Directors
Professor Anuj Kapilashrami
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Co-director
An Interdisciplinary social scientist trained in Public Health and Sociology and Professor in Global Health Policy and Equity in the School of Health & Social Care. She is Director of the Centre for Global Health & Health Equity Research at the University of Essex.
Kapilashrami has longstanding research experience in health policy and systems research, with particular interest in examining their equity and rights implications. Her current work focuses on advancing an intersectional approach to examine health inequalities and structural determination of health and well-being, especially among multiply disadvantaged populations including migrants.
She is Founding Chair of the Migration Health South Asia network and a longstanding member of the People’s Health Movement, formerly as Chair of PHM Scotland. Kapilashrami is on the Gender Advisory Panel for WHO’s Human Reproduction Programme.
Associate Professor Jo Vearey
WITS UNIVERSITY
Co-director
Jo Vearey (she/her) has a background in public health and her interdisciplinary research focuses on the intersections between migration and health. She is an Associate Professor and Director of the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at Wits University in Johannesburg. Jo also Directs the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence in Migration and Mobility – hosted by the ACMS – and is Vice-Chair of the global Migration, Health, and Development Research Initiative (MHADRI). Fundamental to her research practice is participation in policy processes at international and local levels.
Managers and co-ordinators
Abigail Fairhall
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Senior research manager
Abigail is a senior professional research and programme manager with more than 25 years’ experience. She has worked extensively in the design, implementation and management of development research programmes for improved policy and practice, especially in the field of agriculture and rural livelihoods. She has expertise in participatory approaches and client-oriented research, research communication, information and knowledge management, research-policy engagement, monitoring and planning for research impact. She is a skilled facilitator at developing and delivering partnerships with a range of actors including donor organisations, private sector, local and international non-governmental organisations, universities, governments and multilaterals.
She was the research communication and uptake lead in the senior management team that delivered DFID’s (now the FCDO) first research strategy. She led the research uptake team for more than five years and worked on DFID development research programmes for nearly two decades. More recently she has led development of the University Essex’s strategic partnership with the UK government’s Open Innovation Team, and delivered a new Policy Fellowship programme to enhance the use of research evidence in policy.
Dr Thea de Gruchy
WITS UNIVERSITY
Wits research coordinator
Thea de Gruchy (she/her) is a researcher at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS), Wits University. She has been researching and writing about migration and health since 2015, graduating with her PhD in 2020. She joins GEMMS as a research coordinator.
Team
Dr Roomi Aziz
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX / MiHSA NETWORK
Training co-lead
Dr Roomi Aziz is a public health professional with 10+ years of experience, currently pursuing her PhD in public health at the University of Essex. As the regional coordinator for the Migration Health South Asia network, she is also coordinating the micro grant research projects in Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. She is also leading the Migration Health Research Priorities-setting exercise in Pakistan, and piloting of the Migrant Health Integration in Health Policy Barometer in Pakistan and Nepal.
Professor Andrew Bateman
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Senior researcher
Andrew is a Professor in the School of Health and Social Care. He has specialised in neuropsychology and rehabilitation. He has worked in research and clinical rehabilitation since 1990, the year he qualified as a Chartered Physiotherapist (North East London Polytechnic, & London Hospital School of Physiotherapy). He completed a PhD in Neuropsychology in 1997 (University of Birmingham). He did postdoctoral work in exercise physiology and rehabilitation in East London before taking up a post in 2002 in the NHS. Here he was responsible for leading community rehabilitation services for 17 years. He joined the University of Essex School of Health and Social Care in 2019
Professor Amita Bhide
TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Evidence co-lead
Amita Bhide works at the Centre for Urban Policy and Governance at Tata Institute of Social Sciences. Her research in migration focuses on internal migration in the context of urbanisation and policies that can make cities more inclusive of migrants. Recent publications include ‘Jaun-Yevun: Simultaneous engagement of Kokani Migrants ‘in ‘Leaving and Living: Home, Belonging and Memory in Migration’ eds Pushpendra and Sadan Jha and Migrants Homecoming in Yojana, 2020.
Professor Kamaldeep Bhui
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Mental health lead
Prof. Kamaldeep Bhui is Professor of Psychiatry at Dept of Psychiatry and Nuffield Dept of Primary Health Care Sciences at University of Oxford, Hon. Consultant Psychiatrist at East London Foundation Trust, and Honorary Professor and former Head of Centre for Psychiatry, Barts & the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, at Queen Mary University of London; former Public Health Lead and now Chair of the Publications Management Board and Editor in Chief of the British Journal of Psychiatry, Editor at Royal College of Psychiatrists. Bhui is Director of the World Psychiatric Association Collaborating Centre in Research, Training, Policy, and Practice, UK. He is an editorial board member of BJPsychOpen, Transcultural Psychiatry, International Journal of Social Psychiatry, and Arts & Health; and advisor to the editorial boards of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, Psychiatry and Neurosciences, and World Social Psychiatry.
He is PI for:
The UKRI funded ATTUNE programme on developing and testing creative arts and digital research and interventions for young people with adverse childhood experiences (£3.8m).
The NIHR funded Co-Pact study investigating mental health act use among ethnically diverse people using photovoice methods, and codesign of interventions to reduce inequalities (£700,000).
Barts Charity Funded Intrepid Study of inflammation and depression in chronic kidney disease (£300,000).
Lankelly Chase Funded Synergi Collaborative Centre, investigating the causes and remedies for ethnic inequalities in severe mental illness (£1.25m).
Bhui studied Pharmacology (BSc, 1985) at UCL and Medicine (MBBS, 1982-1988) at United Medical and Dental Schools of Guys and St Thomas’ (now King’s College). He holds postgraduate qualifications in psychiatry, mental health studies, epidemiology, and psychotherapy. He completed clinical training in London, secured a first Consultant appointment in 1999, followed in 2000 and 2003 by Consultant/Senior Lecturer and Consultant/Professorial posts in East London Foundation Trust and Queen Mary University of London, before his current post. He is a founder and former Trustee of Careif, and currently a Trustee of Centre for Mental Health and ThinkAhead.
Martin Drewry
HEALTH POVERTY ACTION
Martin’s academic grounding was at Bradford University’s School of Peace Studies. An experienced leader in the voluntary sector, he began as an award-winning community development worker before moving to international development. He became national secretary of World Action, a pioneering Methodist programme engaging young people and adults in action for social justice. He then spent a decade as head of campaigns at Christian Aid, playing leading roles in Jubilee 2000 and Drop the Debt. He co-founded the Trade Justice Movement and was one of the elected leaders of Make Poverty History. He is now CEO of Health Poverty Action.
Professor Gill Green
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Senior researcher
Professor of Medical Sociology in the School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex. Gill has been researching experiential aspects of chronic illness since the early 1990s with a focus on the impact of HIV as well as other chronic conditions. She has been the Chief Investigator on a number of research projects related to socially excluded groups, most recently leading an international project about access to health care for young people living in low-income urban areas with high levels of violence. Gill was Director of the NIHR Research Design Service (RDS) for East of England (2008-2019) and has an interest in public involvement in research and the co-production of knowledge.
Srishti Jaitely
TATA INSITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Research Officer
Srishti Jaitely (she/her) is a counselling psychologist who completed her training at Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. She held the role of Program Manager at M-
iCall, a psychosocial helpline, as part of the Transforming M-Ward Project at TISS. She has
also worked closely with urban local bodies and community based organisations,
contributing to the implementation of psycho-social interventions informed by a multi-
disciplinary approach. Her work has focused on building context-friendly knowledge and
capacity-building tools in the field of psycho-social well-being.
Dr Noorjehan Joosub
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Senior researcher
Noorjehan Joosub is an established academic and Counselling Psychologist with a speciality in Neuropsychology. She lectures on undergraduate, Honours, and Masters levels at the University of Johannesburg and is experienced in Masters and Doctoral supervision. Her academic interests include neuropsychological rehabilitation, community interventions and feminist critical perspectives.
Dr Aparna Joshi
TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Intervention co-lead
Dr. Aparna Joshi is currently an Assistant Professor with the School of Human Ecology at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India. She is trained in psychology and psychotherapy and has completed her PhD from TISS. Many of her research, intervention and capacity enhancement projects are related to themes of mental health and psycho-social well- being, counselling, couple and family well-being, gender and violence against women, sexuality and adolescent mental health, and are carried out in partnership with educational institutions, sState gGovernments, civil society organisations and international organisations including UNOs. Besides her academic and research work, she has been designing and implementing innovative mental health interventions in clinical and community settings over the past twenty-five years. Currently, she directs two field action projects at TISS: iCALL, one of the leading national level, professionally run, free counselling helpline initiated in the year 2012, and Sukoon, which aims at improving the well-being of couples and families in communities and Legal systems. She is involved in advisory and consultancy work with several national and international organisations.
Laura Kachale
HEALTH POVERTY ACTION
Community engagement co-lead
Laura is a Health Poverty Action programme officer for the Africa region. She has an MSc in Global Health from Queen Margaret University and BA in African Studies from SOAS. With over 10 years of programmatic experience from living and working in both the UK and Malawi, she joined HPA in 2022 supporting program implementation and development. Her interests are in health system strengthening, women’s empowerment and maternal rights.
Josien van der Kooij
HEALTH POVERTY ACTION
Community engagement co-lead
Miss Josien van der Kooij (she/her) is the programme officer of HPA for the Asian Region with a Master in Global Health from the University of Maastricht. She has both programmatic and research experience in the field of health and women empowerment. After working for two years, for a local NGO in India focussed on the economic strengthening of women and the LGTBQIA+ community, she started with Health Poverty Action. Josien’s interest lay within healthcare strengthening, mental health, and women empowerment.
Associate Professor Pedzisayi Mangezvo
AFRICA UNIVERSITY
Experience co-lead
The prospect of enhancing positive change in the lives of migrant men, children, women, and families is a source of inspiration for my work practice, research, teaching, and community engagement. I have taught/worked in more than four universities in Africa. I am passionate about ethnographic research. Imagining and designing policy-relevant research on migration, migrant masculinities and the ethical considerations that accompany all that informs my scholarship and publications in national, regional, and international journals. I have extensive ethnographic fieldwork experience in Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Ethiopia.
Associate Professor Thobeka Nkomo
WITS UNIVERSITY
Dr. Thobeka Nkomo (Ph.D. in Social Work) is an Associate Professor and a former Head of Department in the Social Work Department. She is a researcher, a published author, and academic at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). Her research interests include spirituality and health concerns, forgiveness, gender and sexuality issues, ethics, and values specifically related to cultural sensitivity, young women leadership, HIV/AIDS and Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. Actively involved in collaborative research projects with peers from all over Africa, she supervises many undergraduate and postgraduate students to promote, nurture, and advance education in our South African context.
Adetola Oyenubi
WITS UNIVERSITY
Research assistant
Adetola Oyenubi has a strong academic background in the field of migration. She has recently completed her Master of Arts degree in Migration and Displacement Studies at the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS), University of Witwatersrand. Adetola’s research interests lie at the intersection of migration, mental health, chronic diseases, and syndemic research. She is particularly interested in exploring the health challenges faced by migrant women and how their experiences can be understood within a syndemic framework. She is an active member of some academic networks including the Migration and Health Journal club at ACMS. She is passionate about improving the health and well-being of vulnerable populations and is committed to making meaningful contributions to the field of migration and health.
Professor Ingrid Palmary
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Intervention co-lead
Ingrid joined UJ as a Professor in January 2018. Prior to that, she worked at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University from 2005 -2017. Ingrid completed her PhD (psychology) at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. Before entering academia, Ingrid worked at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation as a senior researcher. Her research has been in the field of gender, violence, and displacement. She has published in numerous international journals and is the co-editor of Gender and Migration: Feminist interventions published by Zed Press; Handbook of International Feminisms: Perspectives on psychology, women, culture and rights published by Springer; Healing and Change in the City of Gold: Case studies of coping and support in Johannesburg published by Springer. She is the author of Gender, sexuality and migration in South Africa: Governing morality published by Palgrave.
Professor Renos Papadopoulos
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Senior researcher
Renos K. Papadopoulos, Ph.D. is Professor in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies, Director of the ‘Centre for Trauma, Asylum and Refugees’ and of the postgraduate programmes in ‘Refugee Care’, a member of the ‘Human Rights Centre’, at the University of Essex, as well as Honorary Clinical Psychologist and Systemic Family Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic. He is a practising Clinical Psychologist, Family Therapist, and Jungian Psychoanalyst who spent most of his professional life training and supervising specialists in these three spheres. As consultant to the UN and other organisations, he has been working with refugees, tortured persons, trafficked people, and other survivors of political violence and disasters in many countries. His writings have appeared in eighteen languages. Recently, he has been given Awards by the European Family Therapy Association (for Lifetime ‘Outstanding contribution to the field of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice’), by the University of Essex (for the best ‘International Research Impact’), by two Mexican Foundations (for his ‘exceptional work with vulnerable children and families in Mexico’), and by the International Association for Jungian Studies (for his lifetime contribution to Jungian studies). His last two books are on ‘Moral Injury’ and on ‘Involuntary Dislocation’. In particular, the one on ‘Involuntary Dislocation’ has been receiving remarkably positive reviews and hailed as a genuine milestone in the field, inaugurating a new paradigm.
Professor Gina Yannitell Reinhardt
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Gina Yannitell Reinhardt is a Professor of Government at the University of Essex. She investigates how citizens and policy makers build resilience to shock and change, and how their decisions and behaviour affect economic, social, and political development. Specifically, she studies the relationships between political trust, community connectedness, and willingness to adopt and implement climate smart policies. Professor Reinhardt works with local authorities around the world, evaluating the impact of public policy on community resilience and climate change adaptation and mitigation. Her work informs the governance of marine resources, public health, and public safety to achieve sustainable growth and development.
Dr Devanik Saha
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Research officer
Dr Devanik Saha is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the School of Health and Social Care,
University of Essex. He holds a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies, University of
Sussex. His doctoral thesis examined men's involvement in antenatal care in an informal
settlement of Delhi. His areas of interest are gender, men and masculinities, migration,
maternal reproductive health, and Indian politics. He is also a recipient of the Global Talent
Visa by the UK government, wherein he has been endorsed as an exceptional talent in the
field of Global Health and Development.
Shilajit Sengupta
TATA INSITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Senior Research Officer
Shilajit Sengupta is a social science researcher and a doctoral scholar at the National
Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. Primarily trained in Political Science, he has
experience in working with several grassroots-based development organizations across
India. His professional focus, academic pursuits, and publications revolve around probing
the intricacies of the political economy within informal sectors and the challenges faced by
precariat labourers. Additionally, his research explores the consequences of socio-economic
inequalities and the dynamics of migration and gender in the global south, against the
backdrop of rural transformation. He has a stint in teaching courses on public policy and
administration to undergraduate and postgraduate students in India. Shilajit is a firm believer
in praxis as a fundamental approach in social science research and advocacy. Beyond his
academic pursuits, he is an ardent advocate for LGBTQIA rights.
Professor M. Sivakami
TATA INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Experience co-lead
M. Sivakami is a Professor in the Center for Health and Social Science, School of Health Systems Studies (SHSS), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, India. Sivakami’s broad research area includes demography, gender, and Health. Sivakami uses gender as a significant lens to address health and well-being inequities. Sivakami is trained in demography and health with quantitative expertise and has vast experience conducting large-scale surveys (GATS, NFHS, and DLHS). Her research in the last ten years involves a mixed methodology approach. During the last 20 years, Sivakami has led or co-led several major research studies in Migration and Access to Health, Resilience and Mental Health of Migrants, Mental Health Literacy, Menstruation and Menopause, Global Adult Tobacco Survey-2 (GATS-2) and Reversing Son Preference. Sivakami is an Academic Editor for PLOS Global Public Health and is on the Editorial Board of Women’s Midlife Health. She also serves in various capacities (member of steering groups, ethics committees, and advisor) in several academic institutions within and outside India.
Dr Alison Swartz
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
Training co-lead
Alison Swartz PhD, MPH, is a Lecturer in Refugee Care in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies and team member of Centre for Trauma Asylum and Refugees at the University of Essex. She is also an Adjunct Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the University of Cape Town. Trained in social anthropology and public health, Alison is an interdisciplinary social scientist with particular interest in refugee experience, adolescent sexual health, gender identities and partnerships, TB, HIV and creative qualitative methodologies in health research.
Bangyuan Wang
HEALTH POVERTY ACTION
Community engagement co-lead
Mr Bangyuan Wang is an experienced public health practitioner. He has more than 20 years of experience in developing and managing public health programmes in Asia and Africa. Over the last 20 years, he has worked for MSF and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance (now called Frontline AIDS). Bangyuan worked for Health Poverty Action in China, Myanmar, and Laos from 2003 to 2013, and re-joined the organisation as the Head of Programmes for Asia in June 2019.
Tadesse Kassaye Woldetsadik
HEALTH POVERTY ACTION
Community engagement co-lead
Tadesse started at Health Poverty Action in June 2005. Tadesse, an Ethiopian medical practitioner, received his Masters in Public Health from the Universitae de Libre in 2002, and has worked with CARE International in Ethiopia as a senior health adviser and HIV/AIDS programme coordinator since early 2004. Prior to that, Tadesse held programme management posts with the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF), Ethiopia, after five years with the Ministry of Health.
Thulisile Zikhali
WITS UNIVERSITY
Post-doctoral research fellow
Thulisile Zikhali is a post-doctoral researcher with the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand. She has a keen interest in multidisciplinary research which falls at the intersection of migration, health and gender.
Anushree
TATA INSITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
Research Assistant
Anushree is an early career researcher with a postgraduate degree in social work from the
Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, where she had a specialisation in women-
centred practices. She has previously worked in areas of gender, sexuality, mental health,
and their intersections with violence, politics, and development through research and
fieldwork. She firmly believes in engaging with research through the ethics of care and
collaboration.
PhD Students
Our PhD students are on a scholarship programme, which is a partnership between Wits University, the Tata Institute for Social Science and the University of Essex. The students will spend some time at these institutions and are jointly supervised by Professors from Wits, TISS and the UoE.
Mukul Bhowmick
PHD STUDENT
A medical doctor with a postgraduate degree in Public Health, Mukul’s research interests lie at the intersection of gender, sexuality and mental health. He is particularly interested in cocreating knowledge with communities and other stakeholders to better health systems and policies. He has experience working with non-profits in the areas of gender-based violence and medical education in India.
Obindra Chand
PHD STUDENT
Obindra B. Chand is a health and social science researcher who primarily uses ethnographic, qualitative, and participatory and mixed methods. An anthropologist by training, his research interests and engagements include the fields of medical anthropology, global health, equitable and inclusive health systems and services, disability studies, humanitarian crisis, implementation and access to health care services and facilities for diverse marginalized and vulnerable groups, including people with disabilities, migrant workers, mental health, and psychosocial issues in cross-cultural and low resource settings, social determinants of health, social suffering and intersections of vulnerabilities. He was a fellow of Migration and Health in South Asia (Misha) in 2019. He has authored and co-authored several publications in his interests area. He is currently pursuing a PhD in public
health at the School of Health and Social Care, University of Essex. He received GEMMS scholarship for pursing his PhD. He is keen and committed to exploring health equity and accessibility for inclusive, quality health care services and systems in low-resource settings and vulnerable contexts, like Nepal, for designing evidence-informed policies, programs, and interventions.
Tanatswa Silvanus Chineka
PHD STUDENT
Tanatswa is a social work professional with 8+ years of experience, currently pursuing his PhD in Public Health at the University of Essex. He has a strong background in research in and designing social policy and social protection interventions for children and families in vulnerable situations. He is a member of the ASW-NET, and national steering committees on social protection and child protection in Zimbabwe. His research focuses on economic empowerment of vulnerable communities, child and youth migration, and the intersection of gender-based violence and migration.
Melisa Dlamini
PHD STUDENT
Melisa Dlamini is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Health at the University of Essex in partnership with the University of the Witwatersrand, through the GEMMS Studentship. She has a good and diverse academic background in the field of Psychology, Development,Migration, and Maternal Health. She completed her Master of Arts degree in Development Studies at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and her second Master of Arts degree in Development Management at Ruhr Universität-Bochum, Germany through the DAAD Merit Scholarship. Melisa has a strong passion and research interests mainly on the intersections of women in migration, gender-based violence (GBV), maternal health, and mental health. Melisa has worked as a qualitative fieldworker on several research and evaluation projects on women empowerment, migration, and gender-based violence in South Africa, that largely informed her research aspirations for her graduate studies. Melisa aims to use her research work to raise awareness on public health and livelihood challenges, particularly among migrant women through developing evidence to inform strengthening their access to rights and influencing policies, with a focus on the Southern African Region.
International Advisory Group
Dr Avni Amin
WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION
Avni Amin works at the WHO’s Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research on violence against women. Her primary focus is to support countries – Ministries of Health – in the translation and uptake of WHO’s normative guidelines and tools to strengthen health systems response to violence against women. She has led the development of clinical guidelines for responding to child and adolescent sexual abuse, the RESPECT prevention framework, and is a lead author of the WHO global plan of action on strengthening health systems response to addressing interpersonal violence, in particular against women and girls and against children. Avni is a passionate feminist scientist with a fierce commitment to gender equality and women’s health. She has a PhD in International Health from the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health. She is originally from India and considers herself as a global citizen.
Professor Sonia Bhalotra
UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Professor Sonia Bhalotra is an applied economist with research interests in the areas of skill creation, early childhood development and health (including mental health) and her work seeks to understand the role of the family and of the legal and political environment. She is currently working at the University of Warwick. A large fraction of her work has an emphasis on gender. She has held appointments at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Essex. She is Fellow of the International Economics Association, the UK Academy of Social Sciences, CEPR London, IZA Bonn, IEPS Brazil and SFI Copenhagen. She obtained a BSc Honours in Economics at the University of Delhi and an MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford. She is currently serving as Principal Investigator for an European Research Council Advanced Grant, and Co-Investigator to :ESRC Research Centre for Microsocial Change at University of Essex, ESRC-funded Human Rights Big Data and Technology Project at University of Essex, CEDIL-funded project on maternal depression with National Institute of Health, US, amidst other smaller research awards. Her research interests are labour and econometrics, development and history, and political economy. Her work has contributed to understanding skill creation, the long run benefits of early life health interventions (clean water, antibiotics, infant care); maternal and child health including mental health (maternal depression, adolescent mental health), maternal mortality; domestic violence, gender inequality; the political economy of public service provision; accountability and the right to health; implementing universal health coverage; parental investments in children; intergenerational mobility, the gender pay gap and women’s labour force participation, and the dynamics of mortality, fertility and sex selection. Her research is set, inter alia, in India, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, America, the UK and Sweden.
Dr B Camminga
INSTITUTE FOR CULTURAL INQUIRY, BERLIN
B Camminga (they/them) received a PhD from the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA), University of Cape Town, in 2016. They have since held a postdoctoral fellowship at the African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University, and several visiting fellowships, including at the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. They work on issues relating to gender identity and expression on the African continent with a focus on transgender migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. In 2018, they were runner up in the Africa Spectrum award, which honours outstanding research by up-and-coming African scholars. Their first monograph, Transgender Refugees and the Imagined South Africa, received the 2019 Sylvia Rivera Award in Transgender Studies (with Aren Azuira) and honourable mention in the Ruth Benedict Prize for Queer Anthropology. They are the co-convenor of the African LGBTQI+ Migration Research Network (ALMN), which aims to advance scholarship on all facets of LGBTQI+ migration on, from, and to the African continent by bringing together scholars, researchers, practitioners, and activists to promote knowledge exchange and support evidence-based policy responses. B is co-editor of Beyond the Mountain: Queer Life in Africa’s ‘Gay Capital’ (2019) with Zethu Matebeni, and Queer and Trans African Mobilities: Migration, Diaspora, and Asylum (2022) with John Marnell. Their work has appeared in journals including Sexualities, The Sociological Review, and Transgender Studies Quarterly.
Assoc Prof Delan Devakumar
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Delan is a Professor of Global Child health and an honorary consultant in Public Health in the Global Health division of Public Health England. He is co-director of the UCL Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents. He qualified from the University of Manchester and then worked in clinical paediatrics in the UK and New Zealand. After completing a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, he worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres as a paediatrician in Pakistan (Kashmir earthquake), South Sudan (cholera outbreak) and Myanmar (post-cyclone Nargis). He was appointed as an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and then NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Public Health in UCL. He completed a masters in public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a PhD from UCL, funded by a Wellcome Trust Research Training Fellowship. Delan is chair of ICHG, a special interest group of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. He was a commissioner and steering group member of the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health and is currently lead for child and adolescent health in Lancet Migration. He is the lead for the upcoming Lancet series on racism and xenophobia and is chair and co-founder of Race & Health and a member of The Lancet Group for Racial Equality (GRacE).
Irudaya Rajan
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT
Irudaya Rajan was a Former Professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Kerala (close 40 years of post-graduate experience). Currently, he is the chair of the KNOMAD (The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) World Bank working group on internal migration and urbanization. He is one of the expert committee members to advise the Government of Kerala on Covid-19. He has published in international journals on social, economic, demographic, psychological and political implications of migration on individuals, community, economy and society. He is the editor of the annual series India Migration Report since 2010 and South Asia Migration Report since 2017 published by Routledge. Founder Editor in Chief, Migration and Development (Taylor and Francis).
Dr Santino Severoni
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION
Dr Santino Severoni is Director a.i. Division of Health System and Public Health and Special Advisor, Migrants and Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He has over 24 years’ experience as an international technical advisor and executive, working for governments, multilateral organizations, nongovernmental organizations and foundations in eastern Africa, central Asia, the Balkans and Europe. He is a medical doctor, health economist, epidemiologist and experienced system manager, having worked for governments, multilateral and nongovernmental organizations, and foundations in eastern Africa, central Asia and Europe. During his professional career, Dr Severoni has dedicated his work to global health with a particular focus on health sector reforms, health system strengthening, health diplomacy, aid coordination/ effectiveness, management of complex emergencies and, since 2011, coordinating the public health aspect of migration for WHO/Europe. His professional work has been dedicated to global health, focusing on health sector reform, health system strengthening, health diplomacy, aid coordination/effectiveness and management of complex emergencies. He coordinated the Public Health Aspects of Migration in Europe and leads the Migration and Health programme for the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He worked to establish the WHO Global Migration programme, provided inputs to the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact on Orderly, Safe and Regular Migration, established the Knowledge Hub on Health and Migration and coordinated the first report on the health of refugees and migrants in the WHO European Region.
Dr Kolitha Wickramage
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR MIGRATION
Kol is the UN Migration Agencies’ Global Health Research and Epidemiology Coordinator responsible for providing technical guidance on research and evidence generation across IOM’s three health programmatic areas: medical examinations for migrants and refugees; technical cooperation on migration health with member states; and health action in humanitarian and post-crisis contexts. He is based at UN’s Global Data Institute (GDI) In Berlin, Germany. He worked with WHO from 2004-2009 in health action in crisis projects, providing health care to displaced populations in protracted civil conflict and natural disaster settings, and undertaking research in humanitarian contexts. Since joining IOM in 2009, has managed a broad spectrum of migration health projects ranging from post-conflict health systems recovery to West-African Ebola outbreak response, to coordinating multi-country research studies on migration health from Middle East and North Africa to Asia Pacific region. He received Presidential honours in Sri Lanka for his work on advancing a national migration health policy through an evidence-informed, inter-sectoral process. He has co-edited and reviewed series on migration and health for BMJ, PLOS Medicine, Lancet journals, and has contributed to flagship UN reports such as the Word Migration Report. Kol co-founded a global migration health scholars’ network (MHADRI) dedicated to supporting research scholarship, especially within developing regions.
📷 Jo Vearey