Past GHES Fellows

Dr. Amin spent fellowship year at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (TCDDR,B) under the mentorship of Lee Riley, MD and Dinesh Mondal, MD. His research focused on community associated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolated from clinical specimens of patients attending icddr,b diagnostic areas. Dr. Amin completed his PhD in Biochemistry from Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan. His graduation and MS were from the department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Tn his professional career, Dr. Amin received a young researcher grant from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (STDA) in 2019-2020. Currently, he, as a PT, is conducting a research project entitled "identifying fecal pathogens in aquaculture value chains and evaluation of various risk reduction strategies" funded by Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Fish, USATD. His overall research goal is to find solutions to public health problems in developing countries through research on food safety and transmission dynamics of antimicrobial resistance using One Health approach.

Dr. Deressa spent his fellowship year at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa under the mentorship of Teferi Gedif Fenta, PhD, B. Pharm, MPH and Purnima Madhivanan MBBS, MPH, PhD. His research focused on examining the determinants of overall survival and to investigate the quality of life of breast cancer survivors. Dr. Deressa is a clinical oncologist with a passion for improving cancer care in Ethiopia. Tn addition to his clinical care accomplishments, which include founding an oncology unit in a previously unserved geographic area and starting Ethiopia's first breast cancer patient support group, he is active in cancer teaching and research. Dr. Biniyam's areas of interest include cancer epidemiology, global cancer disparities, cancer survivorship, and quality of life in cancer survivors. He is one of the recipients of 2020 International Development and Education Award (TDEA) from ASCO and 2022 Mandela Washington Fellowship for young African Leaders from the US Government.

Dr. Malca Hernandez spent his fellowship year at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima under the mentorship of Patricia Garcia, PhD, MPH, MD and Evelyn Hsieh, PhD, MPH, MD. His research focused on exploring the interrelationships of aging expectations and quality of life, depression, stigma, and musculoskeletal health among middle-aged and older patients with HTV in Peru. Dr. Malca Hernandez received his medical degree from UPCH. He is a budding researcher whose career goal is to contribute to developing public health policies to reduce the impact of infectious and tropical diseases in Peru, South America, and globally. Also, he is interested in pursuing a Master of Global Health and maintaining the relationships formed at the NTH orientation and Yale in order to plan for future research collaborations.

Ms. Johnson spent her fellowship year at the Aurum Institute in Johannesburg under the mentorship of Salome Charalambous, MBChB, MSc, PhD and Luke Davis, MD. Her research focused on improving the implementation of tuberculosis preventive therapy for people living with HIV in South Africa. Ms. Johnson is currently an MD/PhD student at the Yale School of Public Health and Yale School of Medicine. Her career goal is to use implementation science to address health inequities in resource-constrained settings.

Dr. Juma spent her fellowship year at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi under the mentorship of Anne Kurth, AB, MPH, RN, MSN, CNM, PhD and Trene Tnwani, MD, MMed, MPH. Her research focusED on the development of a clinical algorithm for the management of people living with HIV admitted with Community Acquired Pneumonia at a public hospital in an urban setting. Dr. Juma is a physician based at the Tnfectious Diseases Unit of Kenyatta National Hospital. She is also a fellow in Clinical Tnfectious Disease at the University of Nairobi. She looks forward to a career in research geared towards reducing the burden of infectious diseases in the African setting.

Dr. Khan spent his fellowship year the Public Health Research Institute in Mysore under the mentorship of A. Desiree LaBeaud, MD, MS, Purnima Madhivana, PhD, MBBS, MPH, Vijaya Srinivas, MMBS and Kiranmayee Muralidhar, MBBS, MP. His research focused on investigating the epidemiology and risk factors for dengue and chikungunya virus infections in southern India. Dr. Khan is a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He has research interests in studying infectious diagnostics in resource-limited settings and promoting antibiotic stewardship. Dr. Khan has recently been studying arboviral infections (dengue and chikungunya) in western and coastal Kenya with aspirations to impact global child health. Project title: Investigating the epidemiology and risk factors for dengue and chikungunya virus infections in southern India Project description: Arboviral infections have re-emerged as a significant global public health problem with chikungunya virus (CHIKV) transmission now occurring in 45 countries and dengue virus (DENV) transmission in 128 countries, placing nearly 4 billion people at risk (Fritzell, 2018; Bhatt, 2013). India has suffered repeated outbreaks of CHIKV and DENV in addition to other infections which can present with similar symptoms (Sharif, 2021; Ganeshkumar, 2018). Seroprevalence studies have attempted to estimate the true burden of CHIKV and DENV in India but often are hampered by spatial heterogeneity given the diversity across the country (Murhekar, 2019). Furthermore, although numerous studies have detailed molecular phylogenetic analysis for both viruses, there are few studies exploring the local risk factors and behaviors associated with infection in southern India (Rai, 2021). Interestingly, we and others have shown there is bidirectional transmission of DENV and CHIKV between Kenya and India (Sharif, 2021; Langat, 2020; Shah, 2020). CHIKV and DENV overlap in symptomatology and both are transmitted by diurnal Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, in contrast to malaria-transmitting nocturnal Anopheles spp. which feed at night (Karungu, 2019). In India and other parts of the world, as malaria diagnosis has become easier with high sensitivity point-of-care testing, vector-control strategies typically center around nocturnally-feeding Anopheles spp. mosquitoes. In Kenya, our laboratory has partnered with county and national members in the Ministry of Health to promote an integrated vector-control program that expands on the existing focus on malaria. Through this proposed pilot study, we aim to identify relationships that can be further explored in larger studies to uncover the burden of infection and better inform policy makers when considering resource allocation in southern India. To better understand these viruses in southern India we propose a pilot study to estimate community prevalence and associated risk factors. Through a cross-sectional study of adults and children we can survey the community to characterize their household factors, location, demographics, movement behavior, and built environment. In collaboration with the Public Health Research Institute in Mysore, India and the LaBeaud laboratory at Stanford University, I will work in the community to identify and survey participants, applying skills I have gained while working in Kenya. After participants are identified and surveyed, we will collect their serum to perform testing for DENV IgG and CHIKV IgG by ELISA to determine baseline seroprevalence. I will compare seropositive individuals with seronegative individuals to identify relationships pertaining to demographics, space, activity, behavior, and built environment factors. We have early data demonstrating an increased risk of arboviral infection with more surrounding trash and can also further explore this relationship in southern India. This can highlight important relationships when thinking about risk factors for infection. The goal of this pilot study is to generate meaningful data to further explore in a larger prospective study, similar to our prior and current laboratory work in western and coastal Kenya (Hortion, 2020; Grossi-Soyster, 2017).

Dr. Koala spent his fellowship year at the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante Direction Regionale de l'Ouest (TRSS-DRO) in Bobo-Dioulasso under the mentorship of Roch Dabire, PhD and Sunil Parikh, MD, MPH. His research focused on better understanding the epidemiology /transmission factors of Plasmodium ovale and malariae in human and mosquito populations of Burkina Faso endemics. Dr. Koala is a permanent researcher in the Malaria & Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) department of the Institut de Recherche en Sciences de la Sante (TRSS). His research career goals are to develop news-efficient tools and strategies to support the elimination efforts of malaria and NTDs in Africa.

Ms. Liberman spent her fellowship year at the Global Health Research Center of Central Asia in Kazakhstan at under the mentorship of Frederick Altice, MD, Sergii Dvoriak, MD, PhD and Assel Terlikbayeva, MD, MS. Her project focused on assessing barriers and facilitators to methadone in Kazakhstan using nominal group technique (NGT) to conduct anonymous focus groups with PWID and methadone providers (e.g. doctors, harmreduction workers, and directors of methadone clinics) and a legal landscape analysis of government documents that determine addiction treatment for the country. Ms. Liberman is a medical student at Yale University. Her research interests are in infectious diseases, mixed methods, and mathematical modeling. She recently worked at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) at Yale on projects that have involved mathematically modeling the number of deaths that could be prevented by upscaling various opioid use disorder (OUD) and HIV interventions, analyzing interview data about methadone use in prisons in the Kyrgyz Republic, and analyzing the results of a Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment pilot program conducted among people soon to be released from Kyrgyz prisons.

Dr. Garcia Luna spent his fellowship year at the International Center for Medical Research and Training (CTDETM) in Cali under the mentorship of David Paltiel, PhD, Neal Alexander, PhD and Norman Maldonado, PhD. His research focused on the impact of transmission and cost-effectiveness of screening algorithms for syphilis in people living with HIV in Colombia and accurate screening algorithms that reduce time to treatment may impact on disease transmission by reducing the time a subject is infectious. Dr. Garcia is a physician and early career researcher who has been working on syphilis research since 2017 when he joined the Clinical and Community Research Unit of CTDETM as a clinical fellow. Tn 2020 he completed the MSc in Global Health Sciences and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford as part of an international Master's Fellowship awarded by the Wellcome Trust. His career goal is to contribute to decreasing the burden of sexuallytransmitted infections in Colombia through epidemiological research.

Dr. Mensah spent her fellowship year at Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMTMR), University of Ghana in Accra under the mentorship of Michael Wilson, PhD and Elijah Paintsil, PhD, FAAP. Her research focused on identifying treatment barriers and risk factors for loss to follow-up in HIV-positive adults in the Fanteakwa district of Ghana, one of the highest HTV burden districts in Ghana. Dr. Mensah obtained a PhD in Public health in 2018 at the University of Ghana, following a Master's degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Cyprus University of Technology/HSPH in 2012. Before her current position as a Postdoctoral fellow at the NMTMR, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts Medical school in 2018. Her research interest is in global health and infectious disease epidemiology. Her career goal is to be an independent researcher at a biomedical institute, utilizing her scientific training to provide solutions for global health problems.

Ms. Mobley spent her fellowship year at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur under the mentorship of Abeeda Kamarulzaman, MBBS, FRACP, FASc and Frederick Altice, MD. Her research focused on treatment of opioid use disorder amongst an incarcerated population in Kuala Lumpur and investigated continuity of care from incarceration to the community for treatment of individuals with HTV and opioid use disorder. Ms. Mobley is pursuing her MD from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and plans on applying into internal medicine residency. She is passionate about healthcare for the most vulnerable, in particular those who are incarcerated, and is pursuing a career dedicated to promoting health equity globally.

Dr. Nofal spent her fellowship year at Addis Ababa University in Addis Ababa under the mentorship of Thomas Weiser, MD, MPH and Miliard Derbew, MD. Her research focused on surgical infection prevention and control, in partnership with Addis Ababa University and Lifebox, a charitable organization that focuses on improving surgical safety. Dr. Nofal is currently a general surgery resident at Boston Medical Center. She hopes for an career in academic surgery while continuing to pursue sustainable interventions to improve the provision of safe surgical care in low-income countries.

Ms. Oyama spent her fellowship year at the Samoan Ministry of Health in Apia under the mentorship of Nicola Hawley, PhD and Satupaitea Viali, BHB, MChB, FRACP, FCSANZ, MPH. Her research focused on evaluating the cardiometabolic correlates and psychosocial burden of infertility among Samoan women with obesity. Ms. Oyama received her MPhil in Applied Biological Anthropology at the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar and her BA in Anthropology and Biology at Washington University in St. Louis. She is currently pursuing a MD/PhD in the Department of Anthropology at Yale University. Ultimately, she aspires to become a physician scientist who practices obstetrics and gynecology and conducts longitudinal epidemiological research to characterize how rising obesity prevalence among women of reproductive age affects maternal and child health outcomes globally.

Dr. Patil spent her fellowship year at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research in Chennai under the mentorship of Naveen Puttaswamy, PhD and Andres Cardenas, PhD. Her research focused on assessing the relationship between secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure and dental caries in children of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPTN) cohort. Dr. Patil is a Pediatric Dentist and is currently pursuing her PhD. Through this fellowship, she hopes to bridge the gap between children's environment and oral health. She aspires to leverage the unique expertise of environmental health and dentistry fields to understand how environmental exposure (i.e., exposome) might influence ECC susceptibility - and determine a way to reverse or mitigate it.

Dr. Ssuna spent his fellowship year at Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala under the mentorship of Achilles Katamba, PhD, Mari Armstrong-Hough, PhD and Luke Davis, MD, MAS. His research focused on improving screening and management of diabetes mellitus and post-TB lung disease among HIV/TB patients public health facilities in Uganda. Dr. Ssuna is a medical doctor and an epidemiologist with interests in HIV-TB coinfection, the impact of diabetes on patient outcomes for HTV-TB, and implementation science. He completed his first medical degree at Mbarara University of Science and Technology, and completed a dual Masters of Science degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Makerere University. Dr. Ssuna holds a certificate in Implementation Science at University of California San Francisco (UCSF), where he gained profound knowledge, in theory, study designs for intervention research, translating evidence into policy, designing interventions to change organizational behavior, and community engagement.

Dr. Mouhamad spent his fellowship year at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop/Hospital Aristide Le Dantec in Dakar under the mentorship of Amy Bei, PhD and Daouda Ndiaye, PhD, MSc. His research focused on implementing pooling targeted deep amplicon sequencing for malaria drug resistance surveillance in Senegal. Dr. Mouhamad is a Post Doc fellow at the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar, Senegal in the International Research & Training Center in Applied Genomics and Health Surveillance (CTGASS) and Yale School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. He would like to apply for a K43 from the Fogarty International Center, a NTH grant, or an early career fellowship from the African Academy of Sciences. His future career goals are to be an independent researcher and to continue research in Senegal incorporating genomic surveillance approaches for malaria, but also applying these methods to enhance regional and global surveillance of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. In partnership with strong collaborating partners and institutions, such as Yale University in the USA, University Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal, he intends to lead his own research group using multidisciplinary research approaches within a One Health framework.

Ms. Woodson spent her fellowship year at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima under the mentorship of Magaly Blas, PhD, MD and Purnima Madhivanan, MBBS, MPH, PhD. Her research focused on exploring the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent women in vulnerable populations in the Amazon Basin. Ms. Woodson is a candidate in Epidemiology at the University of Arizona. She is currently a Fulbright Fogarty scholar in Peru working with the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) and the organization, Mamas del Rio. Ms. Woodson hopes to use this knowledge to help inform programs within the Amazon Basin region to help reduce adolescent pregnancy and to promote greater gender equality around reproductive health issues.

Dr. Andama spent fellowship year at Makerere University, Uganda. His research focused on oral swab testing using GeneXpert Ultra for TB screening among PLHIV.

Dr. Bromberg spent fellowship year at the Ukrainian Institute on Public Health Policy and Yale University. His research focused on adapting and testing an informed decision-making aid for opioid agonist therapy in Ukrainian prisons.

In Samoa, Courtney Choy serves as a Fulbright Research Fellow at the Ministry of Health where she is leading a project to explore mothers’ views regarding factors that influence early childhood feeding practices and physical activity levels, and to understand the role of the Samoan home environment in the development of healthy behaviors. This research project is an extension of her Yale MPH summer research under the mentorship of Dr. Nicola Hawley. She also supports various nutrition activities and community outreach programs in both the Samoan islands of Upolu and Savaii, enjoying the unique Pacific Island culture. Courtney looks forward to meeting new people during her fellowship in Samoa in hope of further promoting cultural understanding and working together to promote and sustain good health and wellbeing of communities in the Pacific.

Dr. Deme spent fellowship year at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal. Her research focused on conducting an in-depth study of virulent rifin gene expression on erythrocyte remodeling and rosetting, and assessing the role of genetic diversity of the rifin genes in this process.

Dr. Habila spent fellowship year at the University of Jos in Nigeria. Her research focused on barriers and facilitators to cervical cancer screening among women in Jos, Nigeria: A mixed methods study proposal.

Dr. Hayat spent fellowship year at the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Her research focused on the contribution of the gut microbiome and nutritional status in the clinical outcome of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg)-treated patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome in Bangladesh.

Dr. Breanne Lott spent fellowship year at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. Her research focused on cervical cancer screening uptake and preferences of Ethiopian women by HIV status, comparing community- vs. facility-based practices.

Dr. Mazhanaia spent fellowship year at the Ukrainian Institute on Public Policy in Ukraine and Yale University. Dr. Mazhanaia's research focused on using the syndemic approach to address HIV, opioid use disorder, and depression within a primary healthcare setting in Ukraine.

Dr. Mengstie spent fellowship year at the University of Gondar in Ethiopia and Yale University. Dr. Mengstie's research focused on improving clinical cardiac care at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Referral Hospital by assessing the influence of organizational culture.

Dr. Pendula conducted research at the University of Zimbabwe. Her project focused on implementing and evaluating an electronic herbal medicine reconciliation tool towards safe integration among HIV-infected people (CHeMU_i.e.).

Dr. Rao conducted research at Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India. Her project focused on the lived experience of the double burden of COVID-19 and cardiac diseases among women in a coastal town of South India through an exploratory study.

Dr. Rosser conducted research at the Kenya Medical Research Institute. His project, in collaboration with Stanford University, focused on evaluating the impact of temperature on Dengue virus (DENV) and Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) transmission in Kenya.

Dr. Saronga conducted research at Health for a Prosperous Nation in Tanzania, in collaboration with UC Berkeley. Her project focused on cash transfers to increase HIV self-testing uptake among adolescents in Tanzania through a randomized controlled trial.

Dr. Slotkin conducted research at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru, in collaboration with Yale University. Her project focused on the prevention of osteoporosis-related fractures among HIV-positive women in Peru, assessing risk scores, knowledge, and health beliefs.