2020 Speakers include

Indie Kaur

Indie Kaur is the Director of Midwifery at Fernandez Hospital, Hyderabad. She has spent the last two years in India training professional midwives in Fernandez and in the public private partnership with the Government of Telangana and UNICEF. She has been acknowledged in the ‘’Strengthening of Midwifery Guidelines’’ launched in Nov 18. Fernandez Foundation is now one of the first sites training midwifery educator’s in India. She is passionate about reducing maternal mortality via the midwifery training and respectful humanised care for Indian mothers. Her previous role was Consultant Midwife for Public Health with Bart’s Health NHS Trust. She is also a member of the East London Saving Lives (ELLY) team and as a team leader she has provided Multidisciplinary Obstetric and Midwifery Simulation (MOMS) training in India. She is passionate about reducing health inequalities for vulnerable women. She has successfully launched, in partnership with My Body Back Project, the world’s first maternity clinic in the Royal London Hospital to support women who have experienced sexual violence. She has successfully developed a seamless pathway of care for women with complex social needs in a deprived East London area reducing inequality of health care and ensuring access to vulnerable groups of women accessing care. This initiative won a BMJ award.
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Kathy Burgoine

Kathy Burgoine is a UK trained paediatrician, who is passionate about improving neonatology in resource-limited settings. She is currently based in Mbale in Eastern Uganda, where she has worked for 6 years. In 2014 she began the development of neonatal care across eastern Uganda, opening the first neonatal unit in the region in 2015. The neonatal unit now admits almost 3000 neonates a year and the mortality has dropped dramatically during this time. She is a firm believer in simple, sustainable and affordable changes and has published her experiences on a variety of aspects of her work. She is currently undertaking her PhD in neonatal sepsis as part of an NIH-funded study looking at the origins of neonatal sepsis in Uganda. She is also co-investigator on a cluster randomised trial in Eastern Uganda, BabyGel, evaluating the effectiveness of including alcohol hand rub in birthing kits to prevent neonatal sepsis. A key focus of her work is training and education. She founded a charity called Born on the Edge, www.bornontheedge.org that continues to provide much needed training and education in neonatal care across Eastern Uganda. Kathy has developed a 14-module newborn care training course which is now taught regularly by 3 local neonatal trainers throughout the region. As an honorary lecturer at Busitema medical school she leads the neonatal training for the medical students and MMed students.
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Sally Theobald

Professor Sally Theobald is the Chair in Social Science and International Health at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. She has a Masters in Gender and Development, a PhD in Gender, Health and Development and over 20 years’ experience of research, training and partnership on gender equity and health systems strengthening in Africa and Asia. She has wide ranging experience of designing and implementing research projects in health, equity, gender and governance and has worked collaboratively on research for health systems strengthening in HIV, TB, SRH, maternal health and health systems in Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Cambodia, South Africa, Burkina Faso, Malawi , Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia,  Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and Uganda. She is interested in health systems strengthening systems in different contexts (including in fragility and in informal urban settlements) and has experience in implementation and participatory research.

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Annie Portela

Annie Portela is Senior Technical Officer at the World Health Organization (WHO/MCA) in Geneva.  She has worked with governmental and non-governmental organizations for over 20 years in designing and implementing programmes for Maternal-Newborn-Child Health, linking facility-based and community-based services.  Particular areas of focus include access to care for underserved populations and woman and community participation in the design of health programmes and services.  In order to achieve this she has specialized in bringing together different stakeholders to identify problems and find solutions, including representatives of governments, health services, NGOs, local leaders, community groups, academia and international partners.  She is currently leading WHO’s evidence reviews on health promotion interventions for maternal, newborn and child health, and has supported WHO’s work to address complexity in guideline development, work which requires an interdisciplinary focus.  She manages several WHO/MCA implementation research projects, addressing the need to facilitate dialogue between policy makers, researchers, programme implementers and service users, and develop processes to support programme learning.

Salome Maswime

Wendy Graham

Salome Maswime is an Associate Professor and Head of Global Surgery at the University of Cape Town, an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, a Next Einstein Fellow, and the President of the South African Clinician Scientists Society. She completed Discovery Foundation fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She specialised and completed her PhD at University of the Witwatersrand. She previously worked at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto as a specialist.
Her research interests are in global surgery, related to caesarean sections and placental causes of stillbirths.
She is an advocate for women’s health rights, and equity in maternal healthcare. She lectures undergraduate and postgraduate students and supervises MSc and PhD students.  Salome has published many of her work, and has presented them at various conferences and global meetings. She sits on many committees as an advisor and consultant, including the World Health Organization (WHO). Salome has received awards for her tenacity and commitment to research in maternal health. She was acknowledged as a Trailblazer and Young Achiever by the President of South Africa in 2016. She also received the young achiever award from the African Business Network, Africa Forbes and CNBC Africa group.

Wendy Graham is Professor of Obstetric Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Trained at Sheffield and Oxford universities, her career over the last thirty years has included senior roles in academia, as a technical adviser to government and UN agencies, and as an advocate for maternal and perinatal health improvement in low-and-middle-income countries. Wendy’s initial research focused on the prevention and measurement of maternal mortality, but in the last eight years, her attention has shifted to the reduction of healthcare-associated infections among mothers and newborns delivering in maternity units, with a particular emphasis on environmental hygiene, provider practices, and the prevention of antimicrobial resistance.

Tina Lavender

Imelda Bates

​Tina Lavender is Professor of Midwifery and Director of the Centre for Global Women’s Health at the University of Manchester. She also holds an honorary contract at St Mary’s Hospital, Manchester and a Visiting Professorship at the University of Nairobi. She leads a programme of research, Midwifery and Women's Health; her main research focus being the management of prolonged labour and partogram use. Dame Tina has published extensively in this field.  She is Co-editor in Chief of the British Journal of Midwifery, Associate Editor of the African Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, Editor of the Pregnancy and Childbirth Group of the Cochrane Collaboration and on the editorial team of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Dame Tina is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives and European Academy of Nurse Science. Dame Tina also acts as a regular Advisor to the World Health Organization, particularly in relation to guideline development.
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Dilly Anumba

Dilly Anumba is Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University of Sheffield. He joined the University of Sheffield in 2003 as Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Obstetrics and Fetal Medicine, following research and clinical training in Newcastle University and hospitals in Yorkshire and the Northern region. Dilly was accredited a specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1999, and a subspecialist in Maternal and Fetal Medicine in 2001. Since 2003, he has maintained busy clinical (Obstetrics, Fetomaternal Medicine), research and teaching roles. Dilly investigates the physiology of human parturition, particularly the role of immunity and inflammation in term/preterm labour and pregnancy complications such as hypertension, fetal growth restriction and stillbirth. He is also investigating new techniques to predict preterm birth by the detection of cervical remodelling changes as well as changes in the vaginal microbiome and metabolome. He runs specialist clinics in Prenatal Diagnosis and Fetal Therapy, Prematurity Prevention, and High-Risk Pregnancy, all of which have research spin-offs.

​Imelda Bates is Professor in Clinical Tropical Haematology and Head of The Centre for Capacity Research at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Consultant Haematologist at Royal Liverpool Hospital. Imelda has established an expanding and vibrant Centre for Capacity Research which is at the forefront of research into how to design, measure and evaluate programmes to strengthen research capacity and laboratory systems in LMICs. She also has a research focus on anaemia and blood transfusion systems in LMICs particularly on evidence to improve the supply and use of blood for transfusion. Imelda teaches on many of LSTM’s courses including Diploma and Masters programmes and the Consultancy course. She has supervised many successful PhD and Masters students, and provides mentorship for many individuals in haematology and capacity strengthening. For 14 years she was Course Director for the innovative and highly successful Diploma in Project Design and Management which was established in Ghana in 2003 to increase multi-disciplinary institutional research capacity. She is currently Chair of the Global Haematology group of the British Society for Haematology.

Jane Sandall

Jane Sandall CBE is Professor of Social Science & Women's Health at King’s College London. She has a clinical background in nursing, health visiting and midwifery and an academic background in social science. She is a NIHR Senior Investigator and Cochrane author. Jane is an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Health University of Technology, Sydney and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Technology, Sydney. She was external advisor to the National Maternity Strategy Steering Group for Ireland, and deputy Chair of the Royal College of Midwives Board. She is Associate Editor of Midwifery: An International Journal and sit on the NHS England-London Strategic Clinical Network for Maternity. Her research in maternal health and reproduction is interdisciplinary between the clinical and social sciences and involves a range of methods. It focuses on a) the implementation of maternal health policy and effective solutions at a health system and service delivery level, and the impact on health outcomes and users' experiences, to improve quality and safety of care b) the social and organisational implications of the translation of innovative health technologies into health care.

Raji Tajudeen

Taj is a Medical Doctor with postgraduate qualifications in Paediatrics and Public Health. He is a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians and African Public Health Leaders Fellow of the Chatham House Royal Institute of International Affairs, UK. He has years of senior level experience in Child Health, Health System Management, Health Diplomacy, Maternal and Child Health, and Health in Humanitarian Emergencies. He has worked in different settings in the developing world; Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. 
 
He is currently the Head of Public Health Institutes and Research at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. He coordinates the establishment and strengthening of National Public Health Institutes across the 55 African Union Member States. He oversees the establishment of the five Africa CDC Regional Collaborating Centers in Lusaka, Abuja, Libreville, Nairobi and Cairo. He coordinates the Africa CDC Institute for Workforce Development and the public health research agenda.
 
Taj heads the healthcare preparedness and countermeasures section of the Africa CCD COVID-19 response. He co-chairs the case management technical working group of the Africa Taskforce on COVID-19. 

Ambrose Otau Talisuna

​Ambrose Otau Talisuna is Regional Advisor for Health Security and International Health Regulations at the World Health Organisation, Regional Office for Africa. He has a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery (MBchB), a master’s degree (MSc.) in epidemiology and a PhD in medical sciences. He has postgraduate training in public sector management, integrated disease surveillance and response, monitoring and evaluation of health systems, medical informatics, advanced epidemiology and bio statistics, malaria, and HIV/AIDs. Ambrose is presently pursuing an MBA in leadership and sustainability. He has worked in tropical disease surveillance and control for over 20 years at national and international level. Between 1996 and 2016, he held senior management, leadership and scientific positions with the Uganda Ministry of Health, the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), was regional scientific director for East Africa of the Worldwide Antimalarial Resistance Network and senior clinical research fellow, University of Oxford. He has served as an expert and advisor to diverse international organizations such as WHO, the World Bank, TRP of the Global Fund to fight Aids TB and Malaria, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Islamic Development Bank, Medicines San Frontiers (MSF), DNDi, Roll Back Malaria.
Ambrose has also been an eclectic researcher, aware of the need to generate new evidence for policy. In 2016, he joined the WHO regional office for Africa, as regional advisor for health security and International Health Regulations. At WHO, he is spearheading the efforts to build and sustain core capacities to better prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks. He is a founding director of the Uganda malaria surveillance programme. He teaches epidemiology, health information systems, infectious disease outbreaks and response, monitoring and evaluation; malaria prevention and control at master’s level and he has supervised several PhD studentships. He possesses the knowledge/skills, attitude and practices to enable him take up senior management and leadership roles in international health.