Charles Hongoro
Unit director
Tel: +27 21 938-0454
Charles.Hongoro@mrc.ac.za

Charles is a health economist and policy analyst with over 20 years’ experience in health systems and policy oriented research in low and middle income countries. His research interests are on macro, meso and micro-levels of the health system with particular focus on health financing, hospital reforms, human resources for health, contracting of services, economic analyses, and using priority diseases such as HIV/AIDS as probes to understanding broader health systems functions. He is an Extraordinary Professor of Research at Tshwane University of technology and a member of various international and national committees including being a member of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on National health Insurance, and the Pricing Committee.

Ameena Goga
Specialist Scientist
Tel: +27 12 339-8531
ameena.goga@mrc.ac.za

Ameena Goga is a pediatrician with a Masters in Epidemiology (Columbia University) and a Masters in Mother and Child Health (Centre for International Child Health, ICH, London).  Her main research interests are two-fold viz: implementation science and preventative medicine (including integrative medicine) in the fields of mother and child health. She is currently MRC PI on the SAPMTCT Evaluation, a national survey evaluating the Effectiveness of the PMTCT programme.

Arrie Odendaal
Chief Research Technologist
Tel: +27 21 938-0247
Willem.Odendaal@mrc.ac.za

Arrie is a registered research psychologist with an interest in the employment of lay community health care workers to address health issues, such as unintentional childhood injuries and adherence support to TB and HIV patients. He has also conducted formative evaluations of interventions and is currently involved in strengthening the information management and data-use at the Western Cape Provincial Department of Health. A more recent interest is the use of diary-keeping (audio and visual) as alternative method to interviews and focus group discussions, exploring the barriers and enablers to adherence among patients co-infected with TB and HIV.

Catherine Mathews
Chief Specialist Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0401
cathy.mathews@mrc.ac.za

Catherine Mathews is a scientist in the Health Systems Research Unit, based in the Cape Town office of the Medical Research Council. She is also an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town, in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine and in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health.  Her work is in the field of HIV prevention and adolescent sexual and reproductive health.  She is currently working on the development, implementation and evaluation of an HIV and intimate partner violence prevention programme for young adolescents, using school as the gateway.  She is an editor for the Cochrane Sexually Transmitted Infections Review Group.

Duduzile Nsibande
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 31 203-4814
duduzile.nsibande@mrc.ac.za

Supporting the integration of PMTCT within Maternal and Child Health Services in Amajuba District, KZN.  She is currently pursuing MPH degree at the University of the Western Cape. Area of Interest are Maternal and Child Health, STI, HIV and AIDS & Training.

Hanani Tabana
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 934-0454
hanani.tabana@mrc.ac.za

I am a senior scientist and also a PhD student at Karolinska Institutet, Department of Public Health Sciences. I have been involved in a community randomised trial to assess the acceptability and uptake of home-based Voluntary Counseling and Testing of HIV in rural KwaZulu-Natal. My research focus areas are maternal and child health and innovative HIV/AIDS prevention interventions and the costs of delivering such interventions.

Karen Daniels
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0301
karen.daniels@mrc.ac.za

I am a Senior Scientist within the unit. Although trained in history, I started my career engaged in qualitative studies of healthcare and then pursued an MPH at the University of Cape Town in order to expand my skills. My desire to learn more led me to the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV) where I completed a Doctorate in Public Health. I have a wide range of interests and experience within the field of health policy and systems research. My current and past projects have included a focus on infectious diseases, human resource solutions, evidence use in policy, gender and policy, and policy implementation.

Loraine Townsend
Specialist scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0316
loraine.townsend@mrc.ac.za

I am a research psychologist currently leading a research focus in the Unit: HIV biological and behavioural surveillance and interventions to reduce risk among people at high risk of HIV.  I am principal investigator on a large, five-year, multi-institutional HIV surveillance project and co-investigator on three other such projects.  My focal areas include HIV surveillance among people with multiple partners, refugees and foreign migrants, men who have sex with men; HIV prevention trials; and adolescent substance use.

Lungiswa Nkonki
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0258
lungiswa.nkonki@mrc.ac.za

I am Senior Scientist who completed my PhD in Health Economics at the University of Bergen in 2012. My doctorate is titled “Health systems challenges in South Africa: Effective and equitable delivery of interventions to improve infant feeding and reduce mother to child transmission of HIV”. My research interests include economic evaluations of healthcare programmes, measuring inequality in health outcomes, and understanding the determinants of attrition/retention of lay health workers.

Marian Loveday
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 33 345-2778, 082 441 7040
marian.loveday@mrc.ac.za

I am a senior scientist and have just started my doctoral studies in the Public Health Department at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. My thesis is assessing decentralised treatment for multidrug resistant tuberculosis in the KwaZulu-Natal and looking at the evaluation of a pilot project being introduced by the Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal province. I have interests in tuberculosis, TB/HIV co-infection and health systems.

Natalie Leon
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0881
natalie.leon@mrc.ac.za

I am Senior Scientist who completed my PhD in Public Health at the University of Cape Town in 2011. My doctorate was a multi-method evaluation of a provider initiated HIV screening initiative for STI patients that examined its acceptability, feasibility and its effectiveness in increasing HIV test uptake.  I practiced as a Clinical Psychologist in a psychiatric and community mental health setting for 10 years, followed by training and working in public health development. I worked for the Health Systems Trust for 5 years, with initiatives to strengthen health systems and quality improvement within the provincial and municipal health authorities in Cape Town and the Central Karoo district of the Western Cape Province.  I have an interest in developing and evaluating quality improvement interventions, mainly for primary health care.  My current involvement is as a Technical expert for the National Core Standard audit of health facilities, with a focus on the Human Resource Audit of health facilities.  

Petrida Ijumba
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 31 203-4736
petrida.ijumba@mrc.ac.za

I am the manager of the “An effectiveness study of an integrated, community-based package for maternal, newborn, child and HIV care in a disadvantaged community in South Africa”,  a project based in Umlazi- Durban. I am currently exploring the possibilities of doing a PhD in Maternal and Child Health. My areas of interest include promotion of community-based health care; maternal and child health; nutrition and diarrheal diseases.

Sarah Dewing
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0258
sarah.dewing@mrc.ac.za

I am a social scientist and PhD student at the University of Cape Town. My PhD is an evaluation of a positive prevention intervention that was implemented by lay counsellors working within public healthcare facilities in Cape Town. My research areas are programme evaluation, behavioural interventions for HIV prevention and ARV adherence.

Selamawit Woldesenbet
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0454
s.woldesenbet@mrc.ac.za

I am a senior scientist at Medical Research Council South Africa and I am a PhD student at the University of Western Cape.  My PhD is based on a national survey assessing the South African Prevention of Mother to child transmission (PMTCT) and Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) programme. My research interest area is maternal and child health, ART based HIV prevention interventions in adult and children and the influence of health systems in the prevention of HIV. 

Simon Lewin
Senior Specialist Scientist
Simon.Lewin@kunnskapssenteret.no

Simon Lewin is a social scientist at Medical Research Council of South Africa and the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services. His work is largely within the field of implementation research, including systematic reviews of complex health interventions; the evaluation of strategies for changing professional and consumer behaviours; and methods for qualitative evidence synthesis. He is currently working on several reviews on ‘task shifting’; on evidence-based strategies for improving communication about childhood vaccination; and on supporting research evidence use in low- and middle-income countries.  He is an editor for the Cochrane Consumers and Communication and Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Review Groups.

Sylvia Louw
Chief Officer
Tel: +27 21 938-0454
sylvia.louw@mrc.ac.za

Tanya Doherty
Senior Specialist Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0454
tanya.doherty@mrc.ac.za

I am a senior specialist scientist with a focus on maternal and child health research. I am currently working on an evaluation of child survival interventions in six African countries and developing a mobile technology platform for community health workers (CHWs) in South Africa to improve monitoring and evaluation, visit completeness and communication between CHWs, mothers and clinics. My research focus areas are prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, maternal and child health, child survival evaluations and community randomised trials. 

Vundli Ramokolo
Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0454
vundli.ramokolo@mrc.ac.za

I am a scientist involved in the South African Prevention of Mother-to-Child-Transmission (PMTCT) Evaluation study that primarily aims to monitor the effectiveness of the National PMTCT programme until 18 months postpartum. I am also a PhD candidate at the Centre for International Health in Bergen University, Norway. My research areas are paediatric HIV, child nutrition and growth and food security.

Wanga Zembe
Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0803
wanga.zembe@mrc.ac.za

I recently completed a Masters in Social Policy from the University of Oxford in England. I have begun doctoral studies at the same university focusing on the impact of the Child Support Grant on child health outcomes. I have been involved in two major intervention trials since joining the MRC – the Good Start II project which looked at the effectiveness of community health workers promoting exclusive feeding on the one hand, and the effectiveness of community health workers promoting the uptake of social grants on the other; and currently I am involved in the Community VCT project (also known as Good Start III) which is testing the effectiveness of home-based VCT in increasing HIV testing rates.

Yagespari Singh
Scientist
Tel: +27 31 203-3649
yages.singh@mrc.ac.za

Data Quality Manager currently working on Promise – Goodstart 11, Goodstart III, Baseline Survey – Saving Newborn Lives. I have expertise in Data Quality Management and training in Good Clinical Practice.

Yanga Zembe
Senior Scientist
Tel: +27 21 938-0316
yanga.zembe@mrc.ac.za

I am a social scientist and PhD student at Karolinska Institutet. My areas of interest lie mainly in sexual and reproductive health, gender inequalities and their impact on sexual health outcomes, collaborative projects with communities for the development and implementation of risk reduction interventions, and health policy.