Staff Overview


HHR has over 164 national and international staff members, working on-site under both full-time and part-time arrangements. The professional team comprises Medical Doctors, Pathologists, Microbiologists, Molecular Biologists, Biomedical Scientists, Nurses, Midwives, Public Health Professionals, Sociologists, Psychologists, Statisticians, IT Specialists, Financial Analysts, and Human Resource Professionals

Management and Operations

Prof. Anthony Scott

Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology, FRCP FMedSc PI at HHR

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Prof. Nega Assefa

Professor of  Maternal and Child Health, Haramaya University
PI at HHR

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DrPH. Shirine Voller

Director of Operations, LSHTM Clinical Trials Unit

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Nana Sarkodie-Mensah

Project Manager (LSHTM)

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Dr. Lola Madrid

Site Lead

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Yenenesh Tilahun

Operations Manager

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Eleni Teklehaimanot

Project Manager 

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Section Leads

Beth Morrison

Project Administrator

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Dr.Usman N.ikumapayi 

Laboratory Director

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Dr. Addisu Alemu

Lead Pathologist

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Boniface Kamau Jibendi

Chief Technology Officer

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Getahun Wakwaya

Research Coordinator-SBS

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Dr. Faisel Abdi

Research Governance Coordinator

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Tadesse Dufera

Research Coordinator-Haramaya site

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Mohammad Abdulkadir
Research Coordinator-Kersa site

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Gezahegn Mengesha

Statistician

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Mohammed Jemal

Research Coordinator-Pregnancy Surveillance

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Dr. Samrawit Abebaw

 Impact and Engagement Coordinator

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Blen Getachew

Research Coordinator-ARM-CHAMPS Project

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Dr. Meron Kebede

Clinical Research Scientist

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                             Prof. Anthony Scott

Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology, FRCP FMedSci
HHR PI, LSHTM

   

 

 

Professor Anthony Scott is a British clinician and epidemiologist with an interest in bacterial infectious diseases and vaccination. He trained in clinical medicine at Oxford University and in epidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and did post-graduate clinical training in Infectious Diseases. Since 1993 he has worked at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya. Since 2013 he has been Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology at LSHTM and co-founded HHR with Professor Nega Assefa and Anna Seale in 2016 as a programme to host the CHAMPS project and encourage research capacity development in Harar. He has worked on clinical vaccine development and impact studies of vaccines against pneumococcus, Haemophilus influenzae, non-typhoidal salmonella, COVID-19 and other pathogens. Professor Scott also has an interest in the aetiology of serious childhood illnesses (e.g. pneumonia) and childhood death. He works on vaccine policy in the policy committees of the UK (JCVI) and WHO (SAGE).

      Prof. Nega Assefa Kassa                   

Professor of Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health

HHR  PI, Haramaya University

 

 

 

Professor Nega Assefa (PhD), a high-ranking faculty member and researcher in the College of Health and Medical Sciences and professor of Maternal and child.

Professor Nega received his third-degree education in Public Health (Maternal and Child Health) in the College of Health and Medical Sciences of Haramaya University, and he became the firstborn of the Collage’s PhD program in 2012. His dissertation was titled “Pregnancy rate and outcomes in rural eastern Ethiopia Fetal and Neonatal survival”. Dr. Nega has also obtained a certificate of Executive Program in Global Health Leadership from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.

Professor Nega (PhD) has been serving with perceptible dedication at different capacities in CHMS of Haramaya University since 1993. Besides course offerings, he has been researching and co-researching several maternal health, child and adolescent health, family planning, neonatal and child health, and sexual and reproductive health issues, in partnership with  fellows from several overseas universities and research institutions including Johns Hopkins and Harvard Schools of Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Emory University Global Health Institute, Karolinska Institute and Vienna University in Austria.  Professor Nega mentored students at PhD and master’s levels. He has been supervising and co-supervising 19 PhD students from University of Durban, South Africa, Ghana, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Haramaya Universities. Similarly, he has been also supervising 215 master’s students as a lead advisor and a co-supervisor.

Professor Nega, collaborating with his colleagues, has been able to secure 11 grants contributing to advancing health sciences, and building human resources and infrastructures. Together with his colleagues, through the CHAMPS data to action grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other granting agencies, he created an opportunity for eight PhD scholarships at the LSHTM and through the CHAMPS pregnancy surveillance availed human power and equipment to health facilities in the CHAMPS catchment areas of Harar, Kersa and Haramaya districts. Professor Nega is a co-principal investigator for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) – Ethiopia project, which started in 2017.

Prior to CHAMPS Professor Nega led Harar and Haramaya Health and Demographic Surveillance (HDSS) systems, one of the largest surveillance system in Africa. He was leading these facilities for more than 12 years at different sites in Kersa, Harar and Haramaya. Since 2018, he has led the inception and running of Hararghe Health Research (HHR) partnerships, a research collaborative effort between Haramaya University and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, which has led to the birth of a state-of-the-art research laboratory that conducts microbiology, molecular diagnostics and histopathology and provides diagnostic services for Hiwot Fana University Hospital.

    DrPH. Shirine Voller                   

Director of Operations, LSHTM Clinical Trials Unit.

 

 

 

 

Shirine has oversight of operational activities in the LSHTM Clinical Trials Unit (CTU).  This includes ensuring that trials are run efficiently, effectively and are compliant with all relevant governance requirements. She is responsible, together with the academic Directors of the CTU, for the strategic growth and development of the CTU and for clinical trials across LSHTM.

Shirine also remains a long-standing member of the Hararghe Health Research partnership management team and contributes to strategic decision-making to take the partnership forward.  She also provides programme management oversight to a portfolio of research grants at KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, where she was based from 2016-2022.

    Nana Sarkodie-Mensah               

    Project Manager (LSHTM)

 

 

 

 

LSHTM lead for project management of the HHR portfolio.  Oversee management of non-scientific research activities conducted through LSHTM, including finance, procurement, and administration.  Contribute to site planning and strategy as a member of the HHR management team.

 

Dr. Lola Madrid

Site Lead

 

 

Dr. Lola Madrid is a paediatrician and epidemiologist with more than 10 years of experience working in resources-constrain settings in South Africa, Mozambique, Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau, among other countries, as a clinician and researcher, especially focused on HIV, vertical transmission of infectious diseases, epidemiology and new diagnostic tools of bacterial invasive diseases and pneumonia, antimicrobial resistance, birth defects and child mortality.

For the past six years, she has worked as Clinical Associate Professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine based in Eastern Ethiopia, leading a research unit in collaboration with Haramaya University. As site lead, she has implemented projects like Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) focused on child health and mortality. She is currently leading research on perinatal health, micronutrient deficiencies during pregnancy, and neural tube defects, which are major causes of stillbirths and child deaths in CHAMPS-Ethiopia.

    Yenenesh Tilahun Asfaw                 

    Operations Manager

 

 

 

 

Yenenesh Tilahun, an operations manager at Hararghe Health Research. She is responsible for oversighting the operational activities of HHR, performances of sections and support logistic and procurement activities in collaboration. She facilitate team harmonization and in line with the various project activities in HHR and supports team development and enhancement through trainings, mentoring and coaching to excel outcomes in all aspects of HHR activities.

Most importantly, she is responsible to facilitate development of policies and procedures relevant to the sections and for overall HHR activities. Working closely with the PIs of projects in the execution and process and final evaluation of performances is another major role she has.

Yenenesh has another role of standardizing processes and procedures in all activities including resource management and staff recruitment, training and promotion.

She leases with LSHTM project office in the smooth and fast execution of activities, with community and stakeholders in the community, local, regional and national administrative bodies in the smooth work arrangement of HHR.

Yenenesh holds an MA degree in Social work and has 15 years of extensive experience in the field.

Eleni Teklehaimanot (MBA)

Project Manager

 

 

Eleni Teklehaimanot, a Project Manager at Hararghe Health Research. She is responsible for the administrative and finance issues of the HHR collaborating with the management team members who are engaged from the LSHTM side. She also facilitates and manages staffing and personnel issues by collaborating with the Haramaya University administrative section.

Beth Morrison

Project Administrator

Support the management and operations team and responsible for travel, expenses and help support the procurement and shipping of goods.

 

 

Dr.Usman N.ikumapayi

Clinical Science/Laboratory Director

 

 

 

Dr Usman Nurudeen Ikumapayi is an assistant professor in Medical Microbiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) United Kingdom. He has an extensive academic and professional experience in Medical Microbiology spanning over three decades. In 2019, he obtained a PhD degree in molecular microbiology from The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. Prior to this, he earned an MSc degree in Biomedical Science, majoring in Medical Microbiology from Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge, UK.

His background is in Medical Microbiology with a focus in bacteriology. During his fellowship programme, He was trained in both conventional and molecular characterization of bacteria from MRC unit Gambia, Staten Serum Institute Denmark and University of Virginia Children’s Hospital in the USA. He also attended short courses in Medical Statistics-Epidemiology / Infectious Disease Omics and Bioinformatics at LSHTM and The Welcome Trust Sanger Institute, UK. Additionally, he obtained certificates in Global Health, Epidemiology and Leadership & Management in Health from University of Washington USA. He is a Fellow of Institute of Medical Laboratory Science (FIMLS) Nigeria and the Institute of Biomedical Science (FIBM) in the UK.

Dr Ikumapayi has worked for 31 years, 23 of which have been spent at the Medical Research Council Unit the Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (MRCG @ LSHTM). During this period, he has served as the consultant microbiologist on the joint MRC/Gambian Government Pneumococcal Surveillance Project Steering Committee from 2008-2017. He also served as a co-investigator in many health research projects, coordinating the laboratory aspects of large-scale population-based surveillance and intervention trials. These include the five-year Global Enteric Multicenter Study (2008-2013), the ten-year Pneumococcal Surveillance Study (2008-2017), the two-year Severe Pneumonia Study (2010-2012), the three-year Vaccine Impact on Diarrhea in Africa (2015-2018) and the two-year intervention trial titled ‘A novel nano-iron supplement to safely combat iron deficiency and anemia in young children: a double-blind randomized controlled trial’ (2017-2019).

He has also led many pivotal studies, including the molecular epidemiological characterization of Salmonella serovars, investigating outbreak of hospital-acquired infections, and characterizing virulence factors in Entero-Aggregative Escherichia coli in diarrheal children using molecular approaches. In 2022, he was assigned as the Biological Safety Officer of the MRC Unit the Gambia.

Over the years, Dr Ikumapayi has applied both conventional and molecular microbiological techniques, to improve knowledge on the causes of clinical and outbreak infections. His contributions to medical research have been recognized, particularly his discovery of emerging infectious pathogens such as Salmonella enterica serovar Dingri and his efforts to stop of the spread of healthcare-associated infections. He is the lead author and co-author of over fifty scientific publications.

Additionally, Dr Ikumapayi was part of the “Consortium on Invasive Bacterial Disease Burden with Focus on Invasive Salmonellosis in sub-Saharan Africa” and has served as a resource person at World Health Organization workshops on Global Foodborne Infections Network (WHO/GFN).

Currently, his research interest includes the diagnosis and surveillance of infectious diseases and Infection and Prevention Control.

    Dr. Addisu Alemu                   

      Lead Pathologist

 

 

 

Dr. Addisu Alemu is pathologist in Hararghe Health Research partnership. He is a member of DeCoDe panel as specialist in Pathology and his main focus of his work is report the histopathology of MITS core tissues samples and provide it for panel of experts in the correspondent forms. For quality assurance of the report, he works closely with CDC central pathology lab through digital pathology and telepathology sessions. Furthermore, Dr. Addisu provide trainings for newly employed MITS practitioners and pathologist and supervise Histo-technicians in their daily activities and lead regular meetings at Pathology laboratory.

  Boniface Kamau Jibendi

     Chief Technology Officer

 

 

 

 

Boniface Kamau Jibendi is the Chief Technology Officer from LSHTM/HHR. Boniface directs, train and manage all HHR IT teams and datacenter resources to run a world class and compliant datacenter and software environment in support of HHR research mission and vision. He also advices scientist and researcher on their IT requirements to ensure their data is collected, transmitted, stored and retrieved in a secure and a compliant manner.

      Getahun Wakwaya                   

Research Coordinator-SBS

 

 

 

Getahun Wakwaya is a Sociologist leading SBS team as a research coordinator. He coordinates activities of community engagement and formative research.

     Dr. Faisel Abdi

Research Governance Coordinator

 

 

Dr. Faisel focuses on establishing a robust governance framework to ensure compliance and ethical conduct in research activities. He also facilitates HHR’s new projects, maintaining regulatory compliances and enhancing access to publication resources. Besides, he is responsible for data protection, confidentiality, and timely reporting to support effective research management.

            

Tadesse Dufera

Research Coordinator of Haramaya site

 

 

 

Tadesse Dufera is a research coordinator at Haramaya site.  He is responsible for coordination of the research activities in the site. Manage a team of research staff (Health officers, nurses, counsellors and fieldworkers) and will oversee recruitment of study participants at hospital level.

Mohammad Abdulkadir (MPH)

 

Mohammed Abdulkadir is a senior public health expert in the field of nutrition with a midwifery background. Currently, he is attending MSc in Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy and Programming at LSHTM. He has over 8 years of extensive experience in the maternal and child health area in different public health facilities, including research organizations.

Mohammad Abdulkadir is the research coordinator of the Kersa site. His role is coordinating community MITS activities, doing MITS, managing budgets, ensuring adherence to ethical and regulatory standards, and managing overall HHR research activities that take place at the Kersa site.

                           

  Gezahegn Mengesha

Statistician

 

 

 

Gezahegn Mengesha is a Statistician, holds an MSc in Biostatistics. He coordinates the management of data and statistical analysis at the hospitals and DSS in Kersa, Haramaya and Harar, serving as HHR’s study site. Gezahegne support information technology, data administration, and data analysis for HHR, hospital, and DSS investigations. Besides, he also collaborates with statisticians and epidemiologists, maintain data quality, communicate and coordinate with local, national, and international partners.

                         

Mohammed Jemal

Research Coordinator for Pregnancy Surveillance

 

Mohammed Jemal is a Senior Public Health Expert in the field of Reproductive Health with a midwifery background, He is a Research Coordinator for Pregnancy Surveillance in HHR, which aims to enroll all Pregnant women in the catchments and follow up them to measure pregnancy related complications and outcomes of pregnancy.

He is leading the overall activities of PS, including, plan, design, and implementation of activities, staff’s training on Surveillance ‘s SOPs, Protocol and allocation and evaluate and appraise their performance. Additionally, He supervises daily activities of the study, ensures data quality, and input data into REDCap software. He is actively involved in decision-making processes to address project challenges.

He is the primary person to be contacted for all PS issues and for communication internally between CO-PI of study, study participants, data collectors, stakeholders and colleagues across sites working on the study. Besides, He is also responsible for monitoring and evaluating the overall PS study milestones. He has above 7 years extensive experience on Maternal and Child health area in different Public Health facilities.

 

Dr. Samrawit Abebaw

Impact and Engagement Coordinator

 

 

 

 

Dr. Samrawit is a Medical Doctor with an MPH in Epidemiology and an MSc in Clinical Trials. She is currently coordinating Impact and Engagement activities.
With a foundation of 3 years of clinical experience and 3 years of research experience, she brings a comprehensive understanding of both clinical practice and research methodologies to HHR’s Evidence-based intervention initiatives.

Blen Getachew

Research Coordinator-ARM-CHAMPS Project

 

Blen Getachew is a public health nutritionist with a midwifery Background, she is a clinical research coordinator for ARM-CHAMPS, which aims to assessing the role of micronutrient deficiency in pregnancy and its outcome.

Her responsibilities include assisting the design and implementation of research protocol and standard operating procedures, oversee data collection, monitor informed voluntary consents are taken to participate in the study, and ensure data collectors adhere to good clinical practices and protocols.

She is the primary person of communication between PIs, study participants, data collectors and colleagues across sites working on the study. Besides, she is also responsible for monitoring and evaluating the overall ARM-CHAMPS study milestones.

Dr. Meron Kebede

Clinical Research Scientist

Dr. Meron Kebede is a pediatrician with six years of experience in CHAMPS- Ethiopia. Currently, she is serving as a clinical research scientist, primarily managing the Determination of Cause of Death (DeCoDe) case management and coordinating ongoing activities at Hiwot-Fana Comprehensive Specialized Hospital.