HEALTH STRAT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Strategic Information Advisor
Caren Oburu has over 16 years of experience in Monitoring, Learning, and Evaluation focusing on advancing the use of evidence in decision-making at national and international levels. As an M&E specialist, she has helped organizations and teams achieve pivotal and comprehensive M & E reforms in public and private sectors across programs implemented by the Government of Kenya (GoK), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Local Organizations in advancing Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning and Research (MERL) using Collaboration Learning and Adaptation (CLA) efforts throughout the program cycle including strategic planning, project and activity design and implementation
Caren has experience in strengthening technical assistance and mentorship at county and sub county levels through providing leadership in data quality audits and orientation on data use for decision making (DDIU).
In addition, she has extensive experience in development and implementation of MERL plans, use of monitoring systems and platforms for reporting purposes, indicator selection and definition, target setting across indicators and overseeing and directly contributing to development, customization and implementation of M&E tools and systems to collect, aggregate and analyze data to inform program performance.
Caren has supported in implementation of PEPFAR funded programs in the areas of HIV prevention and Treatment, TB, PMTCT, GBV, DREAMS, OVC, RMNCAH, WASH and Nutrition.
Previously Caren worked for USAID 4BetterHealth Project as the M&E Lead. Prior to that she worked as M&E Advisor for the USAID/Kenya and East Africa Afya Jijini Program, Head of M&E at Health Strat, M&E Officer at International Medical Corps, Data Manager at Food for the Hungry and Senior Data Officer at Pathfinder International
Caren holds a Msc in Health Information Management, Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Health Records and Information Management.
Job Titles:
- Director of Projects and Operations
Cecilia Keiru has a Master's Degree in Organizational Development from United States International University, with local and international experience in both private and public institutions including University of Maryland-Kenya programs as Chief Operating Officer, Kenya Paediatric Association as Executive Officer and Toyota East Africa in Branch management & development and recently an International Program Manager with Queensland Government under the Critical Care Research Group's Centre of Research Excellence in Brisbane, Australia.
Cecilia has over 15 years' experience in managing health projects. She provides oversight on projects and operations at Health Strat, while ensuring support functions are aligned and responsive to business changing needs and strengthens program management competences for actual delivery of organizational strategies. She is key in assuring principles of efficiency, order and optimal customer service.
Charity has passion for providing leadership in creating meaningful relationships for brands based on market insights of the stakeholders. She thrives in building and working with diverse teams and tapping into the rich knowledge, culture and insights. Charity has 15 years marketing and communication industry experience with background from the media and financial services sectors having started off in an advertising agency- McCann Erickson Kenya. In 2004 she joined Faulu Microfinance Bank where she served 10 years as the Head of Marketing & Product Development spearheading the micro-leasing products strategy to drive the assets growth and also transitioned the brand through a successful rebrand after the Microfinance Act was changed to allow for deposit taking institutions in 2009.
In January 2014, she joined Old Mutual Kenya as the Head of Marketing, PR and Brand with key success in creating significant brand awareness in Kenyan households through a financial education led campaign .In October of the same year, she was appointed to Group Head of Marketing & Communication with oversight for Old Mutual and Faulu Microfinance Bank, a role which has since been enhanced with the current merger of UAP and Old Mutual. In her new capacity with UAP- Old Mutual Group, Charity is tasked with building a strong East Africa brand that is connected to the relevant market segments and resonates with all its stakeholders' expectations across the East Africa business. Charity has an MBA in Strategic Management from The United States International University and a B.Com in Marketing from the University of Nairobi with various trainings in brand management and financial services marketing. She is a member of the Marketing Society of Kenya, Association of Microfinance Practitioners and also worked on the Microfinance Standards as a Member of the Microfinance Committee under the Kenya Bureau of Standards Financial Services Standards. Giving to the community is at the core of her engagements and she currently oversees the Old Mutual Foundation where she is also a trustee. In personal capacity she volunteers at Chosen Children of Promise, an NGO in Kawangware slums in Nairobi, where she supports education for orphans as her part in finding solutions to societal challenges.
Dr. Andrew Nyandigisi is a goal oriented, people focused visionary individual who has recently joined Health Strat as the team's vision bearer. With a career spanning 10 years, Dr. Nyandigisi has extensive experience in the field of health with a bias in health policy and health systems strengthening. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from University Of Nairobi, MSC in Health Economics and Policy and an MBA in Strategic Management all from The University of Nairobi.
Dr. Nyandigisi has worked in different capacities within the Ministry of Health-Kenya as Focal Person for The World Bank Funded program, East Africa Public Health Laboratory Network, as the Country Coordinator for Affordable Medicine for Malaria, Secretariat to the joint inter agency coordinating committee (ICC) for HIV, TB and Malaria, Focal Person for Case Management of Malaria and most recently as in charge of partnerships and resource mobilization in the National Malaria Control Program. His key competencies include health policy assessment and development, health systems strengthening, resource mobilization, supply chain management and monitoring and evaluation. He is passionate about designing and implementing sustainable home-grown solutions to public health problems. When he is not thinking of the next health systems solution he enjoys playing soccer and enjoying quality time with family.
Dr. Deus Bazira is a global health practitioner with more than 28 years of experience and field working experience in more than 15 countries spanning academia, public policy and healthcare delivery. He is the Director and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact within the Georgetown University Medical Center. He leads a multi-disciplinary team working to strengthen health systems and solve intractable public health challenges through implementation science, data science and health technology solutions in several countries. His current portfolio includes managing multi-country HIV prevention, care, and treatment programs, public health program evaluation, patient-centered health care delivery innovative models, implementation science, public health surveillance and health security initiatives in the U.S.A, Pacific Region and Sub-Sahara Africa.
Prior to joining Georgetown University, Dr Bazira was the founding Director of the Center for International Health Education and Biosecurity (CIHEB) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he led development, design, and implementation of a portfolio of programs implemented in more than twelve countries focused on integrated service delivery, implementation science, health security, training and broader health systems strengthening.
Earlier on, Dr. Bazira worked as a Senior Lecturer in the Health Economics Unit within the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town South Africa where he was also Program Director of the premier Oliver Tambo Health Leadership & Management Fellowship Program.
Dr. Bazira has undertaken research in public-private partnership in health, diffusion of health innovations, innovative health financing under decentralized systems, pharmaceutical regulation, hospital governance and efficiency. Current research and focus include: Modeling care delivery to optimize health outcomes - effectiveness and quality, cost and efficiency, patient and provider experiences; Novel approaches to improve country capacity and preparedness to detect, prevent and respond to major health security threats, and; Translating evidence from research and program interventions to improve public health policy, practice and enhance sustainability.
In addition to leading several education, research, and institutional strengthening programs, Dr. Bazira has also led implementation of point-of care technologies and strategic planning for Ministries of Health, pharmaceutical sector regulation and innovative health care financing. He has consulted widely for governments and industry in several African countries, the Caribbean, India and China.
Dr. Bazira received Doctoral degree in Health Policy and Management from the Gillings Global School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2015. He was a distinction recipient of the Arthur B. Holzworth Endowed Scholarship in Health Leadership in 2013. In addition, he holds Master of Public Health in Health Economics from University of Cape Town, South Africa, a Master of Business Administration in Corporate Strategy and Bachelor of Pharmacy degree with honors, both from Makerere University, Uganda and a post-MBA Executive Diploma with distinction in Strategic Management from Maastricht School of Management, Maastricht Netherlands.
Job Titles:
- Project Director ( MESIS Project )
- Public Health Specialist
Dr Muange is a Public Health Specialist who is motivated by a vision for healthy families and quality lives, she aspires to deliver quality public health care by diligently practicing gained knowledge and experience, innovating to address health care gaps, mentoring and training medical practitioners, supporting medical research and policy development.
Dr Muange is diversely experienced in designing, planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating health care programs, technical advisory, clinical practice in the NGO, public and private sectors. She has 15 years' experience in adult and pediatric HIV Care and Treatment, eMTCT and TB treatment, Maternal, New- born Child and Adolescent Health, Nutrition and Reproductive health, while applying evidence-based practice to improve quality of health care provision and inform policy.
She is accustomed to lead ambitious and complex health programs through senior management, technical leadership and strategic direction as well as engaging and leading stakeholder relationships in donor, government and private sectors. Her areas of professional strengths include:
Team leader with exceptional interpersonal and communication skills refined through multicultural and multifunctional team experiences.
Recognized for excellence as a result of sustaining high performance standards Program design, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation excellent planning, organization and problem-solving skills.
Epidemiology and operational research.
Public health quality improvement.
Project evaluation.
Excellent capacity building and mentorship skills Stakeholder engagement and
Proposal writing.
Prisca also enjoys cooking, knitting and swimming.
Dr. Stanley Njoroge Ng'ang'a is a Technical Assistance-Team lead with an ability to organize people and systems in order to achieve set objectives. He has vast experiences in Pharmaceutical and Health Supply Chain management and training. Over the last 12 years, he has successfully managed four large PEPFAR funded programs where he ensured uninterrupted commodity supply, trained and mentored healthcare workers on pharmaceutical care and management of commodities.
Dr. Njoroge holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Nairobi with several Post Graduate professional education and training in Managing Drug Supply in Developing Countries, Supply Chain Capacity Development, Pharmacovigilance, Adult and Paediatric ART training, Innovative Training Methodologies and the Establishment and Operationalization of Medicines and Therapeutic Committees. He is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya and is registered with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board. He brings to Health Strat a depth of experience in problem solving in respect to health systems barriers, capacity building, program development and continuous quality improvement. Here, he continues to work collaboratively with the county and national health systems to strengthen commodity management and security through establishment of the County Commodity Security Committee and the County Medicine and Therapeutics Committee. He supported piloting of the integrated supply chain management model in Kakamega and Kisumu Counties in line with PEPFAR journey to self-reliance. Prior to joining Health Strat, Dr. Njoroge worked with the University of Maryland Global Initiative, Catholic Relief Services, Ministry of Health and Interlab Pharmacies. He has contributed in the following publications: Improving Commodity management at level two and three health facilities in urban setting. Njoroge S1, Namazi J1, Nyabiage L1, Odhiambo F1, Ojoo S1, Maina E2, Amoroso A1 University of Maryland School of medicine, Institute of Human virology Ministry of Health. The use of EMR supply chain module to improve supply chain management David Masese 1, Richard Ngethe 1, Stanley Njoroge 3, Lucy Nganga 1, Lanette Burrows 2, Bobby Jefferson 2 1Futures Group, Kenya, 2Futures Group, USA, 3Maryland Global Initiative Corporation Kenya.
Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), Dr. Omumbo began her career in epidemiology in 1995 working as part of the Kenya Medical Research Institute/Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme in Kenya.In 2002 she was awarded a Wellcome Trust Prize studentship scholarship to undertake a D.Phil. at the University of Oxford in modelling the spatial risks of Plasmodium falciparum in East Africa.
When she completed her D.Phil. in 2005 she moved to Columbia University's International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) in Palisades where she was an Associate Research Scientist with IRI's Africa Program until 2011. Her research interests involve promoting the use of evidence-based decision making for disease control in Africa. Judy holds a PhD in Epidemiology (Oxford University, UK), an MPH (Hebrew University, Israel) and a Bachelor's degree in Dentistry from University of Nairobi
Professor Ojoo, is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University Centre for Global Health Practice and Impact. she was an Assistant Professor of Medicine with the Clinical Infectious Diseases Division of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA. Over the past 12 years Professor Ojoo has led the development, implementation and ensured the technical quality of large-scale HIV care and treatment programmes across all levels of health institutions in Kenya, serving over 100,000 patients on antiretroviral treatment.
These programs have demonstrated the institutionalization of quality improvement practices as a key driver of services standards and patient outcomes. In addition, she was responsible for leading the Ministry of Health in developing an innovative competency-based curriculum that has been adopted for HIV in-service training in Kenya and is set to cut the cost of training significantly, while ensuring health worker capacity to provision of services is maintained.Professor Ojoo mentors and provides leadership for a technical team of highly accomplished health professionals that have demonstrated clinical care delivery systems improvement capacity, and the ability to equip other healthcare workers with skills and competences required for HIV and tuberculosis services development. Additionally she has served as a technical resource for HIV practice guidelines development for the World Health Organization from 2004 to 2014, and for Kenya where she continues to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health.Favorite Quote: In God we Trust, all others bring data- William Edwards Deming