AboutAbout What Works
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About
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Global Programme
- The Global Programme Team
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The Global Programme is directed by a core team of experts, who provide advice on strategy, research and programme design. These individuals are globally known and respected in the field of violence prevention, for the contributions they have made to research, programmes and policies to prevent violence against women and girls. The core team is supported by technical advisers and specialist consultants.
Professor Rachel Jewkes
South African Medical Research Council
Professor Rachel Jewkes is the Director of the What Works to Prevent Violence Global Programme, as well the Executive Scientist: Research Strategy in the SAMRC Office of the President and Secretary of the Sexual Violence Research Initiative. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand School of Public Health and a public health physician.
Dr. Tirhani Manganyi
South African Medical Research Council
Dr. Tirhani Manganyi is a South African national with over 15 years of experience in international development, research and grants acquisition and management (GAM).
Samantha Willan
South African Medical Research Council
Samantha Willan is the Capacity Development Manager for What Works, she has over 15 years’ experience working on preventing violence against women and girls, gender equality, sexuality, and HIV, from a women’s rights perspective. Her work spans research, capacity development, training and policy influencing.
Dr. Leane Ramsoomar
South African Medical Research Council
Dr. Leane Ramsoomar holds a PhD in Public Health from the University of the Witwatersrand, a Master’s degree in Health Promotion (with distinction) from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, an Honors degree in Psychology from the University of Durban-Westville and a BA degree (Cum Laude) from the same university.
Dr. Lori Heise
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Lori Heise is a senior lecturer at LSHTM, with 20 years’ experience in women’s health and HIV/ AIDS. She is an internationally recognised expert on the dimensions, causes and prevention of intimate partner violence and served on the core research team of the WHO Multi-country study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence.
Alice Kerr-Wilson
Social Development Direct
Alice Kerr-Wilson is a senior social development specialist with over ten years’ experience in international development working on assignments for DFID and other donor agencies. A gender expert by background, she has led a wide range of assignments in this field including many gender equality audits and assessments to inform policy and programme development as well as participatory research and evaluation.
Dr. Anna Vassall
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Anna Vassall is a health economist with over twenty five years of experience in economic analysis. Her first degree is in economics. She then worked in the NHS supporting funding/contracting. She then took an MSc in Health Planning and Financing at the LSHTM, thereafter working for DFID as a health economist in the UK and Pakistan.
Dr. Kristin Dunkle
South African Medical Research Council
Dr. Kristin L. Dunkle is a Chief Specialist Scientist in the Gender and Health Research Unit at the SAMRC. Dr. Dunkle is a social epidemiologist who has been working on gender-based violence and health for over 20 years, and has published widely on: connections between intimate partner violence and HIV among both women and men; links between gender‐based violence, transactional sex, and poverty; intimate partner violence; sexual violence and health among men who have sex with men (MSM) and others in LGBTQIA communities.
Dr. Giulia Ferrari
London School of Economics and Political Science
Giulia Ferrari originally trained as a quantitative economist at Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), and obtained a PhD in International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Independent Consultants
Rebecca Ladbury
Ladbury Communications
Rebecca Ladbury is an admired communications consultant with over 20 years experience leading national and international communication campaigns for UNDP, UNICEF, Channel 4, Malaria No More UK, British Council, Jazz FM, Watershed and others.
Dr. Emma Fulu
Independent Consultant
Dr. Emma Fulu is an independent consultant supporting the DFID-funded What Works to Prevent Violence Global Programme, particularly in the areas of research and policy uptake.
Technical Advisors
Dr. Esnat Chirwa
South African Medical Research Council
Esnat Chirwa has a postgraduate diploma and Master’s Degree in Biometry obtained from the University of Reading (UK), and PhD from the University of Witwatersrand (SA).
Dr. Yandisa Sikweyiya
South African Medical Research Council
Yandisa Sikweyiya is a Specialist Scientist at the Gender and Health Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand. He holds a PhD degree (Public Health) from the University of the Witwatersrand, a Master’s degree (Public Health) from Umeå University, Sweden.
Dr Nwabisa Shai PhD, MPH
South African Medical Research Council
Nwabisa is a Specialist Researcher in the Gender and Health Research Unit, Technical Advisor in the What Works To Prevent Violence to Prevent Violence Against Women and Girls global initiative and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Dr. Andrew Gibbs
South African Medical Research Council
Andrew Gibbs is a senior specialist scientist at the Gender and Health Research Unit at the Medical Research Council, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has lived and worked for the past ten years in South Africa.
Kate Bishop
Social Development Direct
Kate Bishop is a Senior Technical specialist and Lead Consultant for Social Development Direct’s Gender Based Violence (GBV) portfolio. She has 14 years’ experience working on Violence against Women and Girls, women’s rights, and gender equality across a range of development contexts.