Biography

I am a medical doctor with a Master’s degree in Epidemiology and Biostats and a PhD in Public Health. My experience in public health and infectious diseases spans over 20 years, started as a trial coordinator and later a co-investigator for two large multi-centre HIV prevention clinical trials and since 2011 worked as an epidemiologist supporting and leading large respiratory illness surveillance programmes. I am currently working as a section head of the epidemiology team for the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa. In this position, I am responsible for overseeing the implementation of surveillance and research programmes and for coordinating/managing/ training the teams doing surveillance/research and responding to outbreaks that involve pathogens that cause respiratory diseases and meningitis. I am the principal investigator for the pneumonia surveillance and influenza-like illness (ILI) surveillance programmes. I have published over 125 peer-reviewed articles, five of which formed part of my PhD, entitled “Interaction between influenza and tuberculosis in South Africa, a country with high prevalence of tuberculosis and HIV”. I have a joint appointment as an honorary senior lecturer at the School of Public Health and a module coordinator for the Basic vaccinology module for the MSc Vaccinology degree, University of the Witwatersrand. I have supervised or co-supervised 5 MSc/ MPH students, I am currently supervising / co-supervising 5 students (4 MSc and 1 PhD). I am a mentor for the cohort of masters and PhD students in the South Africa-Pittsburgh Public Health Genomic Epidemiology Training Program (SAPPHGenE). I have also provided training and mentorship for other postgraduate students and registrars rotating through the Centre. I have received grant funding as a principal investigator/co PI from Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, Task Force and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In addition I am a member of several committees and technical advisory groups for National Department of Health and WHO.