Prof. Irene Agyepong
Public Health Consultant, Dodowa Health Research Centre/Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, the overall PI of COMCAHPSS, CATLYSE and ADOWA Projects.
Prof. Irene Akua Agyepong is a Public Health Physician currently with the Research and Development Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and the Public Health Faculty of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons of which she is a foundation fellow. She was Ghana Health Service Regional Director of Health for the Greater Accra region of Ghana 2004 to 2012. She was first chair of the Board of Health Systems Global (2012 – 2014) and Professor Prince Claus Chair in Development and Equity, University Medical Centre, Utrecht in the Netherlands (2008 – 2010).
Prof. Agyepong spent three years full time secondment between October 2012 and December 2015 in the University of Ghana School of Public Health, where she had previously taught and supervised students part time since its inception in 1994. She has been Chair of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research and the Implementation Research Platform of the World Health Organization and a member of the American National Academy of Medicine Commission on Creating a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future. She was awarded the Arnold Kaluzny distinguished alumni award of the Public Health Leadership program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2008.
She is a member of the Independent Advisory Committee for the Global Burden of Disease. She has published extensively in the field of health policy and systems research. She is Honorary Professor in the Division of Health Systems and Policy of the School of Public Health and Family Medicine of the University of Cape Town. She has a Medical degree (MBChB 1986) from the University of Ghana Medical School; a Masters in Community Health (1991) from the University of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine UK; and a Doctor of Public Health (2000) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill).
Her vision is to develop the field of HPSR in West Africa, leading to the emergence of WANEL.
Prof. Issiaka Sombie
Principal Professional Officer responsible for Research and Grants, West African Health Organisation (WAHO).
Professor Issiaka Sombie is a Senior Research Officer with more than 25 years’ experience in research in West Africa. His areas of interest are maternal and child health, research development, clinical trials, development of research policy and research ethics. Issiaka worked for 15 years at Centre MURAZ, a research Centre in Burkina Faso where his work focused on maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, and sexual transmitted infections. Issiaka was also a member of Centre MURAZ Ethics Committee.
In 2008, Issiaka joined the West African Health Organization and was the Head of the unit in charge of promotion of research in West Africa. He led the implementation of WAHO’s research programme and helped to set up the regional research networks of research centers and national health research ethical committees in West Africa.
Issiaka supported countries to develop their national research policy and strategic plan and coordinated the development of WAHO’s regional strategic plan for the strengthening of health research in West Africa and the development of the concept note of West African Health Observatory.
He also coordinated the implementation of regional projects to strengthen the National Health Research System, to develop and share information in the health research area and to support the use of evidence into policy and practice and knowledge translation.
Issiaka is a Medical Doctor who graduated from the Ouagadougou University (Burkina Faso) and he holds a PhD in Public Health from the Brussel Free University (Belgium). He is also a Professor of Epidemiology at the Medical School of the University of Nazi Boni in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso.
He is committed to researching and strengthening health systems in West Africa. He played a key role in the emergence of WANEL.
Dr. Sue Godt
International Development professional
Dr. Sue Godt is an experienced, passionate, and committed development professional and change agent who has spent her life working with others to build a just society. She has over 35 years of experience living and working across Africa. She has supported: local economic and women’s development in Botswana; organizational development, knowledge management and organizational learning in Zimbabwe and South Africa and rights-based programming in South Africa. For 15 years, she has brought this multisectoral experience to global health: family medicine and women’s health research programmes in South Africa, and adolescent HIV prevention programmes across southern Africa. During 10 years with the International Development Research Centre, she supported southern stakeholders to generate and apply evidence to strengthen equitable health systems and address complex reproductive, maternal, and adolescent health challenges. Given increasing fragmentation of global health, she is currently examining governance of global health and education through doctoral studies.
She is passionate and optimistic about development. She is a change agent whose commitment is relentless toward development. She enabled the emergence of WANEL and its continuous existence today.
Dr. John E. Williams
Director, Dodowa Health Research Centre
Dr. John Williams has supported WANEL since taking over the DHRC and the implementation of the RECOVER project.
Dr. Marie-Gloriose Ingabire
Senior Program Specialist, IDRC, Canada.
Dr. Marie-Gloriose Ingabire is a Senior Program Specialist at Canada’s International Development Research Centre. Her research and capacity strengthening interests include women and child health, health financing, human resources for health, health policy evaluation, and knowledge translation. Dr Ingabire is a member of the Evidence-Informed Policy Networks Global Steering Group.