Our Team
Prof Carel IJsselmuiden, MD, MPH, FFCH(South Africa)
Director
Nationality: South Africa
Carel is a public health physician and epidemiologist. He has worked in rural medicine, peri-urban and urban health care and environmental health services, as well as in academic public health education and research ethics training. He has also published in various areas in applied research and public health. Carel was the founding Director of the University of Pretoria’s School of Health Systems and Public Health until his appointment as COHRED Director in January 2004.
David Abreu, MBA
Manager, Health Research Web
Nationality: Brazil
David is Manager of the HRWeb information service, initiated by COHRED. His primary area of expertise is maximising the reach of health research organisations through the use of web and related information technologies. His experience working with students from 33 different countries as an international educator has given him an understanding of the unique role of culture and language in communicating critical information. He served as Director of the International Student Services at Lewis University and as a Consultant at the Brazilian Ministry of Health where he helped expand the Department of Science and Technology’s information systems, data collection and validation processes. He has a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a specialisation in International Business and a bachelor’s degree in Management Information Systems from Lewis University in the USA.
Jennifer Bakyawa
Project Coordinator
Communication and research translation
Nationality: Uganda
Based in Uganda, Jennifer is project leader of the research communication and knowledge sharing project between COHRED and Makerere University Institute of Public Health. The project looks at communication and knowledge sharing in health research, with three focus areas) building skills of researchers and research managers in communicating research results; building capacity of policy makers to communicate health research needs to health researchers, and enabling communities to use research results and help set the research agendas of institutions and countries. It provides practical advice to people, institutes and governments in developing countries that aim to excel at research communication. The project aims to grow into a forum for exchange between communications professionals in several African and other regions. Jennifer is a journalist with 10 years experience in reporting and writing in the health sector in Uganda. She has worked on a Fellowship on HIV/AIDS in Uganda and regularly publishes stories on development issues in The New Vision, The Monitor and the Weekly Observer in Uganda, the regional publication East African and at the international level for the Panos development news agency, an e-newsletter Women’s eNews, Interpress Services news agency, the Bundeszentrale fur Politische Bildung published by the German Civic Foundation and the cultural publication, Kultur Austausch.
Francisco Becerra-Possada, MPH
Senior Consultant
Nationality: Mexico
Dr. Francisco Becerra-Possada is senior consultant for COHRED in Latin America, responsible for developing COHRED activities and partnerships in and with countries and institutions in Latin America to strengthen National Health Research Systems.
Born in Mexico City, he graduated as Medical Doctor from the School of Medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1981. In 1984, he got his Masters of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, (USA), with emphasis in planning and health services administration. During his career Francisco has been an international consultant for PAHO, WHO, USAID, CARE, CORAT-Africa and Save the Children-US, among others. In Mexico, he has held various positions, including Director General for the State of Morelos Health Services, coordinator of the Masters in Health Services Administration and of the Masters in Sciences in Health Systems at the National Institute of Public Health, and has worked in the private sector.
Francisco Becerra has published over 25 papers and has contributed to books on various topics and has been Principal Investigator in Mexico for two multi-country studies coordinated by WHO.
Martine Berger MD (France) MH (US)
Senior Advisor
Nationality: France
Martine is Senior Advisor with COHRED, responsible for the COHRED Briefing that tracks important developments in the international health research agenda and for the emerging Health Research Watch service being developed by COHRED with southern partners.
Martine started her professional life as a general practitioner in France, moving soon to humanitarian aid with Médecins Sans Frontières and another French NGO, which took her to Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia, and to Pakistan to work with Afghan refugees). Challenged by the somewhat palliative nature of humanitarian aid, she decided to pursue her training with a Masters in Public Health at Harvard, to be better equipped to be pro-active in health and to contribute to a more equitable development for the poorest. After completing this degree, she worked for UNICEF in Pakistan, then as a consultant for WHO (Diarrhoeal diseases, AIDS). Following this she spent five years with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), responsible for health in their thematic section, then as special adviser on public health and development in Geneva for a further five years, collaborating closely with WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Forum for Health Research and COHRED, representing Switzerland in many meetings, governance and advisory bodies and committees of these institutions.
Over the years, her interests have focused on international health and development, a multi-sectorial approach to health and its determinants, research for health, health promotion, health systems development, and capacity building. Equity, including gender equity, human rights and ethics have always been important values in her personal and professional life.
Teresa Cullen
Executive Assistant
Nationality: UK
Teresa is Executive Assistant to COHRED’s Director, Carel IJsselmuiden. She is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Director’s office including scheduling and planning for the many presentations, talks and meetings the director attends across the globe, on behalf of COHRED.
Her role also involves communication from the director’s office to members of the board – the majority of which are from developing countries – to keep them up-to-date with recent COHRED projects and publications. Once a year, Teresa is heavily involved in the organisation of the board meeting, which brings together all board members to review COHRED’s achievements and work plans for the future.
Her experience as internal communications manager for a UK retailer, has more recently led to Teresa’s involvement with staff communications, to further improve links between COHRED’s representatives in Uganda, Mexico, Tunisia and the Philippines.
Michael Devlin, BA
Head, Knowledge Sharing and Advocacy
Nationality: UK
Michael’s expertise is in science, policy communication and the emerging field of knowledge sharing. He comes to COHRED following 6 years as Chief Knowledge Officer of the CGIAR agricultural research center – International Water Management Institute – based in Sri Lanka and working in Asia and Africa. He has worked in corporate public affairs, as a communications consultant, designing information strategies and campaigns, managing large websites and publications in the corporate and scientific sectors. Michael has led projects to synthesize European Union-funded research on innovation networks, materials science, information society energy and environmental policy. He holds a BA degree in journalism and French literature, with further course work in scientific and technical communication.
Hassen GHANNEM MD, MSc
Senior Consultant
Nationality: Tunisia
Dr Hassen Ghannem is a senior consultant for COHRED in North Africa and the Middle East. He is currently Professor of Community Medicine and Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the University Hospital Farhat Hached, Sousse, Tunisia. Dr Ghannem is a Medical Doctor graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of Sousse, Tunisia. He holds a Masters degree in Community Medicine and Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine of Montreal University, Canada (1987) and is currently a member of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Advisory Committee on Health Research.
In 1999 Dr Ghannem was the Regional Adviser acting for non-communicable diseases in WHO/EMRO; he has been a consultant for WHO on chronic disease prevention and control in low and middle income countries. He has also been a member of AfriHealth where he was responsible for mapping public health schools in North Africa, as part of an Africa-wide mapping project. He is currently a member of the Steering Committee of the Initiative to Strengthen Health Research Capacity in Africa: ISHReCA.
His career interests include the study of epidemiologic transition and its consequences in terms of chronic disease extension in Tunisia and the study of Health Research capacity assessment and strengthening in developing countries. He has published more than 50 peer reviewed scientific papers mainly focused on epidemiologic transition and extension of cardiovascular disease risk factors in Tunisia.
Sylvia de Haan, MSc, MPH
Head, Projects and Programmes
Nationality: Netherlands
Sylvia is a health scientist. After graduating from Nijmegen University she worked for several years in the field of environmental and occupational health in the Netherlands and in Tanzania. She has been working for COHRED since 1998. Her areas of responsibility within COHRED mostly focused on working with partners in developing countries to develop projects to improve and strengthen national health research.
Edlyn Jimenez-Santos, MSc
Nationality: Philippines
Edlyn Jimenez-Santos is a Fellow of the Global Forum on Bioethics in Research (GFBR) Secretariat which is hosted at COHRED. Her main responsibilities are to provide support to the Secretariat, engage in networking, and produce a paper from a developing country perspective during her year here. Edlyn is on special leave from the University of the Philippines Manila-National Institutes of Health (UPM-NIH), where she works as research assistant professor, health research ethics training coordinator, and institutional review board secretary.
She received her postgraduate training in International Research Bioethics from the Monash University Faculty of Medicine in Melbourne, Australia in 2005. Since then she has worked in various areas of research bioethics, including institutional review board management and research ethics training capacity building in the Philippines. Edlyn’s research interests include research bioethics, women’s health, safety and injury prevention, and health social science. She sees this fellowship as an opportunity to learn from various centres of excellence in bioethical governance in Europe, with the objective of taking home lessons that can potentially address the challenge of implementing of quality systems for ethics, in low-resource settings.
Andrew Kennedy, PhD
Senior Research Officer
Nationality: UK
Andrew is a statistician with 13 years professional experience primarily in health services research. His previous work has focused on healthcare decision-making and health research system analysis. Before joining COHRED he worked for the World Health Organization and in academia in the United Kingdom. His main area of responsibility within COHRED is research and development
Margo Koulen – van Kasteren, MA
Communications Coordinator
Nationality: Netherlands
Margo is responsible for managing the workflow of communication activities for COHRED. Her specific tasks include coordination of the publishing process, including facilitating the editing, layout, printing and web posting and dissemination of COHRED publications and information materials. This work also covers the embedding of the publications and web content policies in COHRED’s work processes. She organizes the contacts database and provides support to fund raising activities.
Margo has more than 15 years experience as a communications and public relations manager. She has worked as head communications and public relations for several governmental organizations and companies, including Hogeschool Haarlem, a Dutch university for professional education; the Netherlands Court of Audit; the Dutch Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management; and a leading Dutch retailer. Margo studied social philosophy and ethics at the University of Amsterdam and has a further degree in communications and marketing.
Gabriela Montorzi, MA, PhD
Process Officer
Nationality: Argentina
Gabriela is responsible for setting-up and managing processes for workflow, monitoring and evaluation at COHRED. She is also a member of the COHRED Priority Setting project team, works with country partners to strengthen national health research.
Before joining COHRED, Gabriela worked for the World Health Organization as a Fellow in the Ethics and Health Department and in the Research Ethics Review Committee, involved in the evaluation and analysis of ethics review processes for human research. She started her career as a cardiovascular research scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. She holds degrees in Biology, Bioethics and Law and a PhD in Life Science.
Julie Murugi MD MPH
Research Officer
Nationality: Kenya
Julie is a public health physician. She obtained a Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery degree in 1994, and a Masters in Public Health degree in 2006; both qualifications were obtained from the University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Her professional experience spans over 14 years and includes health policy research, HIV/AIDS research at clinical trial and operations research level, and provision of curative care in both public and private health sectors. Before joining COHRED in 2008, Julie worked at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, as project doctor on a WHO collaborated randomized clinical trial on use of antiretroviral therapy to prevent breast-milk transmission of HIV. She also worked as technical consultant for the Population Council Kenya on a survey on health service preparedness and community awareness of paediatric HIV testing and treatment in Kenya.
Her main contribution to COHRED is policy analysis on health research and development in Africa.
Claudia Nieto, DES
Research Officer
Nationality: Colombia
Claudia has an academic background in History, Popular Education and Community Development as well as Development Studies. She previously worked as community development worker at an institute of research and development for access to drinking water for rural communities attached to the Universidad del Valle (Cali, Colombia). Her responsibilities within COHRED include country project support.
Tina Pfenniger, BA
Head, Administration
Nationality: Switzerland and USA
