The Steering Committee, the Network’s primary governance body, provides oversight for the Network’s strategy, structure and composition, activities, and partnerships.
The Steering Committee includes two co-chairs, ten representatives of national NCDI Poverty Commissions (two each from West Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, Francophone Africa, and the Caribbean and Asia); and three advocates representing people living with noncommunicable diseases in countries representing the world’s poorest billion people. The Committee meets every three months to review progress and to discuss and approve plans for future action to advance the Network’s four strategic initiatives: Expanding the Network, Integration Science, the PEN-Plus Partnership, and the NCDI Poverty Fund.
Co-Chairs
Ana Olga Mocumbi
Prof. Dr. Ana Olga Mocumbi (MD, PhD, FESC) is the Co-Chair of the NCDI Poverty Network. She is a cardiologist with a particular interest in neglected cardiovascular diseases specifically rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart failure in young people, and women’s cardiovascular health. She is Professor of Cardiology at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique and is Head of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the National Public Health Institute (INS), at the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.
Dr. Mocumbi obtained an MD in 1992 at UEM. She worked in several rural areas of Mozambique from 1992 - 1997 acting as a general practitioner and health manager, gaining experience on management of National Control Programs for major endemic diseases.
Her post-graduate training in cardiology was done in Mozambique (Central Hospital of Maputo and Instituto do Coração) and France (Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades). She holds a Diploma in Pediatric Cardiology from the University René Descartes, Paris V - France.
Dr. Mocumbi worked as a Research Assistant at the Imperial College London (from 2004 until 2008) where she obtained her PhD investigating the Epidemiology of Neglected Cardiovascular Diseases. Under this program she launched a research project on Endomyocardial Fibrosis, which included large-scale community-based studies and clinical research in a rural endemic area of Mozambique (Inharrime), involving collaboration with the Heart Science Centre and Magdi Yacoub Research Institute in the United Kingdom.
Dr. Mocumbi is involved in several local and international research projects and partnerships including international registries and clinical trials. She is Editor of the Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy Journal and has published original papers in peer-reviewed journals and didactic publications.
She is currently Vice President of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) South Region (and Member of the PASCAR Taskforce on Hypertension), Co-Leader of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute for the Sub-Saharan Region and Member of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific Policy and Advocacy Committee.
Gene Bukhman
Gene Bukhman, MD, PhD, is the Network Steering Committee Co-Chair. Dr. Bukhman is a cardiologist and medical anthropologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where he founded the Center for Integration Science and serves as its Executive Director. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he also directs the Program in Global Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Social Change. He is the Senior Health and Policy Advisor on NCDs to Partners In Health (PIH), the Director of the BWH Advanced Clinical Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity, and the Director of the BWH Research Fellowship in Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity. Dr. Bukhman completed his medical training and doctorate in medical anthropology at the University of Arizona, an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a cardiology fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Over the past 15 years, Dr. Bukhman has argued that for those living in extreme poverty, NCDs are best understood as part of the “long tail” of global health equity that demands a new “science of integration.” He has translated this critique into practical delivery strategies such as the Package of Essential NCD Interventions – Plus (PEN-Plus), that are now impacting patients' lives in more than a dozen countries.
Dr. Bukhman is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters that apply a range of methodologies from ethnography and archival research to epidemiology and mathematical modeling to identify solutions to the problem of “NCDI Poverty.” Dr. Bukhman was the lead-author and co-chair of the 1996-2020 Lancet Commission on Reframing NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion, and is co-chair of the 22-country NCDI Poverty Network launched in December of 2020 to support implementation of the Lancet Commission’s recommendations.
Members
Yogesh Jain
Yogesh Jain, MD, is a public health physician based in Chhattisgarh, Central India. He has been primarily involved in primary health care through founding and running community health programmes in rural Chhattisgarh in central India since 1999. He has been involved in understanding the political economy of illnesses and addressing technical and political issues that determine the health care for the rural poor through clinical care, observational research studies, training, and direct political work based on lived experience. He is a strident believer in the state as the primary provider of social services.
Biraj Karmacharya
Biraj Karmacharya, MBBS, MSc, PhD, is Director, Public Health and Community Programs, and Associate Professor at the Department of Public Health at Dhulikhel Hospital, Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences. He obtained MBBS from Kathmandu University and PhD degree from the University of Washington in Seattle (USA). Dr. Karmacharya was the founding member, and he has been leading the Department of Community Programs since 2006. He also leads the Nepal Technology Innovation Center at Kathmandu University, a platform for bringing academia and industries together for rural development. Dr. Karmacharya is engaged in developing and setting up innovative community-based health and integrated health and development programs in rural settings in Nepal.
Julie Makani
Julie Makani, MD, PhD, FRCP, is an associate professor in the Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. She is a consultant physician and principal investigator for the Sickle Cell Program. With global partnerships, Muhimbili has developed a systematic framework for research, integrated into health, advocacy and education. With prospective surveillance (2004 – 2016) of more than 5,000 SCD patients, this is one of the largest single-center, SCD research programs in the world. Scientific themes include clinical research; biomedical research, including genomics; and public health, including ethics, social and behavioral science, population health, and health policy. The aim is to use SCD as a model to establish scientific and healthcare solutions in Africa that are locally relevant and globally significant. Dr. Makani is also a consultant physician in hematology and blood transfusion and principal investigator for the Sickle Pan African Consortium (SPARCO)/ SickleInAfrica; site PI for MUHAS for H3ABioNet; co-principal investigator of SickleGenAfrica; and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of United Kingdom and Tanzania Academy of Sciences.
Jones Masiye
Dr. Jones Masiye, MD, MPH, is currently the Deputy Director of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health Clinical Services for the Ministry of Health, Malawi. Dr. Masiye also serves as Project Manager for the World Diabetes Foundation’s Diabetes and Hypertension Control Project in Malawi and as the treasurer of the Medical Doctors Union of Malawi. Previously, Dr. Masiye has held positions as a District Medical Officer of the Dowa District Council and a District Health officer of the Neno District Council.
Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo
Dr. Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo, PhD, is the Founder Director of the African Institute for Health and Development (AIHD). Prior to this, she worked for KEMRI, AMREF, APHRC and Population Council. She is currently the Secretary of the NCD Alliance of Kenya and the Vice-President for the African Region for the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE). She serves on various international committees including Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) and the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) of International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI). Mary has published widely on health and social development issues including gender, NCDs, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), child health, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health, and poverty. Mary is an Adjunct Faculty Member of Strathmore University, Nairobi.
Santigie Sesay
Santigie Sesay, MD, is director of noncommunicable diseases and mental health in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone.
Aimée Lulebo
Dr. Aimée Lulebo is an associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Kinshasa School of Public Health in the Democratic Republic of Congo. She is also the commissioner and coordinator of the Democratic Republic of Congo NCDI Poverty Commission.
Advocates Representing People Living with Severe NCDs
Moses Echodu
Moses Echodu is a childhood cancer survivor from Kampala, Uganda and currently serves the Uganda Child Cancer Foundation as the Program Director. While serving as a Voices of NCDI Poverty Advocacy Fellow, Moses spearheaded outreach activities with youth in Uganda to build awareness for cancer and other severe NCDs through printed educational materials, radio shows, and screening campaigns.
He has spent the past eight years building cancer awareness among young people and advocating for policies to improve access to cancer services for young people through his 3C program that engages youth in secondary schools.
Anu Gomanju
Anu Gomanju is an NCD advocate, a person living with rheumatic heart disease, and a registered public health professional pursuing a master of public health in global health at Thammasat University. While serving as a Voices of NCDI Poverty Advocacy Fellow, Gomanju used social media to establish a people living with rheumatic heart disease advocacy group and network in Nepal, a first of its kind in the region. Anu continues to work closely with the Nepal NCDI poverty Commission and provides insight as a person living with rheumatic heart disease.
Gomanju is involved in mental health advocacy and has contributed to the promotion of health and nutrition in relation to NCDI advocacy. She has experience empowering adolescents and youth on sexual and reproductive health and has worked on family planning projects in the Nepalese communities to bring positive health outcomes. She is committed to advocating for people living in poverty to protect their lives from morbidity and mortality caused by preventable NCDIs, promoting their health, and prolonging their lives.
Eunice Owino
Eunice Owino is a sickle cell disease advocate and founder of the Sickle Cell Uhuru Trust, an organization working to build awareness about sickle cell disease, teach SCD management, and emphasize the importance of care for people living with sickle cell disease in Kenya and around the world. Her work as an NCDI Poverty Advocacy Fellow focused on building SCD awareness in Kenya and other areas of the world where SCD is prevalent.
Owino is the regional coordinator for the African Congress on Sickle Cell Disease (ACSCD) and serves on the Board of Directors for the Sickle Cell Federation of Kenya (SFK). She also represents Kenya in the East Africa Sickle Cell Alliance (EASCA).
Owino is a sickle cell warrior (a person living with sickle cell disease) and is delighted to serve as an advocate for people living with sickle cell disease. She has represented the interests of SCD patients on various platforms including conferences in Africa and California, documentaries, and media interviews across the globe. In 2022, Sanius Health names her one of the Top 90 most influence advocates for people living with sickle cell disease.