CEHDAR - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• CEO
• Founding President
• Member of the Board of Directors

Dr. Mrs. Jemima A. Dennis-Antwi is a product of the St. Roses Secondary School (Akwatia-Ghana), Wesley Girls High School (Cape Coast-Ghana), Universities of Ghana; Edinburgh (Scotland-UK), London (UK), and De Montfort (Leicester, UK). She has over the last 30 years and more been involved locally and globally with public service and development work in health systems strengthening, maternal health, midwifery and research in various leadership positions. She is considered as a lead in the strengthening of midwifery/nursing systems especially in the Africa Region through consistent advocacy, capacity building, structural development and stakeholder engagements. Notably, she served as the Regional Midwives Advisor for Anglophone Africa for the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) on a transcontinental programme in collaboration with UNFPA (2009-2013) providing technical assistance in midwifery to 10 African countries as well as Guyana in Latin America. She was instrumental in the development and launch of the Confederation of African Midwives Associations (CONAMA). Subsequently she was elected in 2014 to serve on the ICM Board of Directors. Her roles to the foundations set in Africa in midwifery contributed to UNFPA recognising midwifery as a key deliverable in its programming in over 40 countries globally. Dr. Dennis-Antwi also served in the capacity of International Maternal Health/Midwife Consultant for UNFPA- Sierra Leone (June 2018-March 2020) where she has led collaborative efforts to develop and launch the first ever Strategic Plan in Midwifery and Nursing for the Ministry of Health and Sanitation among other efforts. In Ghana and Zambia, she also worked with teams to produce their Midwifery and Nursing Strategic Plans. In 2013-2018, she led efforts to establish the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives. a specialist postgraduate Fellowship College, and served as its first President and Rector. She pioneered efforts at establishing the administrative, financial, and academic structures upon which the College now runs 10 specialist training programmes. She also helped develop the "Paediatric Nursing Education Programme", the first international project of the College, in partnership with Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. She has worked with significant international NGOs and Health Institutions as staff or collaborator. These include the Population Council, American College of Nurse-Midwives, Johns Hopkins University/CCP Consortium in Nigeria, Childrens' Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Cape Town etc. She has served as honorary Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort; member, member of Board of Examiners- West Africa College of Nursing (2018); Yale University School of Nursing Scholar (2017); Board Member and Secretary, Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana; and Member of Board of Directors, Ipas-North Carolina (USA), PhD External Examiner-University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is a temporal advisor on midwifery, research, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health for WHO-Geneva and UNFPA; Ex-Officio Member of the Executive Committee of the Global Network-World Health Organization Collaborating Research Centres (2017 to June 2020). Dr. Dennis-Antwi is a global public speaker with peer reviewed papers to her credit and also a contributor and editor to several health-related documents and books locally and internationally. She has led several efforts in capacity development of health staff through development of curricula, reference manuals, teaching guides, job aides, posters, flipcharts and other learning materials. Her current interests include designing and delivering cutting edge online teaching/ continuing packages for health staff, Preceptorship in Midwifery, Sickle Cell Disease health promotion, Qualitative Research and Strategic Planning and Implementation Systems. Dr. Dennis-Antwi is a multi-skilled Ghanaian Health Promotion/communication Expert, Midwife and Nurse with over 33 years cumulative experience locally and globally; having managed collaborative projects and programmes through public service, development work and independent consultancies in maternal and newborn health/midwifery, nursing, health systems strengthening, health systems administration and research. She has held various leadership positions in collaborative and consultancy roles. Starting in 1989 as a Nursing Officer at the clinical milieu of Ridge Hospital-Accra. she was seconded to the Health Education Unit of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly in 1991 as the first Ghanaian to continue the development of the Kumasi Health Education Unit culminating into a formidable national entity called the National Health Learning Materials Centre of the Ministry of Health. With a Bachelor's degree in Nursing with Psychology-Legon-GH; Master's qualification from University of Edinburgh-UK (1991), she pursued her PhD studies at De Montfort University-Leicester-UK(2003-2008) and branched into international development work serving with organisations such as Partnerships for Transforming Health Systems-Nigeria; American College of Nurse-Midwives-USA; Population Council-Ghana as well as working as a technical resource person, collaborator or consultant to myriad international organisations nationally and globally including the UN (UNFPA Ghana, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Libya, ESARO) WHO-Geneva, UNICEF, UN WOMEN), Sick-Kids-Canada, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, World Vision-Ghana, Catholic Relief Services, BASICS-GH-USAID, Jhpiego-GH etc. (1991-2009). Overall, she has had professional exposure to over 42 countries worldwide and is a global technical speaker. Notably, Dr. Dennis-Antwi served on a transcontinental (Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean) programme in collaboration with International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) and UNFPA as the Regional Midwives Advisor for Anglophone Africa (2009-2013) for providing technical oversight to 10 African countries and (Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia) and Guyana in midwifery strengthening. Furthermore, she was selected as the Inaugural and Foundational President (2013-2018) and Acting First Rector (2013-2016) of the Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives (Specialist College with Presidential Accent), where she assiduously led efforts to establish the very successful and much sought-after postgraduate Fellowship College administratively and academically. On completing her term of office in 2018. She served as a long-term International Midwife Consultant for UNFPA- Sierra Leone where she led collaborative efforts for the development of the first ever Strategic Plan in Midwifery and Nursing and Preceptorship Policy for Clinical Competency Building and later documented the "Evolution of Midwifery from the Pre-war situation to present day Sierra Leone in 2020" among other leadership assignments. She also developed the Strategic Nursing and Midwifery Plans/Policies for Ghana and first ever for Zambia and Libya. Her works have been published in peer reviewed journals, bibliographies and grey documents. Her current research work is on "Application of the WHO Framework for Quality Midwifery Education in 5 countries": A WHO-Geneva Assignment with attachment to Sierra Leone. Dr. Dennis-Antwi is a multiple award recipient. The most recent (May 2021) being her induction into the MAIDEN Hall of Fame by the Ministry of Health-Ghana for her contribution to midwifery and nursing development locally and internationally and especially for her exemplary and pioneering leadership in the establishment of Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives (GCNM). Dr. Dennis-Antwi has served as member of Board of Directors of global organisations such as ICM; Tropical Health Education Trust -UK; Ipas -USA and locally with Sickle Cell Foundation-GH; GCNM and Centre for Health Development and Research (CEHDAR). Currently, Dr. Dennis-Antwi also leads as the President and CEO of CEHDAR; a Ghana-based international Non-Profit Organisation with a goal for global health workforce capacity building, systems strengthening, research and advocacy among others.

Job Titles:

• Regulatory Expert

Mr. Felix Nyante is a Regulatory Expert with over 33 years of professional experience in Nursing and Midwifery Practice, Education and Administration. He is the current Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Ghana (NMCG), a position he has held since 2014. Prior to his assumption of the position, he served as a Deputy Registrar for eight years where he provided oversight to supervision and regional coordination of the Council. Mr Nyante is a professional nurse with two master's degrees in Educational Administration and Public Administration from the University of Cape Coast and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration respectively. Under his leadership with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the organisation has seen tremendous growth in the application of digital technology to licensing examinations, the first of its kind in Africa and personal data on registered nurses and midwives; establishment of ultra-modern computer laboratory for academic and research activities; introduction of a standardised policy for continuous professional development for all categories of nurses and midwives; decentralisation of administrative operations of the N&MC human capacity development of staff; promoting career advancement for auxiliary cadres of nurses and midwives in Ghana and Sierra Leone through curriculum upgrades to professional qualifications as well as institutionalisation of a credentialing forum for professional accreditation; review and digitization of procedure manual for nurses and midwives to mention a few. In the area of Board services, Mr Nyante has played membership roles on national and international councils such as that of Regional Council for Health Professionals Education in the ECOWAS Region, Ministry of Health Advisory Board in Ghana, Ghana College of Nurses and Midwives, Ho Teaching Hospital and the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Felix has attended many national and international and presented a number of papers around nursing and midwifery regulation and credentialling. He has some publications to his credit. In addition, Mr Nyante is a professional and social mentor; having mentored many nursing and midwifery leaders in Ghana. Mr Felix Nyante is a multiple award winner. In May 2021, Felix was recognised for Excellence in Nursing and Midwifery Regulation by the Ministry of Health, Ghana. At that same ceremony he was inducted into the maiden Nursing and Midwifery Hall of Fame with two others. This is the first ever award in Ghana.

Job Titles:

• Director of Nursing and Midwifery Services - Ghana Health Service
• Nursing and Midwifery Expert

Eva Mensah is a Nursing and Midwifery Expert in nursing and midwifery practice, education and administration. She is the current Director of the Nursing and Midwifery Services of the Ghana Health Service (GHS). Prior to the assumption of the position, she served as a Deputy Director of Nursing Services at the Ministry of Health. In addition to her position as a Director, she is the National Programme Coordinator for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) GHS Government to Government (G2G) and spear headed the Supportive Supervision Project. Notably, with the creation and assistance of a multidisciplinary Technical Working Group, developed the guidelines, checklist, monitoring and evaluation and implemented supportive supervision in all the sixteen regions of the country to achieve the goal of creating and sustaining a knowledgeable, skilled and competent workforce towards quality health care and better health outcomes.

Job Titles:

• Director, Human Resources Development Directorate, GHS

Peter is a Human Resource Management practitioner and a Lawyer. He has over twenty (20) progressive years' work experience as Human Resource Management Practitioner in the Ghana Health Service: seven (7) years as Deputy Director in-charge of Human Resource Management Department, six (6) years as Regional Human Resource Manager for Western Region and seven (7) years as Head of Recruitments at the Human Resource Directorate, Headquarters. Over the years, Peter has led the development of various HR policies and manuals; development and review of job descriptions, establishment of appropriate grading structures for new and emerging professions and facilitated several orientation and training programmes for employees of the Service. Peter holds professional Law Certificate from the Ghana School of Law, Bachelor of Laws from the GIMPA Law School, Executive Master of Business Administration (Human Resource Management) from the University of Ghana Business School, Postgraduate Diploma in Public Administration from the Public Services College, GIMPA and Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from the University of Ghana, Legon.