MALARIA ELIMINATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Technical Advisor ( PATH )
Adam Bennett, MA, PhD, is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and technical advisor at the MEI. His research has focused on modeling spatial and climatic factors in the context of malaria program evaluations and conducting operational research studies on optimizing malaria surveillance and response approaches, including active case detection among high-risk populations. Adam has worked with national malaria control and elimination programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, using survey and routine surveillance data to evaluate impact and improve targeting of interventions. Adam has served as a member of the WHO surveillance, monitoring and evaluation technical expert group and the Elimination 8 surveillance technical working group, and as co-chair of the APMEN surveillance technical working group. He previously led the MEI's surveillance portfolio, developing and recommending new and efficient strategies for identifying, tracking, and targeting malaria cases in elimination settings. Adam is currently Senior Scientific Advisor at PATH where he oversees a research agenda to inform improved malaria surveillance and response across seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Adam has a PhD in International Health and Development from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and an MA in Medical Anthropology from the University of Colorado, Denver.
Job Titles:
- VMMC Sustainability Project Director
Amanda Marr Chung, MPH, is the VMMC Sustainability Project Director at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) and was Associate Director for the MEI until August 2020. She leads the leadership and program management work for MEI. She has over fifteen years of global health program management experience, including five years at Seva Foundation, a not-for-profit dedicated to preventing and treating blindness and visual impairment, and five years at I-TECH, which works with local partners to develop skilled health care workers and strong national health systems in resource-limited countries. She has also worked for public health departments and a community health center in the United States. Amanda has an MPH from the University of Washington, a BA from Princeton University, and is a DrPH candidate at UC Berkeley.
Job Titles:
- Operations Program Manager for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
Avery Seefeld is the Operations Program Manager for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Avery assists the team with all operational needs. Prior to joining the MEI, Avery was a Program Manager at the Center for Reproductive Rights, supporting the Global Legal Program in advancing reproductive rights around the world.
Previously, Avery was a Program Coordinator within the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS). In this position, she provided operations and research support to a maternal and reproductive health quality improvement intervention in Kenya, as well as a mixed-method evaluation of interventions to improve access to family planning services through private health facilities in Kenya and Ghana. Avery holds a BS from St. Lawrence University.
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Department of Medicine
Bryan Greenhouse is an Associate Professor in the Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine within the UCSF Department of Medicine. His research program brings together laboratory and analytical tools to understand and measure the transmission, epidemiology, and immunology of malaria, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa. Bryan's research group aims to study malaria in its natural environment, drawing upon data and samples collected from field surveillance or clinical trials conducted in malaria-endemic areas. His current projects focus on understanding the development of naturally acquired immunity and creating novel, antibody-based tools to measure malaria exposure and immunologic protection. Other areas of focus include the improvement of diagnostics, as well as the use of parasite population genetics and spatial data to understand parasite transmission and evolution.
Bryan's lab is based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, where he is an investigator. He has been based at UCSF, where he completed subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases, since 2004. He has an MD from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in Biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in Biology from Williams College.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Delivery and Partnerships
Cara Smith Gueye, PhD, MPH, is the Associate Director of Delivery and Partnerships at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). Cara manages MEI's growing USAID portfolio, providing administrative and technical oversight for PMI Impact Malaria and PMI Insights for Malaria in addition to new opportunities. She also oversees the development and uptake of MEI's Malaria Elimination Toolkit. Prior to these roles, Cara managed the Namibia malaria elimination country portfolio while based in Windhoek, oversaw the MEI and WHO malaria elimination case study series and supported the regional elimination initiatives in the Asia Pacific (APMEN) and southern Africa (E8) regions.
In the years prior to joining the MEI, Cara worked with an environmental NGO in California and spent four years in Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar as a Peace Corps Volunteer and working with a maternal and child health initiative.
Job Titles:
- Senior Program Manager, Surveillance Research & Regional Elimination, Asia Pacific
Chris Cotter, MPH, PhD candidate, is a Senior Research Manager at the MEI and leads several operational research studies in Africa and the Asia Pacific to improve the impact and effectiveness of surveillance and response in malaria-eliminating countries. He has worked closely with Ministries of Health and malaria programs for over 13 years, developing surveillance and response-related tools and metrics, building capacity in monitoring and evaluation, and program optimization in passive and active malaria surveillance. Chris's primary research focus is on evaluating and optimizing active case detection strategies, including aspects on the performance of diagnostic methods used, cost and cost-effectiveness, and qualitative research on the feasibility and acceptability of reactive case detection approaches for malaria elimination. He has published extensively on active case detection for malaria and was the lead author of a seminal paper on global malaria elimination progress published in the Lancet.
Prior to joining the MEI, Chris served in the U.S. Peace Corps as a rural health educator in Uzbekistan.
Chris has an MPH in International Health from the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and is pursuing a PhD at Uppsala University in Sweden.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Manager for the Bite Interruption Toward Elimination
- Senior Research Manager, BITE
David McIver is the Senior Research Manager for the Bite Interruption Toward Elimination (BITE) project at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). David provides scientific and programmatic oversight for BITE project activities in Cambodia and Thailand, managing protocol development, study implementation, workplanning, and operational processes. He also leads the coordination of multi-country teams and partners, as well as stakeholder engagement activities.
David is an infectious disease epidemiologist and has experience in leading multi-country research programs across the world. Prior to joining the MEI, he served as the technical lead of PREDICT, a project of USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats program, at Metabiota, Inc. In this capacity, he worked on surveillance and capacity building activities related to emerging viral diseases in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, China, Laos, and Indonesia. While with Metabiota, Inc., David also served as a subject matter expert for the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), under the United States Department of Defense. Previously, David completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Children's Hospital. As a fellow, he worked on a broad array of projects, ranging from creating new methodologies for predicting influenza rates, to developing innovative ways to study insomnia, to conducting large-scale studies of the impact of dietary chromium supplements on diabetes.
David holds a PhD in Epidemiology and a BSc in Biology from the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada.
Job Titles:
- Entomologist & Vector Control Program Manager
Dr. Steve Gowelo is an Entomologist & Vector Control Program Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). Steve is based in Malawi and is interested in the control of vector-borne diseases. With nearly a decade of experience in both field and laboratory-based entomology, Steve has worked on malaria, arboviruses, and human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). He is strongly interested in community involvement in the control of vector-borne diseases for increased intervention coverage and sustainability. As part of his doctoral research, Steve evaluated the role, impact, and feasibility of a participatory approach to community-based larval source management (LSM) in southern Malawi. Prior to joining the MEI, Steve was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Partnership for Increasing the Impact of Vector Control (PIIVeC) at the Malaria Alert Centre (MAC) of the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS). KUHeS was recently formed from the merging of the Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) and the College of Medicine (CoM), two former colleges at the University of Malawi. Steve also serves as an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of Malawi and has research collaborations with the Vector Biology and Neglected Tropical Diseases Research Groups at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme.
Steve has a PhD in Medical Entomology from Wageningen University & Research (WUR), the Netherlands, and an MSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Malawi.
Job Titles:
- Control Research Manager
- Entomologist & Vector Control Research Manager
Elodie Vajda is an Entomologist and Vector Control Research Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). As part of the MEI's Vector Control team, Elodie provides both on-site and remote support to various entomological surveillance programs and studies in southern Africa, Central America, and Southeast Asia. Specifically, she contributes to and leads technical, program management, coordination, and planning activities. She is also involved in a large-scale project to evaluate novel bite prevention tools in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). Prior to joining the MEI, Elodie worked as a Regional Entomologist, supporting the emergency Zika response in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands.
Elodie holds an MSc in Entomology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and a master's degree in International Public Health from The University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. She is French-American and has a keen interest in public health entomology.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Graduate Student Researcher, Surveillance Research
Francois Rerolle is a Graduate Student Researcher who works with the High-Risk Populations and Surveillance teams within the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). He is currently pursuing his PhD in Epidemiology under the supervision of Dr. Adam Bennett and Dr. Hugh Sturrock at the MEI. Francois is interested in geospatial modeling, sampling designs, and mathematical models that target high-risk populations and inform national programs working toward malaria eradication. At the MEI, he supports the AcME trial in Lao PDR, which implemented and assessed a focal test and treat intervention that employed peer-navigators to reach out, study, and treat forest-going populations. Francois is leveraging data from this trial to study the association between deforestation and malaria incidence in Lao PDR, as well as the mobility patterns of forest-goers.
Before joining the MEI, Francois worked as a graduate researcher with Stanford investigators on two major projects. One project studied the impact of a microfinance program on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) in Kenya. The second project evaluated the impact of an NGO's maintenance program for health care workers' motorcycles on health care delivery in rural Zambia. Francois also interned with a research group in Cameroon that studied the transmission of lymphatic filariasis and Loa loa in central Africa.
Francois has an MS in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He also graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris, where he studied Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
Gretchen Newby is a Senior Research Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, she is responsible for researching and documenting progress toward malaria elimination and eradication. She supports PMI Impact Malaria as a Technical Writer, and also contributes to the MEI's knowledge management team. Since joining the MEI in 2012, Gretchen has conducted case studies on malaria elimination in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, as well as on innovative vector control in various socioeconomic and epidemiological settings. She has written background papers on malaria in conflict and emergency settings, screen and treat strategies, mass drug administration, and program management to inform global policy on malaria elimination and eradication. Gretchen was also a member of the UCSF Secretariat for the Lancet Commission on malaria eradication and a primary author of the Commission's groundbreaking report.
Gretchen has a BA in Biochemistry from Bowdoin College and a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) from the Tulane University School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine, where she studied parasitology and complex emergencies.
Job Titles:
- Technical Specialist ( PATH )
Job Titles:
- Senior Program Manager
- Senior Program Manager, Office of Professor Emeritus of Global Health Sir Richard Feachem
Hyun Ju Woo is a Senior Program Manager in the Office of Professor Emeritus of Global Health (and Senior Advisor to the Malaria Elimination Initiative) Sir Richard Feachem, at the Institute for Global Health Sciences of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She joined UCSF in 2000 and has worked with Sir Richard since 1999, during his transition from the World Bank to UCSF. From 2002 to 2007, Ms. Woo was Manager and Coordinator of the Global Health Dinner Series and worked closely with the Development Office at the UCSF Foundation. Before moving to the Bay Area, she worked as a legal secretary in Austin, Texas. She also served as the Passport/Visa Manager and Assistant to the Vice-Consul at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Negara Brunei Darussalam.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Associate Director, Eradication Research
Ingrid Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and an Associate Director of Eradication Research within the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). Trained as an organic chemist, Ingrid has been conducting malaria research since 2011, with interdisciplinary expertise spanning from drug discovery and clinical trials (phase 1 and 2) to implementation, cost-effectiveness, antimalarial delivery within the informal private sector, and more.
Since joining the MEI in 2013, Ingrid spent three years leading the Primaquine Rollout Group, and now leads the MEI's eradication research portfolio of work, including the Antiparasite Rollout Group (APROG) and the Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication, as well as the development of background papers to inform policy and implementation. Ingrid has a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, an MS from UCSF, and a BS from Yale University.
Job Titles:
- Research Scientist
- Research Scientist at UC Berkeley
Jade Benjamin-Chung is a Research Scientist at UC Berkeley who works closely with the Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) to apply causal inference, data science, and machine learning techniques to malaria elimination research. She is currently leading a study that aims to estimate spillover effects (i.e. herd effects) and fine-scale spatial heterogeneity associated with the effectiveness of malaria elimination interventions, such as reactive focal mass drug administration and reactive case detection. In addition to her research on malaria, Jade has led studies focused on child growth and enteric infection in South and Southeast Asia.
Jade has a PhD in Epidemiology and an MA in Biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley. Her work is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Scientist, Surveillance Research
Jennifer (Jenny) L. Smith, MSc, PhD, is a Senior Research Scientist at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at UCSF. Jenny leads a portfolio of work around the use of malaria molecular surveillance for programmatic decision-making and operational research around surveillance methods to identify and access populations at high risk of malaria in low-endemic and elimination settings, using case-control and network approaches.
Job Titles:
- Is Director of Program Development
Jeremy Alberga is Director of Program Development and Strategy within the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, focusing on overall strategy and fundraising for the Institute. He has over two decades of experience in health research and development in collaboration with the public, private, and academic sectors, and has executed and managed over $150 million in health, financing, and policy projects. Prior to joining UCSF, Jeremy ran Global Viral, a not-for-profit working on emerging infectious diseases. He also worked for the University of Washington and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has ten years of experience living overseas in Japan, Cameroon, and Botswana.
Jeremy has an MA from George Washington University and a BA from McGill University.
Judy Choi is a Program Assistant at UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Judy provides operations, administrative, and logistical support to MEI team members and programs. Prior to joining MEI, she served as an Operations Analyst at SF State University within their Academic Technology department. During her time at SF State, Judy identified logistical constraints, enhanced department workflow and managed integration projects within the university.
Judy holds a Bachelor of Science in Managerial Economics from UC Davis. Judy is currently pursuing a master's degree in Public Administration at SF State.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
- Associate Director of Operations and Administration
Katie Giessler is Associate Director for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Katie oversees team operations, reporting, monitoring, and evaluation. Prior to joining the MEI, Katie served as a Senior Research Analyst within the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS), where she managed implementation of maternal and reproductive health quality improvement interventions in Kenya and India.
Prior to joining UCSF, Katie was a Program Officer at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. In this role, she oversaw implementation of a clinical trial examining the efficacy of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for respiratory distress in children under five in Ghana. Katie has 10 years of experience in public health, six of which have been focused in global settings.
Katie holds an MPH from Hunter College and a BS from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Kimberly (Kim) Baltzell, BA, BSN, PhD, MS, is the Director of the UCSF School of Nursing Center for Global Health and a Research Scientist with the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role with the MEI, she is focused on Targeted Parasite Elimination (TPE) studies in Swaziland and Namibia. Kim also conducts research in Malawi, focusing on diagnostics for malarial and non-malarial fevers. Her research is both qualitative and quantitative, with a particular interest in understanding how health workers make treatment decisions for patients in settings with limited diagnostic tools.
She has been affiliated with the UCSF School of Nursing since 2006 and the Department of Global Health Sciences since 2011.
Job Titles:
- Senior Program Manager
- Senior Program Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
Kyle Daniels is a Senior Program Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Kyle helps lead the MEI's USAID portfolio, including stewarding the MEI's participation in the PMI Impact Malaria and PMI Insights for Malaria consortiums. Previously, Kyle supported the UCSF Secretariat for the Lancet Commission on malaria eradication. She also has experience in qualitative and case study research, as well as new business development.
Before re-joining the MEI in 2020, Kyle worked for Partners In Health in Liberia to establish a model for high-quality rural healthcare in pursuit of universal healthcare coverage, coordinating cross-departmental strategic initiatives and special projects on behalf of the Executive Director and Executive Leadership Team. Kyle holds a dual BA in International Relations: Global Health and Community Health from Tufts University.
Job Titles:
- Asia Pacific Malaria Budget Advocacy Program Coordinator
Mercy Opiyo is an Entomologist at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). As part of the MEI team, she provides technical expertise, capacity building, and mentorship on entomological surveillance and vector control to national malaria control programs (NMCPs) and local partners in sub-Saharan Africa. Mercy is currently based in Spain, and will move to Mozambique in early 2022.
Mercy is also currently affiliated with the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain and the Manhiça Health Research Centre (Centro de Investigação em Saúde de Manhiça or CISM) in Mozambique. Prior to joining the MEI, she worked as a Medical Entomologist at ISGlobal and CISM, primarily leading several entomological studies at CISM as part of the Mozambican Alliance Towards Elimination of Malaria (MALTEM). In this capacity, Mercy's work focused on improving the impact of vector control tools in order to guide NMCP decisions on when and where supplementary interventions and improvements were needed. Within the scope of this work, she assisted NMCPs in understanding where and how human, vector-related, and intervention-related factors led to gaps in protection in communities after the implementation of vector control tools. Mercy also previously worked as a Medical Entomologist at the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI) in Tanzania and at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Kenya in collaboration with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), UK.
Mercy holds a PhD in Medicine and Translational Research from the Universitat de Barcelona (University of Barcelona) in Barcelona, Spain, as well as an MSc in Biology and Control of Vector Borne Diseases from the LSTM in Liverpool, UK. She is Kenyan and has a keen interest in motivating and capacitating more women to take on leadership roles in entomology and vector control. Over the last 10 years, Mercy has had the opportunity to work in various African countries, including Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
Job Titles:
- Director of Research
- Physician
Michelle Hsiang is a pediatric infectious diseases physician and malaria epidemiologist. She serves as the Director of Research for the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the Institute for Global Health Sciences at UCSF. She is Associate Professor in the Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Epidemiology, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, as well as a Chan-Zuckerburg Biohub Investigator (incoming June 2021).
Dr. Hsiang's research focuses on the development and evaluation of novel malaria diagnostic, surveillance, and drug-based interventions including mass drug administration (MDA) to address the challenge of low-density infections that contribute to persistent transmission and disease in low endemic settings. She has worked mainly in sub-Saharan Africa but also works in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. She was an inaugural member of the Malaria Elimination Group (MEG) and co-founded the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network (APMEN). She studied Human Biology as an undergraduate at Stanford University and attended medical school at Baylor College of Medicine. She trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases at UCSF, and obtained a Masters in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.She is a WomenLift Leader in Global Health through the Stanford and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation program WomenLift Health, and was previously Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at UT Southwestern Medical School where she was also a Horchow Family Endowed Scholar in Pediatrics.
Michelle Roh, PhD MPH is a postdoctoral fellow at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative. Her research focuses on applying causal inference methods to evaluate new and existing malaria control interventions. Michelle's current work includes investigation of the ‘non-malarial' benefits of malaria interventions, prevention of malaria in pregnancy and children, and clinical trials to evaluate novel malaria chemoprevention strategies for malaria control and elimination.
Michelle has a PhD in Epidemiology and Translational Science from UCSF and an MPH from Yale School of Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Technical Specialist for Donor Transitions With the Advocacy
- Technical Specialist for Donor Transitions, Advocacy, Financing, and Sustainability
Naomi Beyeler is a Technical Specialist for Donor Transitions with the Advocacy, Financing, and Sustainability team at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). She also heads the climate change and health initiative at the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS). At MEI, Naomi leads the transitions portfolio, working to ensure the long-term sustainability and impact of malaria eradication efforts during the transition from donor-supported programs to those that are fully managed and financed by countries. Naomi has over ten years of experience working both globally and in California on issues of health systems and finance, climate change, universal health coverage, and maternal and child health.
Naomi has Master's degrees in Public Health and City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley, and is a PhD candidate in Global Health Sciences at UCSF.
Job Titles:
- Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Senior Advisor to the Malaria Elimination Initiative
Roland (Roly) Gosling, BmedSci, BM, BS, MSc, PhD, is Senior Advisor to UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) and a Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF.
Job Titles:
- Researcher
- Graduate Student Researcher
Sarah Gallalee is a Graduate Student Researcher at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) and a PhD student at the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS). At the MEI, Sarah contributes to research projects on risk factors for malaria and interventions to interrupt malaria transmission in elimination settings. Among her research interests are improving disease surveillance systems and using geospatial methods to assess disease burdens and target data-driven interventions.
Before joining UCSF, Sarah spent three years working for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) as part of the malaria analytics and surveillance team. During her time with CHAI, she was primarily based in Myanmar and supported the work of disease control programs in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand.
Sarah completed her MPH at Columbia University, with a focus on socio-medical sciences and global health. She received her BA in Geography at the University of Vermont.
Job Titles:
- Global Health and Senior Advisor to the Malaria Elimination Initiative
- Professor Emeritus of Global Health
Sir Richard Feachem is Professor Emeritus of Global Health and Senior Advisor to the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS) of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).
From 2007 to 2021, Sir Richard was the founding Director of the Global Health Group at IGHS, and from 1999 to 2021 he was Professor of Global Health at both UCSF and the University of California Berkeley. He is a Visiting Professor at London University and an Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland. From 2002 to 2007, Sir Richard served as founding Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and Under Secretary General of the United Nations. From 1995 until 1999, Dr. Feachem was Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank. Previously (1989-1995), he was Dean of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Professor Feachem co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication, and currently serves on the Boards of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (Singapore) and the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (Abu Dhabi). He has published extensively on the epidemiology and control of infectious disease, health policy and finance, and other topics in global health and development.
Sonia Herrera, MD, MPH, is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, she supports projects in Latin America and the Caribbean and has focused on developing two main projects in Colombia. One of these projects consists of a randomized control trial related to primaquine (PQ) double dose for radical cure of Plasmodium vivax. The other involves the implementation of a risk-benefit tool to support countries in establishing evidence-based policies for Plasmodium vivax radical cures that are safe, effective, and operationally feasible.
Sonia's research background includes studies to determine the prevalence of vector-borne diseases in Colombia, including malaria, dengue, Zika, and chikungunya. She also coordinated a study, funded by the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) in Switzerland, on Pan-LAMP and Pv-LAMP, molecular techniques to diagnose malaria. Additionally, she has been involved in research on the prevalence of G6PD deficiency in Colombia and the potential adverse events associated with using primaquine to treat Plasmodium vivax in patients with G6PD deficiency. Furthermore, Sonia has actively worked on immunization programs with the Caucaseco Scientific Research Center in Cali, Colombia. Further, as part of the NIH International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR) and within the scope of NIH grants, she executed studies on antibody-mediated immune response in areas of Colombia with moderate malaria transmission. She has also generated a transgenic malaria parasite, used as a model for vaccine candidates.
Sonia has an MD from the University of The Andes in Bogotá, Colombia, and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University. She also served as a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins University. In this capacity, her work encompassed studies to identify and characterize Plasmodium vivax antigens and their diversity, as well as a detailed Plasmodium vivax CS protein characterization that included immuno-epidemiological analysis.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Research Associate at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
Tiese Etim-Inyang is a Research Associate at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Tiese provides research and operations support to the MEI's High-Risk Populations projects in Southern Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining the MEI, Tiese worked as an Intern for Manna Project International, supporting the development of a sexual health education program targeted at teens in northern Ecuador.
Job Titles:
- Public Health Specialist
- Senior Research Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
Timothy Finn is a Senior Research Manager at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). Since 2019, Timothy has provided scientific and programmatic oversight as the in-country lead for the COMBAT RAI2E and RAI3E trials in Lao PDR and Thailand, as well as for the PATH Quantitative G6PD research grant in Lao PDR. This role entails managing protocol development, study implementation, work-planning, data capture design and analysis, and operational processes. Timothy also serves as a representative for the MEI at regional malaria partner initiatives.
Timothy is a public health specialist with more than 15 years of experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of malaria and neglected tropical disease (NTD) elimination and eradication programs. Prior to joining the MEI, he served as the Senior Epidemiologist for NTDs at Sightsavers International. In this capacity, he provided technical oversight for program validation activities related to mass drug administration (MDA) for NTDs, including operational survey design and implementation. He also conducted research on surveillance and coverage methods, in addition to serving as a technical representative for monitoring and evaluation (M&E) at activities organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD). Timothy has extensive and diverse experience in disease control and elimination for The Carter Center, the Malaria Consortium, and The MENTOR Initiative in sub-Saharan Africa.
Timothy holds a PhD (2017) and MPH (2006) from Tulane University, as well as a BA in International Economics from American University (1999). Prior to pursuing an MPH, he was an International Trade Analyst with the U.S. Department of Commerce for more than five years.
Job Titles:
- Program Manager for Advocacy
- Program Manager, Advocacy, Financing, and Sustainability
Vanessa Elias is the Program Manager for Advocacy, Financing, and Sustainability at the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Vanessa participates in policy analysis and outreach on health financing and health delivery systems in low and middle-income countries. Her work focuses on the implementation of sustainability and transitions assessment and planning processes designed to guide and assist national malaria elimination programs as they transition from donor-supported programs to those that are fully managed and funded by countries.
Prior to joining the MEI, Vanessa worked at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), where she managed an implementation research grant and contributed to the Zika virus emergency response. Previously, she held positions at the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). She has eight years of experience in epidemiology and health systems strengthening.
Vanessa has an MPH from the École des hautes études en santé publique (EHESP) in France and a BA in Economics and Political Science from The University of Arizona. She speaks Spanish and French.
Job Titles:
- Research Data Analyst for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative
Xue Wu is a Research Data Analyst for the UCSF Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI). In this role, Xue studies the development and evaluation of novel malaria diagnostic, surveillance, and drug-based interventions including mass drug administration (MDA). She supports work led by Dr. Michelle Hsiang, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa but also in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific. Prior to joining MEI, Xue served as a Public Health Doctor in Tianjin, China, which have been focused on infectious diseases. She has over 9 years data analysis and management experience, including 9 years in a hospital, which has more than 30,000 inpatients per year, and 3 years in HIPQCC, which works with local hospitals to develop the skills of health system management on infectious diseases.
Xue holds a Master of Medicine and a Bachelor of Medicine from Public Health College Tianjin Medical University in China.