Video: Introducing New GIS Board Members!

We’re so excited to introduce you to our newest GIS Board Members, who will help set the vision and direction of our impactful global society for the next three years!

Beatrice Wamuti

Postdoctoral fellow
Research and Policy
Harvard School of Public Health
USA / Kenya

I’m Dr. Beatrice Wamuti, a Takemi postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health with a PhD in Global Health – Implementation Science from the University of Washington (UW). I’m also a registered medical doctor (University of Nairobi) with an MBA (Strathmore University) and MPH (UW). I am passionate about healthcare systems strengthening within low and middle-income countries with keen research interests are in evidence-based clinical research, implementation science, and health systems management.

Over the past decade, I have worked in HIV prevention, particularly HIV partner services (aPS) to improve case finding, diagnosis, and initiation of antiretroviral therapy among sexual partners to newly diagnosed HIV positive individuals in sub-Saharan African countries. I have also served as a senior technical advisor for the aPS scale-up project – collaborative study between the University of Washington, PATH Kenya and the Ministry of Health (MOH). In this project evaluating the national rollout of aPS within the national HIV testing services program in Kenya, I was part of MOH’s National AIDS and STI Control Program (NASCOP) technical working group on HIV testing services. I also serve as a visiting research scientist at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Implementation science is a powerful tool that considers contextual factors as health providers seek to reduce the gap between evidence and practice. My concern has been with many implementation science frameworks used in LMICs that either minimize or ignore the role of communities in the adaptation of evidence-based interventions. It is my hope that in this role, I will be able advocate for revisions to some of these frameworks so that they are better suited for collectivist cultures especially those in the global South.

Maria Fernandez

Director, Center for Health Promotion & Prevention Research; Founding Co-Director, Texas Institute for Implementation Science
Research and Policy
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
USA

I am a Professor of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health, the Director of the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research (CHPPR), and the Founding Co-Director of the Texas Institute for Implementation Science.

I have extensive experience developing and evaluating health promotion interventions, and conduct research to improve dissemination and implementation of effective programs. I recently co-authored two books, the 4th edition of Planning Health Promotion Programs: An Intervention Mapping Approach (2016) including a new chapter on using the intervention mapping approach for program adaptation, and Handbook of Community-based Participatory Research (2017).

My research has focused on cancer prevention and control among underserved populations. I have conducted both qualitative and quantitative studies that range from the identification and description of basic behavioral conceptual models of cancer screening and vaccination to the development and evaluation of new interventions to increase cancer control that have resulted in over 175 peer reviewed publications. I have a large portfolio of federally and state-funded research and extensive experience in developing, evaluating, and disseminating breast and cervical cancer screening interventions. I am looked to as an expert in dissemination and implementation research and I conduct studies to understand and intervene to accelerate the use of evidence-based cancer control interventions in real-world settings.

Maria is passionate about implementation science and the efforts of the GIS. As a seasoned public health scholar, she bring decades of applied implementation science experience with me to the GIS. She has served on the NIH study section for Dissemination and Implementation Research and Health and have mentored other researchers as part of several D&I training programs. She works closely with the World Health Organization to create capacity and opportunities to for implementation research in low-and middle-income countries. She hopes to contribute to the continued development and integration of effective implementation, improvement, and scaling practices in order to improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities globally. Her training and professional experience as an implementation scientist and public health researcher equips her with the knowledge and skills that are necessary to facilitate the goal of bridging the gap between research and service.

Ejemai Eboreime

MD, PMP, DLSHTM, MSc, PhD
Research and Practice
Univeristy of Alberta
Canada / Nigeria

Ejemai Eboreime is a physician with postgraduate training and expertise in public health, implementation science, and health systems research. He is a PMI certified Project Management Professional (PMP ®) with about 15 years’ progressive experience in global health, health systems strengthening, community and primary health care, and health programme management. Ejemai was one of the pioneer PhD holders in the field of implementation science in Africa, having been awarded a fellowship of the World Health Organization’s Special program in Tropical Disease Research (WHO-TDR).

Ejemai has published over 45 peer-reviewed papers in his field of expertise and is a regular conference speaker at various conferences across the globe. He has worked as a clinician, programme manager, researcher, advisor and consultant at both government and non-governmental organizations in various African and North American countries. He is currently a research associate on global mental health, and implementation science specialist on at the University of Alberta, Canada, as well as an associate editor with the BMC Public Health Journal. He is also a Senior Medical Officer with Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency.

Ejemai is a member of Health Systems Global’s Translating Evidence to Action Thematic Working Group, as well as several other global implementation science and health systems networks such as the Global Implementation Society (GIS), the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration and the Nigeria Implementation Science Alliance. He served as co-chair of the West African Network of Emerging Leaders in Health Policy and Systems (WANEL) up until May 2020.

As a GIS board member, Ejemai looks to leverage on his leadership skills and network to expand the reach of the society as well as advance the field of implementation. Further, his experience and network on both the academic space, policy and non-governmental environment in multi-country contexts provides an opportunity to contribute advance the vision of the GIS to promote research, effective implementation, and scaling practices applicable in the real-world across countries, particularly fostering learnings and collaborations between countries irrespective of national income strata.