Prof. Dr. Ana Olga Mocumbi (MD, PhD, FESC) is a cardiologist with a particular interest in neglected cardiovascular diseases specifically rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart failure in young people, and women’s cardiovascular health. She is Professor of Cardiology at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique and is Head of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the National Public Health Institute (INS), at the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.
Dr. Mocumbi obtained an MD in 1992 at UEM. She worked in several rural areas of Mozambique from 1992 – 1997 acting as a general practitioner and health manager, gaining experience on management of National Control Programs for major endemic diseases.
Her post-graduate training in cardiology was done in Mozambique (Central Hospital of Maputo and Instituto do Coração) and France (Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades). She holds a Diploma in Pediatric Cardiology from the University René Descartes, Paris V – France.
Dr. Mocumbi worked as a Research Assistant at the Imperial College London (from 2004 until 2008) where she obtained her PhD investigating the Epidemiology of Neglected Cardiovascular Diseases. Under this program she launched a research project on Endomyocardial Fibrosis, which included large-scale community-based studies and clinical research in a rural endemic area of Mozambique (Inharrime), involving collaboration with the Heart Science Centre and Magdi Yacoub Research Institute in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Mocumbi is involved in several local and international research projects and partnerships including international registries and clinical trials. She is Editor of the Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy Journal and has published original papers in peer-reviewed journals and didactic publications.
She is currently Vice President of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) South Region (and Member of the PASCAR Taskforce on Hypertension), Co-Leader of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute for the Sub-Saharan Region and Member of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Dr. Maureen Okam Achebe is the Assistant Director for Hematology Integration at the Center for Integration Science. Dr. Achebe is Clinical Director of Hematology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Clinical director of Hematology Services at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). In these roles she devises strategies for clinical operations improvements and oversees all classical hematology patient care at BWH and DFCI. She is the director of the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Disease Center at BWH that delivers state-of-the-art care to adults with sickle cell disease (SCD). Dr. Achebe is deeply involved in the care of individuals with SCD in the US and internationally. She is the co-chair of the data subcommittee of the American Society of Hematology Consortium on newborn screening for SCD in Africa (CONSA) that seeks to demonstrate the benefits of screening and early intervention for SCD underway in seven countries in sub-Saharan Africa. She has represented ASH and CONSA at 2019 World Health Assembly side meeting in Geneva and at WHO Afro regional meetings in Brazzaville, Congo to advance support for the care of individuals with SCD worldwide. Dr. Achebe serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Non-Communicable Disease and Injuries (NCDI) Nigeria Poverty Commission as the sickle cell disease expert and guides the identification and prioritization of policies, interventions and integrated delivery platforms to effectively address and reduce SCD burden in the country. She is actively involved in clinical trials and translational research at BWH and was an investigator in the development of two of the most recently US FDA-approved drugs for SCD. She is Co-Director of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology ICM: Hematology Clinic for Harvard Medical students.
Dr. Achebe is a graduate of University of Port Harcourt medical school, specialty training in Hematology and Medical Oncology at Yale School of Medicine and is a graduate of Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Sheila Klassen (MD) is an adult cardiologist with subspecialties in echocardiography and structural heart disease. As Technical Lead of the NCDI Poverty Network Cardiac Expert Group, Assistant Director for Cardiac Integrationat the Center for Integration Science, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Lecturer in the Program in Global Noncommunicable Disease and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Klassen leads programs for decentralization and integration of care for advanced cardiovascular disease at the rural district hospital level across the Network’s Phase 3 and Phase 4 implementation countries as part of PEN-Plus. She has had extensive experience carrying out heart failure and echocardiography training related to PEN-Plus implementation in sub-Saharan Africa and has chaired or directed sessions at international conferences related to heart failure care in limited-resource settings. She also manages cardiology fellowships supported by the Center for Integration Science.
Dr. Klassen earned her MD at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada in 2011 and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at McMaster University followed by an Adult Cardiology fellowship at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. Dr. Klassen completed a fellowship in Advanced Echocardiography and Clinical Research with Massachusetts General Hospital in 2019 and a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in 2020. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography, and an Emerging Leader within the World Heart Federation.
Dr. Wubaye Walelgne Dagnaw was born and educated in Gondar, Ethiopia. Dr. Dagnaw earned his MD in 1997 and a postgraduate Specialty Certificate in Internal Medicine in 2006, both from the Faculty of Medicine of Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He completed his Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery from the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts in 2021.
Dr. Dagnaw has 20 years of experience in clinical and programmatic management of tropical health problems in East Africa, specifically Ethiopia and South Sudan. He has worked with many international NGOs, including the Johns Hopkins University TSEHAI Project, ICAP at Columbia University, KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, as well as for Partners in Health and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dagnaw has helped implement programs for chronic diseases such as tuberculosis, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, HIV and noncommunicable diseases. He has worked in the public sector at both the primary health care level and in tertiary hospitals. Additionally, he has taught medical, health officer and nursing students. From 2006 until 2018, he worked in the private sector as consultant Internist.
He worked for the Ethiopian Ministry of Health for six years as a senior technical advisor for the national noncommunicable diseases and prevention program, which was seconded by the NCD Synergies Program at PIH. He also served as the advisor to the former Minister of Health on health service delivery and health system strengthening.
Dr. Yogesh Jain is a public health physician who earned his MD in Paediatrics from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He founded and runs the community health program Jan Swasthya Sahyog (People’s Health Support Group) which operates in rural Bilaspur, India and Sangwari in northern Chhattisgarh. Indigenous people that call more than 2,500 of the most marginalised villages home access the services of Jan Swasthya Sahyog for their health care needs. Dr. Jain helps address the technical, operational, economic or political issues that affect health care for the rural poor through clinical care, careful documentation, observational research studies, developing appropriate health related technology, training, and lobbying. Since observing health and illnesses through the lens of hunger and extreme poverty, Dr. Jain has become an advocate for the state as the primary provider of social services and believes that unbridled privatization while not rectify the inequities in global access to health care.
Colin Pfaff is a Clinical Advisor at the Center for Integration Science and a Senior Regional Advisor for Southern Africa for the NCDI Poverty Network. Dr. Pfaff is a family medicine and public health doctor from South Africa, with 25 years of experience in district level primary health care services in South Africa, Nepal, and Malawi, including HIV, TB and NCD programs.
Matt Coates is a Research Specialist with the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity. He began working with the Lancet Commission on NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion in 2016, conducting analyses for the commission report and supporting national commission work. He has contributed to research about the burden of NCDIs by socioeconomic levels, risk factors for these conditions, the availability of health services for NCDIs in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and potential impact of scaling up coverage of interventions to prevent and manage NCDIs. His general interest is in quantitative modeling to project population impact of policies and interventions, incorporating equity considerations.
Matt is currently pursuing a PhD in Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned an MPH in Global Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, where he contributed to demographic estimates and estimates of disease burden attributable to alcohol consumption for the Global Burden of Disease project from 2013 to 2016.
Andrew Marx is a communications consultant and former Communications Director for the NCDI Poverty Network. Before joining the Program, Andrew worked for over 25 years as writer/editor, communications specialist, and program manager with organizations dedicated to global health, social justice, and equitable and sustainable development, including seven years as Director of Communications for Partners In Health, three years as Deputy Director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative, and nine years as Chief of the Public Information and Multimedia unit at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Andrew got his start in journalism and communications working at an activist news agency (Liberation News Service) for seven years, including one year reporting from Africa, and later led editorial and information technology projects at the New York Times Company for 11 years.
Laura Drown is a Research Specialist at the Center for Integration Science in Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She earned a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology from Boston University in early 2016. Her prior work includes child mortality implementation research at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda, monitoring & evaluation for a surgical strengthening program in Ethiopia, and regulatory and data management for melanoma clinical trials at Massachusetts General Hospital. Laura’s work since joining the NCDI Poverty Network team in 2020 includes survey design and implementation, qualitative research, and conducting literature reviews.
Maryam Mansoor is the Research Coordinator for the Center of Integration Science. She earned a Master of Health Science degree from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health with a certificate in Evaluation of International Health Programs. Her prior work includes managing a program related to social determinants of health and mental health and research on maternal and child health in Pakistan, and quality of care in Guinea Bissau.
