, he has taught medical, health officer and nursing students. From 2006 until 2018, he worked in the private sector as consultant Internist.
He worked for the Ethiopian Ministry of Health for six years as a senior technical advisor for the national noncommunicable diseases and prevention program, which was seconded by the NCD Synergies Program at PIH. He also served as the advisor to the former Minister of Health on health service delivery and health system strengthening.
Ramon Ruiz is an Instructional Designer in the Division of Global Health Equity at the Center for Integration Science. He collaborates with experts across the Global Health Delivery Partnership to design, develop, and launch courses for clinicians working at NCD clinics in rural health facilities within low- and lower-middle income countries.
Before joining the NCDI Poverty Network team, Ramon worked at Massachusetts Port Authority, State Street Global Advisors, and Natixis Investment Managers in learning and development, learning management system (LMS) administration, and graphic design. He has a BA in Visual Arts from Brown University.
Matt Coates (MPH) is a Research Specialist with the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity. He began working with the Lancet Commission on NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion in 2016, conducting analyses for the commission report and supporting national commission work. He has contributed to research about the burden of NCDIs by socioeconomic levels, risk factors for these conditions, the availability of health services for NCDIs in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and potential impact of scaling up coverage of interventions to prevent and manage NCDIs. His general interest is in quantitative modeling to project population impact of policies and interventions, incorporating equity considerations.
Matt is currently pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned an MPH in Global Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, where he contributed to demographic estimates and estimates of disease burden attributable to alcohol consumption for the Global Burden of Disease project from 2013 to 2016.
Laura Drown (MPH) is a Senior Research Assistant at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She earned a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Boston University in early 2016. Her prior work includes child mortality implementation research at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, monitoring & evaluation for a surgical strengthening program in Ethiopia, and regulatory and data management for melanoma clinical trials at Massachusetts General Hospital. Laura’s work since joining the NCDI Poverty Network team in 2020 includes survey design and implementation, qualitative research, and conducting literature reviews.
Devashri Salvi (MPH) is the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Lead at the Center for Integration Science. She is a physical therapist by training and has an MPH with a specialization in Environmental Health and the Design and Conduct of Public Health Research from Boston University.
Devashri has worked in NCD-related research since 2011 on projects conducted in India, Zambia, Kenya, and the United States. After spending five years in India conducting lung health and air quality related research, Devashri moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Most recently Devashri served as the Director of Program Monitoring and Evaluation at a Boston-based anti-poverty nonprofit where she designed the M&E strategy for 11 social programs while serving as a consultant for 110+ partner organizations. Devashri believes in continuous learning and has completed certificate programs in nonprofit leadership and management in 2020 as well as practical quality improvement in 2021.
At the Center for Integration Science, Devashri leads and supports M&E activities that will help scale‐up service delivery within the NCDI Poverty Network. Devashri works to establish and execute the near and long‐term strategy to grow M&E capacity at the local catchment, national, and regional levels within the PEN-Plus program.
Leslie Wentworth (MS) is a Manager for Health Information Systems and Analytics at Partners in Health (PIH). She earned her MS in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition from the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a BA in Spanish and Film Studies from Wesleyan University. Prior to joining PIH, Leslie worked as a monitoring and evaluation manager for child health and cervical cancer programs at the Clinton Health Access Initiative. During this time, she collaborated with leaders at the World Health Organization to model and cost the scale up of national cervical cancer screening and treatment programs in low resource settings. Leslie’s background is in program implementation and management, research design, and evaluation, and has a strong interest in strengthening information systems to improve health.
Susan Donnellan joined the team at Brigham & Women’s Hospital’s Division of Global Health Equity as the Membership & Engagement Project Coordinator for the Center for Integration Science in January 2022.
A trip to Ethiopia to adopt her son and a strong desire to contribute to global human equity brought her to a career change from Early Childhood Education to the nonprofit world focused on human dignity, equity, and sustainable humanitarian aid.
She earned a Graduate Certificate focused on Sustainable Aid Delivery at UMass Boston’s Center For Rebuilding Sustainable Communities after Disaster (CRSCAD), soon after which, she began working for Wide Horizons For Children – an agency providing humanitarian aid to children and families in 10 countries. Over the course of her six years there, she contributed to aid program administration, fundraising and development, major event planning and marketing and engagement.
Allison Westervelt (MA) is the Communications & Events Project Manager for the Center of Integration Science. She earned a Master of Advanced International Studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna and a BA in International Relations and Russian Language & Literature from Boston University. Prior to joining the NCDI Poverty Network team in 2021, Allison served on the communications and outreach team for the Radiation Safety and Monitoring Section at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria.
Lauren Brown (MPH) is the NCDI Poverty Network Advocacy & Training Associate. Lauren earned an MPH in Healthcare Management from Boston University and a BSc in Public Health and Global Studies from Worcester State University. During her graduate studies, Lauren worked as a mobile health consultant for the Ghanaian NGO Friends of Dwenase (FoD) to implement CommCare into their maternal health center. Prior to joining the PIH NCD Synergies team, she participated in several government-based health programs and fellowships such as the VA Pathways Program, where she served as a Health Systems Specialist Trainee and the CDC Undergraduate Public Health Scholars (CUPS) Program as a Scholar in the Future Public Health Leaders Program (FPHLP) at the University of Michigan. Lauren comes to the team with a passion to advocate for eliminating barriers and disparities in access to quality healthcare for underserved communities in low- and lower-middle income countries (LLMICs).
Gina Ferrari (MSN, MPH, FNP-C, CDCES) joined the team in 2019 as a Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity Research Fellow after completing a dual Master of Science in Nursing/Master of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Her research interests focus on the implementation of training and mentorship programs facilitating behavioral approaches to chronic disease management for clinicians caring for patients in rural areas of low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). She has a background in diabetes technology research and has spent over 10 years working at diabetes camps for children in the U.S. and abroad. Gina currently practices as a clinician and diabetes educator at a Federally Qualified Health Center in San Diego, California caring for adults with type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes. Gina’s passion for promoting and providing equitable access to high quality diabetes care stems from her own type 1 diabetes diagnosis over 10 years ago.
Dr. Gene Kwan (MD, MPH) is a cardiologist and global health researcher with expertise in the intersection between these two fields. His primary goal is to push the frontier of global cardiovascular disease epidemiology and health service delivery research through the development, implementation, evaluation, improvement, and dissemination of integrated chronic care programs targeted to overcome specific barriers in rural low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). He leads heart failure and cardiovascular disease initiatives to support the PEN-Plus strategy with the NCDI Poverty Team. This includes training providers in echocardiography, patient management, as well as identifying and eradicating barriers to care faced by our patients.
Celina Trujillo (MPH, MSN, RN, CPNP, CDCES) is a pediatric nurse practitioner and has worked in pediatric diabetes and endocrinology for the past seven years. She joined the NCD Synergies Program team in 2019 as a Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity Research Fellow. Celina’s background is in public health, and prior to becoming a nurse she worked as the field coordinator for a longitudinal research study examining the effects of environmental exposures on children’s health. Her current research interests are focused on the implementation of training and mentorship programs focused on behavioral approaches to chronic care management for clinicians caring for patient in rural areas in low- and lower-middle-income countries (LLMICs). Celina practices in California’s rural Salinas Valley caring for children with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. She also teaches at the School of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco in the Diabetes Concentration. Celina is actively involved in Diabetes Youth Families (DYF) organizing diabetes camps for children and adolescents.
Dr. Sheila Klassen (MD) is an adult cardiologist with subspecialties in echocardiography and structural heart disease. As Technical Lead of the NCDI Poverty Network Cardiac Expert Group, Assistant Director for Cardiac Integration at the Center for Integration Science, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Lecturer in the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Klassen leads programs for decentralization and integration of care for advanced cardiovascular disease at the rural district hospital level across the Network’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 implementation countries as part of PEN-Plus. She has had extensive experience carrying out heart failure and echocardiography training related to PEN-Plus implementation in sub-Saharan Africa and has chaired or directed sessions at international conferences related to heart failure care in limited-resource settings. She also manages cardiology fellowships supported by the Center for Integration Science.
Dr. Klassen earned her MD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada in 2011 and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at McMaster University followed by an Adult Cardiology fellowship at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Dr. Klassen completed a fellowship in Advanced Echocardiography and Clinical Research with Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019 and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2020. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography, and an Emerging Leader within the World Heart Federation.
Ada Thapa (MPH) is a Senior Research Assistant at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, focusing mainly in the qualitative analysis of the CGM trial.
Ada completed her MPH in Health Policy Analysis and Evaluation with a Global Health certificate from the University of Maryland, College Park. During her MPH program, she interned with Save the Children, US on their USAID-funded Maternal and Child Survival project where she oversaw the qualitative analysis for a key pilot project in Mozambique called “Our First Baby”. Following her graduation, she worked in the Global Mental Health Equity lab at George Washington University as a Research Assistant and performed qualitative analysis for the Gates STAND STRONG project. Ada also worked as Research Associate at Health Foundation Nepal for more than two years on their Non-Communicable Disease project.
Katia Domingues (MPH) is the PEN-Plus Program Coordinator for the NCDI Poverty Network at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity. She received her MPH from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with two certificates in Monitoring & Evaluation of International Programs and Humanitarian Health. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Community Health from Tufts University. In addition to her work with PEN-Plus, Katia is a part-time epidemiologist at a local health department in Massachusetts.
Prior to joining the NCDI Poverty Network, Katia served as a COVID-19 Case Investigator Lead for the Portuguese-speaking division of the Internal Language Line at the CTC, a joint program of PIH and the state of Massachusetts. Simultaneously, she was on the JHU COVID-19 Training Initiative team as a student intern and helped create training modules to be used by local boards of health on pandemic response. She also served in the Peace Corps as a Community Health Services promoter in Chicumbane, Mozambique, and helped train health workers at the district hospital in data collection of infectious diseases. While in Mozambique, she trained Mozambican community-based organizations on grant writing skills and successfully acquired two grants to start a health literacy project and community library initiative in the village she served.
Outside of work, Katia likes to go on walks, travel, drink tea and spend time with her family and friends.
Arianna Wolgin is the Project Coordinator for the Center for Integration Science. She earned Bachelors of Arts degrees in Public Health Studies, with a sociocultural concentration, and French Studies from Elon University in 2022. She studied abroad in India where she gained knowledge in global health through community-based participatory research. Before joining the team, Arianna learned skills in project management at the First Twenty and at Public Health Management Corporation in Philadelphia, PA.
Dr. Ryan McBain (MA, ScD) is the Health Economist for the Center for Integration Science and a faculty member of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Ryan holds a secondary appointment at the RAND Corporation—a global policy think tank. Dr. McBain received his Doctor of Science and Master’s degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health and his Bachelor’s degree from Gordon College and Oxford University in the United Kingdom.
A central focus of Dr. McBain’s work pertains to health program and policy evaluation. He combines econometric analysis, costing and simulation methods to assess the efficiency, equity, and cost effectiveness of interventions. Routinely, Dr. McBain has applied these tools in the context of health system strengthening and reform—at local, regional, and national levels.
Dr. McBain has published over 80 articles in top tier journals, and he has led projects sponsored by organizations ranging from the National Institute of Mental Health and Department of Defense to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Skoll Foundation. Dr. McBain’s work is also featured in news outlets such as the New York Times, U.S. News, and NPR, and he has written opinion editorials for outlets such as LA Times and The Hill.
Mozambique Co-Secretariat Team
Prof. Dr. Ana Olga Mocumbi (MD, PhD, FESC) is the Co-Chair of the NCDI Poverty Network. She is a cardiologist with a particular interest in neglected cardiovascular diseases specifically rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart failure in young people, and women’s cardiovascular health. She is Professor of Cardiology at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique and is Head of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the National Public Health Institute (INS), at the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.
Dr. Mocumbi obtained an MD in 1992 at UEM. She worked in several rural areas of Mozambique from 1992 - 1997 acting as a general practitioner and health manager, gaining experience on management of National Control Programs for major endemic diseases.
Her post-graduate training in cardiology was done in Mozambique (Central Hospital of Maputo and Instituto do Coração) and France (Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades). She holds a Diploma in Pediatric Cardiology from the University René Descartes, Paris V - France.
Dr. Mocumbi worked as a Research Assistant at the Imperial College London (from 2004 until 2008) where she obtained her PhD investigating the Epidemiology of Neglected Cardiovascular Diseases. Under this program she launched a research project on Endomyocardial Fibrosis, which included large-scale community-based studies and clinical research in a rural endemic area of Mozambique (Inharrime), involving collaboration with the Heart Science Centre and Magdi Yacoub Research Institute in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Mocumbi is involved in several local and international research projects and partnerships including international registries and clinical trials. She is Editor of the Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy Journal and has published original papers in peer-reviewed journals and didactic publications.
She is currently Vice President of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) South Region (and Member of the PASCAR Taskforce on Hypertension), Co-Leader of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute for the Sub-Saharan Region and Member of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Dr. Beatriz Manuel Chongo (MD, MHPE, PhD) is a medical doctor, lecturer, and researcher. She is currently the Head of the Project Support Department at the Scientific Directorate at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM). She is also the Co-Investigator for the PEN-Plus Partnership in Mozambique.
She has the competence and substantial knowledge in matters of design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of curricula in student-centered teaching-learning methodology, the use of innovative teaching-learning methodologies, design of training on gender-based violence, medical education, violence perpetrated by an intimate partner and doctor-patient communication.
Beatriz Manuel has also been invited to peer review manuscripts. She holds a PhD in Health Sciences and in Educational Sciences from Ghent University in Belgium.
The aim of her doctoral research was to identify ways to improve curricula on IPV curriculum content to enhance prevention and medical care in Mozambique. She holds a master’s degree in Health Professions Education from the Maastricht University in the Netherlands that investigated the strategies of human resources training approach to People Living with HIV. She takes a multidisciplinary approach to teaching and learning and mixed methods' research that encompasses the fields of Medical Education, Family and Community Health, Primary Healthcare and Health Systems, Public Health, Gender matters, Research Methods, Evidence Summaries and Evidence-Informed Healthcare and Project Support.
She is a committed senior lecturer with over 19 years of experience at leading Mozambican academic institutions teaching students and mentoring junior researchers from various social and cultural backgrounds.
Neusa Bay is a pharmacist since 2004 and an evolving researcher with focus in NCD care in poor sites, health systems strengthening and men health and is currently the Project Coordinator for the PEN-Plus Partnership in Mozambique.
Her early experience was in pharmacy management and procurement in hospital and community pharmacy. Later she worked in pharmacy regulation, managing the medicine registration information system (MRIS) and providing information for decision making at the National Medicine Regulatory Authority (NMRA) to the MOH.
From 2013 to 2018, she continued supporting the NMRA and Hospital Pharmacy Department (HPD) through a non-governmental organization. She coordinated the establishment of an evidence-based mechanism for the NEML revision and installation of an advanced MRIS at the NMRA. At HPD she initially coordinated the creation of the Hospital Therapeutics and Pharmacy Committees and later collaborated for its establishment in all provinces.
Currently, since 2018, she coordinates research studies in NCD care, with focus on health systems and gender related field, in both quantitative and qualitative research type, as research assistant at MIHER.
She is currently doing her MPH on health systems readiness for NCD care implementation with focus on gender equity, with men health as a novelty.
Her interest is in reducing NCDs in low-income settings, believing that a paradigm shift in human behavior at all levels is key to improve health care. with that purpose she joins studies experts that can build the capacity of sites and health professionals in the management of NCD, as well as neglected and severe NCD in the Mozambican population.
Basílio Cumbane is a Statistician graduated from the National Statistics Institute of Mozambique and is currently the Data Manager for the PEN-Plus Partnership in Mozambique.
He worked for MIHER as a Data Manager in research projects implemented by the National Institute of Health through the Non-Communicable Diseases Program from 2017 to 2022. He worked as a Monitoring Assistant for research projects at the NCD Department of the INS;
He was responsible for the development and systematization and databases of research projects including spatial data management (mapping and geoprocessing);
He was responsible for the training, supervision and technical assistance of typists in the data entry process.
He also supported the design of data collection tools for the implementation of field studies including processing, data analysis and writing of statistical progress and end-of-study reports.
Jucelina Rosa Novele is a Nurse, currently working as Nurse Assistant at Mozambique Institute for Health Education and Research, specifically for the PEN-Plus Partnership in Mozambique.
She has previously worked as Nurse Assistant for the studies of: Global Chronic Heart Failure, Investigation of Rheumatic Atrial Fibrillation Treatment Using Vitamin K Antagonists Rivaroxaban or Aspirin Studies, Influenza Vaccine to Prevent Adverse Vascular Events, and Safety Tolerability and Efficacy of Rapid Optimization, Helped by NT-proBNP and GDF-15, of Heart Failure Therapies (2019-2021), where she was responsible for nursing care.
Dr. Colin Pfaff is a Clinical Advisor at the Center for Integration Science and a Senior Regional Advisor for Southern Africa for the NCDI Poverty Network. Dr. Pfaff is a family medicine and public health doctor from South Africa, with 25 years of experience in district level primary health care services in South Africa, Nepal and Malawi, including HIV, TB and NCD programs.
Ivanilson René Abílio is the Membership and Engagement Manager for the NCDI Poverty Network Co-Secretariat in Mozambique.
Before joining his current position, Ivanilson worked as a Foreign Commercial Service Assistant at the U.S. Embassy Maputo, whereby he conducted market research, identified contacts, and wrote reports in order to promote U.S. trade objectives in Mozambique. Later, he moved on to work at Nedbank as a Credit Analyst, where he honed his skills in financial analysis, risk assessment, and client management. Ivanilson holds a degree in Business Management from the University of Pretoria and has completed a professional development course in management, leadership, and communication.
Dr. Agnes Jonathan (MD, MPH) is a technical lead for Pen-Plus Sickle Cell Disease Expert Group in the NCDI Poverty Network. She is a physician, Public Health Specialist and a ‘Master of Business Administration (MBA) candidate at Mzumbe University. She holds a Master of Public Health at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science (MUHAS) and a Degree of Medicine from Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo). Dr. Agnes is a member of Project Management Institute, PMI-Global and Tanzania Chapter, a member of SickleInAfrica. She is currently serves as a Project Coordinator for the Sickle Pan African Research Consortium (SPARCO)-Tanzania at Sickle Cell Programme, Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science. In this position, she contributes greatly in project management aspects, administration, finance, research, standard of care, skills, team building and increasing the number of registered patients in the database (currently over 6000 patients). She contributed in grant writing for SPARCO-Tanzania and secured funding from NIH. In scientific writing, she has contributed in 10 peer reviewed scientific publications as lead and/or co-author. She formulated policy brief which has been disseminated to policy makers and other stakeholders. She is also working with the Ministry of Health, SCD Taskforce in developing SCD 5 years Strategic Plan, practice notes for SCD and other SCD-related activities. Dr. Agnes has experience in coordinating national stakeholders’ meetings, including the multi-stakeholder meeting during 7th MUHAS University-wide Dissemination Symposium, which had great achievements including enhanced Hydroxyurea access to patients enrolled in all National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) schemes.
Emmanuel Mensah (MD, MBA) is the West Africa Regional Lead for the NCDI Poverty Network. He is the Chief Medical Officer at ChristianaCare in Wilmington, Delaware and an Assistant Professor at Thomas Jefferson Medical School.
Prior to joining the NCDI Poverty Network, Dr Mensah split his time between practicing medicine and management consulting at McKinsey and Company. As a management consultant, his interest and work focused on healthcare delivery systems and strategy work for various clients along the healthcare value chain.
Dr Mensah also continues to practice as an internist at Tema General Hospital in Ghana.
His academic interests are in health disparities and unconscious bias and its impact on patient care. He teaches lectures on the topic at multiple Grand Rounds, Harvard Medical School and as a keynote speaker at various leadership programs.
Dr Mensah earned his MD at Harvard Medical School and MBA from Harvard Business School. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.