London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Ana Maria Buller, BA, MSc, FHEA, PhD is a social scientist with eighteen years of experience conducting qualitative and mixed methods research, impact evaluations and systematic reviews on gender-based violence, masculinities and violence, and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents; in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the UK. Dr. Buller is the Deputy Director of the Gender Violence and Health Centre (GVHC) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and has led the qualitative and mixed methods evaluation of various trials and interventions including social protection interventions such as cash transfer programmes and health services interventions to respond to intimate partner violence (IPV). Dr. Buller heads the Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) project, a global learning initiative on social norms and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.  This initiative is currently working in the development and evaluation of a multi-component, gender synchronised intervention using a social norms approach to prevent age-disparate transactional sex through an evidence-based, user-centred, iterative design focusing on girls, men and the community.  Dr. Buller’s research also focuses on the less studied, “relational level” of the socio-ecological model of IPV. She leads the Romantic Jealousy, Infidelity and IPV collaboration that brings together partners from around the globe to understand the mechanisms and pathways of association linking romantic jealousy and unfaithfulness to abuse. She is also a member of the steering committee of the Global Initiative on the Sexual Exploitation of Boys led by ECPAT and the Global Expert Group contributing to the SVRI initiative on Developing a Global Shared Research Agenda for VAWG in low and middle income countries.

 

Devika’s educational background is in Psychology and development practice. She has previously worked on projects in public engagement for mental health, intervention development for hazardous drinking, and community-based mental health service delivery. 

 

Her PhD work will be on developing a prevention intervention for dating violence among young people in India. 

Andy Gibbs is a Senior Specialist Scientist at the Gender and Health Research Unit, at the South African Medical Research Council, based in Durban. He was the PI of the Stepping Stones and Creating Futures evaluation, and worked on the broader What Works to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls Global Programme. He is interested in processes of change, particularly around masculinities, as well as the role of economic interventions in addressing violence and HIV-acquisition risk. He has a number of new studies looking at understanding young women’s and men’s agency, within the contexts of rural settings and urban informal communities in South Africa. 

 

Sadhvi Kalra is the Monitoring, Evaluation and Leaning specialist for the Gender Justice team at CARE USA. She is currently managing an RCT to assess the impact of the Tipping Point Initiative to reduce the rates of child marriages through use of social norms measurement approaches in South Asian region. She is also monitoring an Advocacy and Influencing strategy which aims at promoting gender transformative and approaches at different government and donor platforms. Sadhvi holds a PhD from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India; specialising in understanding sexual abuse and its mental health consequences among homeless adolescents. Sadhvi has been a Post-doctoral fellow at Singapore Management University, researching women’s substantial representation in parliamentary debates associated with violence against women and children in the India. Her expertise lies in managing mixed-methods research, designing experimental and quasi-experimental studies and specifically enjoys working with; and for; children and adolescents. 

Africa Health Research Institute

Natsayi Chimbindi is a post-doctoral researcher at Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), South Africa. Natsayi works as an HIV prevention research programme manager coordinating major mixed-method evaluation and development of complex HIV prevention interventions for young people at AHRI including: the impact evaluation of MTV Shuga and the PEPFAR-funded Determined Resilient Empowered AIDS-free Mentored and Safe (DREAMS) HIV prevention interventions targeted at adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) being rolled-out in the district in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa as well as lead on an NIH Early investigator R01 award to improve uptake and retention in multilevel HIV prevention for AGYW. Natsayi’s research interests are in developing a theoretically derived intervention to deliver sexual health and HIV prevention interventions in schools which she was recently awarded with an AHRI/UCL Early Career Fellowship. Natsayi Chimbindi holds a PhD from the University of Witwatersrand.

Cari Jo Clark, Sc.D., M.P.H. is Associate Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health at Rollins School of Public Health. Her research is focused on the health effects of exposure to child maltreatment and intimate partner violence, the measurement of violence and its associated norms, and the design and evaluation of primary and secondary prevention strategies. Dr. Clark has recently completed a project on a Jordanian university campus to measure sexual harassment as well as an examination of  norms and behavior change diffusion as a follow-up to a randomized trial of a social and behavior change intervention designed to prevent intimate partner violence in Nepal. She is currently involved in three ongoing evaluations in Nepal to investigate the impact of a social norms and community engagement intervention on child marriage; the impact of an education intervention on girls’ capability development and school retention; and the impact of a social norms and justice focused intervention on women’s help-seeking for IPV and other forms of gender-based violence (GBV). 

       Working with Amani Girls Home as Head of Adolescent Girls and Young Women Department(AGYWD). I have passion in empowering  girls and  women to become stable in all aspects of life.

I use research as a tool to document the needs and solutions for adolescent health. This includes observational research to expose the vulnerability of adolescent girls and young women to early HIV/STI and sexual health risk. I also use epidemiological data to generate evidence for 'what works', particularly through the evaluation of complex interventions for adolescents. I previously worked in adolescent health promotion programmes with WHO (the Global School Health Initiative), UNICEF (education and HIV prevention), Harvard School of Public Health, and the MIT Media Lab.

FHI 360

Elizabeth (Betsy) Costenbader is a Social Scientist and Social Network Analyst in the Behavioral, Epidemiological and Clinical Sciences Department at FHI 360. She has collaborated on and led research and intervention projects among populations at-risk for sexual and reproductive health outcomes for more than a decade with a primary focus on understanding the social context of risk; particularly, the role of social norms and networks.

Throughout all of her projects, Costenbader has maintained an interest in assessment of the performance of empirical data and improvements in data collection and measurement techniques. Examples of this include her work on a recently concluded NIH-funded RO1 examining the impact of sampling techniques on the structure of networks in at-risk populations in Atlanta, Georgia, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and her current work on both the USAID-funded Passages project and the Gates-funded Learning Collaborative to Advance Research and Practice on Normative Change for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health and Well-being. Both projects are focused on building the evidence base and promoting practices at scale that improve the health and well-being of adolescents and young people through social norm transformation; and on both of these projects Costenbader leads the measurement groups.

Costenbader holds a MSc from the Harvard School of Public Health and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI)

Liz is a health specialist with over 20 years’ research and policy-making experience on health systems, mental health, violence against women and children. Having worked in several countries, in both government and research positions, Liz has a deep understanding of the policy process and use or research to inform policy and practice. For example, in South Africa, Liz worked for the Department of Health at both provincial and national levels in epidemiology and health information systems. In Australia she worked in mental health for the Western Australian state government. Since 2006, Liz has managed the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), and recently with support of multiple partners, launched SVRI as an independent NGO. The SVRI, with more than 6600 members, is one of the largest networks in the field of research on violence against women and violence against children. The SVRI produces leading publications and materials; strengthens research capacity, provides research grants and technical assistance for research on violence against women in low and middle income countries; and hosts the key global biannual event in the field – the SVRI Forum. Liz is committed to research and policy-making that is women centred, ethical, equitable and partnership based. Further, through the SVRI and our partners we are reversing the global imbalance in research capacity and resources to ensure research on violence against women in low and middle income countries is led by researchers in low and middle income countries and knowledge production is driven by research priorities and needs of the global South.

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion

Dr. Harper is an anthropologist with 30 years’ experience in research, qualitative and participatory research methods, research management, policy analysis and advisory work. She leads work on gendered social norms and culture change, and on adolescence and the achievement of critical capabilities. Dr. Harper works on a number of projects including ALIGN, which brings together global research on discriminatory and harmful gender norms, and GAGE, a longitudinal global research and evaluation study on gender and adolescents. Interests also include chronic and inter-generational poverty, childhood, exclusion and empowerment with the aim of building a critical and policy relevant knowledge base and empowering researchers and activists with skills, evidence and capacity to act on findings locally and globally. She lived and worked for 10 years in East Asia and has worked for NGOs, multi-and bi-laterals in East, Central and SE Asia and Africa.

Professor

Lori Heise is a Professor of Social Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), with a joint appointment in the School of Nursing. She has over 25 years of experience working in the areas of gender equity, social change and women’s economic and social empowerment. She is an internationally recognized expert on the causes and consequences of violence against women and is Co-investigator on “What Works to Prevent Violence,” a 6 year, multi-million-dollar project to reduce gender-based violence (GBV) in low and middle-income countries. Her current research focuses on preventing violence against women and children in the family, transforming gender norms, and serving as Technical Director of the Prevention Collaborative, a new global initiative designed to support evidence based GBV prevention programming in the Global South.

      Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, she was a Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she served as Research Director of STRIVE, a 6 country research collaboration dedicated to studying the structural drivers of HIV, including gender inequalities, stigma and criminalization, lack of livelihood options and alcohol use and harmful drinking norms. Earlier in her career she co-founded and directed two civil society organizations, one focused on SRHR and another on Women's HIV prevention needs.

Executive Scientist

Professor Rachel Jewkes is the Executive Scientist for Research Strategy in the Office of the SAMRC President. She is an A1 rated scientist. She was formerly Director of the South African Medical Research Council’s Gender and Health Research Unit and is an Honorary Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health. She is the Secretary of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative and the Consortium Director of the DFID-funded What Works to Prevent Violence? Global Programme which is leading prevention of violence against women research in 13 countries.  She has led research in South Africa and globally on the intersection of gender inequity, gender-based violence and health and is the author of over 300 peer reviewed journal articles, reports, training manuals and book chapters.

UNICEF Innocenti

Lusajo Kajula joined UNICEF Innocenti in June 2017. She holds a Ph.D. in Health Behaviour and Promotion from the University of Maastricht, Netherlands. Her research interests lie in risky sexual behaviour among adolescents and youth, Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), Violence against Children (VAW), HIV related stigma, as well as parenting and family interactions. Since 2002, Lusajo has been involved in several international collaborations that addressed adolescent and youth sexual behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her past research projects included being site PI for an intervention trial that looked at a population of young men in 60 camps, parents’ and teacher’s communication with youth about HIV-related sexual behaviors in Tanzania as well as social and cultural factors associated with concurrent sexual partnerships in Tanzania amongst others. At Innocenti, she coordinates a study on Cash Plus for Adolescents in Tanzania and supports qualitative research more generally in the Transfer Project.

Research Officer

Leah Kenny is a Research Officer within the Centre for Women, Peace and Security. Here she works as part of the methodological innovations research programme of the UKRI GCRF Gender, Justice and Security Hub, where she helps coordinate and carry out research for the case country setting research. She joined LSE in 2020.

Before joining LSE, Leah worked as a Research Assistant at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) based within the Global Health Department and as part of the Gender, Violence and Health Centre (GVHC). Here she managed a qualitative social norms research project based in North Eastern Kenya, to inform interventions to improve access to and uptake of family planning amongst nomadic pastoralist communities. During her time at the LSHTM, she also worked with colleagues researching the intersections between violence against women and violence against children; violence against women in public spaces in Sri Lanka (with Oxfam UK); and child marriage practices in Somalia. Leah has an MSc in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research from the LSHTM, and a BSc in Human Sciences from University College London (UCL). She has previously worked in secondary school settings and health and social care services research, across different London Boroughs.

Universidad Adolfo Ibañez

Diana Krüger received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland in 2003. She has been Professor of Economics at the Adolfo Ibañez Business School in Viña del Mar, Chile since July, 2010, after working for 6 years at the Catholic University of Valparaiso (Chile). Her professional experience includes consultant positions with the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank.

Diana's research focuses on labor issues in developing countries (Latin America), with a particular interest in youth's transition from school to work, and the trade-off that exists between child work and schooling outcomes. She has recently studied the effects of school incacapacitation on youth motherhood and crime.

Her recent publications include "Risky behavior among youth: Incapacitation effects of school on adolescent motherhood and crime in Chile," with Matias Berthelon, published in the Journal of Public Economics, and "Child labor and schooling in Bolivia: Who’s Falling Behind? The roles of domestic work, gender and ethnicity," co-authored with with Daniela Zapata and Dante Contreras, published in World Development.

She joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2007.

Specialist Scientist

Dr Pinky Mahlangu is a Specialist Scientist at the Gender and Health Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council, and honorary lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand. Her research focuses on prevention of gender-based violence with focus on adolescents and young women; and on development, adaptation and evaluation of evidence-based GBV interventions in low and middle-income countries.

Research Degree Student

I am a member of the Gender Violence and Health Centre (GVHC) within the Department Global Health and Development. I am currently a recipient of the Economic Social Research Councils's UBEL Doctoral Training Partnership scholarship.

For my PhD, I am conducting mixed-methods research (egocentric network analysis, qualitative analysis, and agent-based modeling) using a complex adaptive systems approach to exploring labour migration pathways between Myanmar and Thailand. This research will explore the social and intermediary networks that inform, influence and coordinate migration pathways. Additionally, the research will investigate the decison making processes within recruitment planning. I will be using network analysis and agent based modelling techniques to map these networks and the actors within these networks to simulate the systems of migration and emergect outcomes (continuum of decent work to modern slavery). 

Before pursuing doctoral studies I was a full time Research Fellow at LSHTM. I worked on the LINEA Project (Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse). LINEA investigates social norms and structural factors driving child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project's aim is to inform prevention. I was also a Co-Investigator, alongside Principal Investigator Dr. Mazeda Hossain, on a DfID funded study evaluating both International Rescue Committee and Care International's GBV case management interventions in Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya. 

Senior Research Fellow

Rachel has than 25 years’ experience as a social development researcher and practitioner.  She has particular expertise in conducting rigorous evidence reviews, with a focus on gender, youth and social inclusion. She is a lead technical advisor for the Advancing Learning and Innovation in Gender Norms (ALIGN) platform and  co-leads the evidence synthesis workstream for the Gender and Adolescence Global Evidence programme (GAGE).  Her main areas of thematic interest are social and gender norm change, formal and non-formal education, skills and economic empowerment.

Tia Palermo, PhD, joined the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health as an associate professor in August 2019. Her research examines the impacts of social policy on population health. She is currently co-principal investigator of studies in Tanzania and Ethiopia examining the impacts of government social protection programs linked with other services and complementary interventions on health and well-being. She was co-principal investigator on a recently completed study in Ghana examining the impacts of a government initiative integrating a fee waiver for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with Ghana’s Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) 1000 cash transfer program on maternal and child health and well-being. On these studies, she works closely with UNICEF country offices and local research partners [including Frontieri (formerly BDS Center for Development Research in Ethiopia); EDI Group (in Tanzania); and the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) and Navrongo Health Research Centre (in Ghana)] to implement large impact evaluations through a range of experimental and quasi-experimental designs.

Senior Gender Consultant

Dr. Piotr Pawlak is an independent development specialist and a senior gender expert working with multilateral development partners globally. He is experienced in working with men and boys, alongside women and girls, to promote gender equality and social justice. He is a researcher and published author or co-author of numerous reports on working with men for gender equality, women’s empowerment and transforming harmful gender norms for better development outcomes. He has designed, pilot-tested and evaluated multiple educational curricula to engage men and boys in gender equality including child nutrition and health, caregiving, and ending GBV. Piotr holds a Ph.D. in Human Rights and Peace Studies from Mahidol University, Thailand. His doctoral research examined how the changing conception of Maldivian masculinity contributes to gender inequitable attitudes and behaviors among young men in the Maldives. In addition, he holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Idaho, USA, and a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Warsaw, Poland. Piotr can be contacted at piotr.m.pawlak@gmail.com.

Assistant Professor

Meghna’s background includes a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) and an MSc in Public Health from the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is affiliated with the Gender Violence Health Center at the LSHTM and the cash transfers and intimate partner violence (IPV) collaborative. She has conducted both quantitative and qualitative research exploring the linkages between economic strengthening interventions and sexual and reproductive health, with a focus on gender and adolescent health in low and middle-income countries. She has both research and programmatic experience, including conducting feasibility assessments, providing input into study designs, tool development and data analysis for programme evaluations for various international development organisations, including the United Nations and non-governmental organisations. She is a Global Steering Committee member of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), a fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), an Associate Editor of the journal PLOS One, and an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Lori Rolleri Consulting

Prior to establishing her consulting practice in 2012, Lori served as Team Lead and Senior Technical Advisor for Gender and the Men as Partners® program at EngenderHealth (EH). While at EH, Lori grew its gender programportfolio and geographic reach in the U.S. and Africa. The gender program portfolio largely addressed gender norms and their impact on sexual and reproductive health outcomes, maternal and child health outcomes, and intimate partner violence. Before joining EH, Lori co-founded and served as Director of the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health Promotion at ETR Associates where she led over a dozen teams in developing evidence-informed interventions related to adolescent health, youth development, HIV prevention, and parenting. She also led capacity-building activities to support practitioners and evaluators in implementing and evaluating interventions. 

              Currently, Lori is working with a variety of clients in the United States and East Africa on the development and testing of behaviour change interventions, staff and organizational capacity building, implementation evaluation, and translation of research to practice. Her work focuses largely on sexual and reproductive health, adolescent health, gender equality, women’s land rights, and intimate partner violence.

Lori has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications including curricula, journal articles, books, programming guides, and other resources. She is frequently invited to participate on advisory panels and provide technical reviews. Lori has a B.S. degree in Policy Analysis from Cornell University, and M.P.H. and M.S.W. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  She lives in New York, USA.  Her email is: lorirolleri@gmail.com. 

Director

Born in India (to American parents), John Riber completed high school in India and university film studies in the United States before setting off for Asia where he and his wife Louise spent a decade making documentary and dramatic films in Bangladesh and India.  John and family moved to Zimbabwe in 1987 to establish Media For Development Trust, one of Africa’s leading production and distribution houses.  

In 2004 the Ribers moved to Tanzania and established Media For Development International-Tanzania, a Swahili multi-media production house working in radio, film and television, music and print. MFDI specialize in using popular mass media platforms (feature films, radio and television dramas) to address social issues through a mix of entertainment education and modelling behaviour change. During his career John has worked as a Film Lab Technician, Cameraman, Editor, Scriptwriter and most notably as Producer of African feature films, television and radio dramas.

Holly Shakya is an Associate Professor of Global Public Health at the University of California San Diego. Her primary research interests are the social determinants of health, with a focus on the intersections of social networks and social norms theory in the context of behavioural change interventions both locally and globally. She is currently completing a K01 award through NICHD looking at the social network correlates of adolescent fertility in rural Honduras. Her recent work has focused on the social normative and social network determinants of family planning use in rural Niger. 

Medical Director

Dr Geordan Shannon is an Australian medical doctor and researcher at the Institute for Global Health, University College London. She is currently completing her doctoral research in gender and health metrics, exploring the construction of an individualised gender equality measure in Peru using existing household survey data. Prior to commencing her PhD, she attended the University of Cambridge (Master of Philosophy in Public Health (Hon.) 2011) the University of Geneva (Advanced Certificate in Health and Human Rights, 2011) and the University of Newcastle Australia (Bachelor of Medicine  (Hon.) 2008). 

      Geordan is affiliated with the UCL Economics of Global Health and UCL Gender and Global Health Groups. She is engaged with a participatory action research project against gender violence led by a network of community health volunteers in the Peruvian Amazon, and also oversees a complex community intervention to improve the quality of service engagement for homeless Indigenous Australians. 

      Geordan concurrently works as the Medical Director of the NGO DB Peru, and is the Co-Founder of Global Health Disrupted, an organisation that enhances global health communication through research, technology, and the arts. She has worked as a global medic in various settings including remote Indigenous Australia, post-Tsunami Sri Lanka, the Peruvian Amazon, and rural Kenya.

Dr. Vandana Sharma is a global health researcher at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative with expertise in impact evaluations, randomized controlled trials and capacity building in development and humanitarian contexts. She was previously a Senior Research Scientist at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Sharma’s research includes randomized trials of interventions to reduce maternal mortality in northern Nigeria and to reduce HIV transmission and intimate partner violence (IPV) in Ethiopia, as well as mixed-methods IPV research among Somali refugees. She also developed an innovative, free online course “Measuring Health Outcomes in Field Surveys” on MIT’s edX.org platform which uses documentary footage from Kenya and India to provide immersive learning. Dr. Sharma earned her Doctor of Medicine (MD) from the University of Western Ontario and a Masters in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where she was a Sommer Scholar. In 2019, Dr. Sharma was awarded the Canadian Excellence in Global Women and Children’s Health Award for her contributions within Canada and globally to improving women and children’s health. In 2018, she was named to the Canadian Women in Global Health List, which highlights the contributions of Canadian women leaders working across the spectrum of global health.

Assistant Professor; Senior Research Advisor, Institute for Reproductive Health

Bryan Shaw has worked on implementation science and impact evaluation research for sexual and reproductive health and violence prevention programs since 2012. At the Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) at Georgetown University, he is a Senior Research Manager specializing in quantitative research for the USAID-funded Passages Project, which focuses on building an evidence base for norms-shifting programming supporting reproductive health of young people. He is currently providing research support for Passages studies conducted in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Senegal, Niger, and Nigeria. Dr. Shaw also co-leads the Measurement Community of the Learning Collaborative to Advance Normative Change. In this capacity, he co-leads technical experts to develop practical tools for assessing and measuring social norms. Dr. Shaw has worked in global health since 2008 and has worked with USAID, UNICEF, Johns Hopkins University, and Population Services International. In addition to Francophone and West Africa, he has also worked in India and East Africa.

Program Manager

Sono was raised in family and community setting where women were seen and treated as objects. Never seen his own daddy helping or doing any household chores, Sono has dedicated himself to helping harness the power, voice, agency and creativity potential of girls and women. Sono went to a missionary school in Tanzania and holds Adv diploma in Sociology. He has a graduate diploma in Science of Early Childhood Development and he studied at Masinde Mulilo University in Kisuma Kenya. He also studied at Agha Kan University. 

Sono is currently a Program Manager and Social Activist at Amani Girls Home (AGH), a local NGO in Mwanza Tanzania. AGH works to increase opportunities and build the protective and productive assets of vulnerable children, adolescent girls and young women from socio-economically disadvantaged households in North Western Tanzania. With a strong focus on fostering community development through the promotion of gender equality, AGH prioritize women and girls across all of its programming.  Sono is currently coordinating seventeen cross sectors CSOs partners in the Lake Zone Tanzania. Sono is also a chairperson of Tanzania Early Childhood Development Network and works with Women Fund Tanzania as an Associate and Technical Person.

The Economist Intelligence Unit

Katherine is a consultant in The Economist Intelligence Unit's Consulting team. She is responsible for executing research and designing and managing projects that include Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation. Katherine holds a BA in history from the University of Virginia, where she received highest distinction for her work on the interaction between economic and social history. 

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Heidi Stöckl is an Associate Professor at the Social and Mathematical Epidemiology Group and the Director of the Gender Violence and Health Centre in the Department of Global Health and Development at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an Honory Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at the University of Witwatersrand. She holds a PhD in Evidence-based Social Intervention from the University of Oxford, Nuffield College, funded by a Rhodes Scholarship.

Assistant Research Professor in Behavioral and Community Health

Dr. Stoebenau is a social and behavioral scientist with expertise in the social determinants of women’s sexual and reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa.  In her work, Dr. Stoebenau draws on social theory and mixed-method approaches to examine the gendered, economic, and socio-cultural determinants of women’s risk of HIV and adolescent fertility.  More recently, she has begun to explore the relationship between social and economic inequality and marriage change in contexts across sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently working on three projects that address, on the whole, trends in the social stratification of union and family formation, the social determinants of disadvantaged women and children’s health and wellbeing within the context of marriage change, and improved measures of marriage, inclusive of addressing union formalization processes. She also collaborates with the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s Institute of Human Virology on HIV prevention and treatment delivery in Zambia, with a focus on adolescents and key populations. More recently, she served as a co-chair of a Working Group on Transactional Sex and HIV under the STRIVE research consortium (http://strive.lshtm.ac.uk/). This group aimed to better understand, and mitigate, the role of transactional sex (informal sexual exchange relationships) in adolescent girls and young women’s risk of HIV across sub-Saharan Africa.  Before her appointment at the University of Maryland, Dr. Stoebenau was at American University in Washington, D.C. where she was a Research Assistant Professor in the Center on Health, Risk and Society.  Before that, she spent five years at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), an applied research institute addressing gender inequality across the globe.

Executive Director

Novatus is a Tanzanian and Community Economic Development professional holding a Masters degree from Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester USA and a degree in Community Development from CDTI, Arusha. 

He has over 20 years’ experience in working with communities in different settings. This includes emergency situations with refugee communities, child protection programs, HIV/AIDS control and programs for basic education and peace building. Previous employers include UNICEF, IRC and Dutch Relief and Rehabilitation Agency. During his 13 years’ employment with UZIKWASA he has been instrumental in shaping the development of unique community participatory program approaches and reflective approaches for social change used by UZIKWASA. As a highly skilled Organizational Development practitioner and a certified facilitator of organizational learning and development (FOLD) he has managed the UZIKWASA Gender &Transformative Leadership program.  Through his empowering leadership style he has inspired and mentored many junior staff in their professional growth and developed their technical capacity.  His strong commitment to UZIKWASA’s mission enabled effective sharing of the organization’s purpose among the entire team. His invaluable strength in maintaining strong partnerships with stakeholders, CSO’s and district authorities has contributed to the excellent reputation that UZIKWASA enjoys among local development partners. Since then he has managed UZIKWASA’s transition from a bounded local organization to a networked organization that reaches out and supports partners in adopting reflective change approaches in their work. UZIKWASA multimedia approaches bring more impact to UZIKWASA intervention which Mr Urassa facilitate and grow with.

Senior Social Scientist 

Dr. Joyce Wamoyi is a social and Behavioural researcher at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania. She has an MSc in public health and a PhD in social and Behavioural Sciences. Dr. Wamoyi has worked on various health topics for over 17 years and has vast experience in the following areas: Adolescents and Young people’s Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) behaviour; HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment uptake; Gender and sexuality; Socio-cultural aspects of HIV and Sexually transmitted infections in general; Parenting/ families and child outcomes; stigma and discrimination in adolescent access  to SRH services; Child maltreatment; Malaria in pregnancy; and qualitative and participatory research methods. 

In her work, she has explored the dynamics of transactional sex in adolescents and young women's sexual relationships in Tanzania and sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently a co-leader for the transactional sex working group of the STRIVE research programme consortium. Dr.Wamoyi is a co-investigator for the study evaluating the mechanisms through which cash transfers impact health behaviour. She is also a co-investigator on the M4ID, the Next T project, which uses innovation and human centred design to develop health interventions.

Giovanna Lauro is the Vice President of Programs & Research at Promundo. She has worked for over fifteen years on the promotion of sexual reproductive health and rights and the prevention of gender-based violence through gender-transformative approaches - including a focus on transforming masculinities by engaging men and boys in partnership with women, girls, and individuals of all gender identities. Prior to joining Promundo, Giovanna worked at the United Nations Foundation as Associate Director of the Women and Population Programme. She also worked on issues of diversity, race, and ethnicity at the London School of Economics, and researched harmful traditional practices at the University of Oxford, where she attained her doctorate in Political Science. Her previous degrees include a Master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies with a focus on Public Health, and a BA from the University of Bologna.

Lindsay Stark is an internationally recognized expert on the protection and we­­ll-being of women and children in situations of extreme adversity. She has more than a decade of experience leading applied research with operational agencies that include UNICEF, UNHCR, Save the Children, the International Refugee Committee and Women's Refugee Commission. Stark's particular area of expertise is measuring sensitive social phenomenon and evaluating related interventions that seek to reduce violence, abuse and exploitation of women and children. She has conducted research in Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East.

                 Prior to joining the Brown School, Stark was an associate professor at Columbia University, where she served as director of research for the Program on Forced Migration and Health. From 2012 to 2018, she also served as director of the CPC Learning Network, a consortium of agencies and academic institutions working together on global learning associated with children and families in humanitarian and development settings. 

                 Currently, Stark is leading a mixed methods study (The Study of Adolescent Lives after Migration to America, or SALaMA) to assess the mental health and psychosocial well-being of adolescents resettled to the U.S. from Arab-majority countries. SALaMA also aims to identify sources of daily stress and identify sources of resilience in order to strengthen supports for this population. Additionally, she is leading a series of analyses of the Centers for Disease Control's national Violence Against Children studies to support an upcoming Lancet Series on the relationship between gender norms and health.  Among other current projects, Stark is supporting the development of an inter-agency measure to evaluate self-reliance of refugee households as they emerge from dependency on international humanitarian aid.

Caroline F. Ignacio is a Fellow at Promundo and an independent consultant. With Promundo, Caroline primarily focuses on supporting research and programs in Latin America across a wide range of programmatic areas, including: fatherhood and caregiving, conflict and security, and preventing violence. Some current projects focus on promoting non-violent caregiving and preventing child marriage and early unions, as well as other forms of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. Previously she was the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation Coordinator with Instituto Promundo (Brazil) and Promundo Portugal. Caroline holds a BA in Public Health Studies from Johns Hopkins University and has a PhD from the Tropical Medicine Program at Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC/ Fiocruz), where her research focused on incorporating the social determinants of health into people-centered primary healthcare services in high-conflict urban communities of Rio de Janeiro.  

Mark Marchant is a research fellow and PhD student at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He studies power relations in health research in the areas of epidemic response and violence prevention. With a background in political theory, he works on understanding how to link the philosophical underpinnings of justice with the practical activities that satisfy them. 

      Maja holds a Masters of Public Health from University of Copenhagen, Denmark and a Masters in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom. 

Anna Holmström, MA is passionate about ending harmful practices and supporting the realization of the rights of the most vulnerable in our society. Depending on the objective, the programmes she has designed, up-scaled and managed have created dialogue among traditional leaders, female genital mutilation practitioners, religious leaders, police, judges, health care providers, social welfare officers, media, parents and boys and girls.

 

Sarah Mulwa, MSc is a statistician with more than five years of experience leading analysis of large epidemiological studies (both cross-sectional and longitudinal data), coordinating project teams and conducting research in infectious diseases. Currently, she works on a project that is evaluating the impact of the PEPFAR-funded DREAMS interventions on HIV incidence and other key outcomes among adolescent girls and young women in Kenya. She is interested in using analytical and statistical models, including economic evaluation and financial modelling to better understand potential solutions to social and health problems. 

Biography not supplied

 

Biography not supplied.

Biography not supplied.