Medicine & Health Profiles
Dr. Blessings N. Kaunda-Khangamwa
Dr. Blessings N. Kaunda-Khangamwa is a social scientist actively involved in research, innovation, development, capacity building and mentorship in the Global South. She advocates for better service provision and evidence-based research to inform policy, programming and practice. She is a medical anthropologist and public health specialist.
She holds a PhD in Public and Population Health (Wits, RSA), a Master of Science in Medical Anthropology (UvA, Amsterdam) and a Bachelor of Social Science in Sociology with a Public Administration minor (UNIMA, Mw).
Her passion is in adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health, advocacy, gender, resilience and policy-related studies. She has a growing experience working in the areas of HIV, malaria, social and government preparedness for COVID-19, maternal and child health, sexual, reproductive health, monitoring and evaluation projects on malaria, HIV/AIDS, pneumonia, including maternal and child health consortiums.
Since July 2021 Blessings is an honorary researcher and lecturer at The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and Kamuzu University of Health Sciences in Malawi.
I am a 41-year-old native Malawian female Medical Doctor and Public Health physician with an MBBS from College of Medicine (Malawi), Msc in Epidemiology from School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and a PhD in Medicine from a joint Global Health Implementation Programme under the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at College of Medicine, Malawi and School of Medicine University of St Andrews, Scotland. My practice and implementation science interests are on systems strengthening for integrated clinical service delivery as well as prevention, management and control strategies for chronic diseases and their risk factors.
I have over 14 years’ experience in health program management with public health service delivery, and I am currently working as a Medical Director for Partners In Health (PIH)/Abwenzi Pa Za Umoyo (APZU), based in Neno, Malawi.
Grace Sezza is a Public Health specialist and nurse passionate in Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health. Her combined experience in curative and preventive health care gives a holistic understanding of the health system
She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from Umea University (Sweden) with a bias in health systems, a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from University of Livingstonia and a diploma in Nursing and Midwifery from Malawi College of Health Sciences. Her combined experience in the health care profession dates back to over ten years in all levels of health care in both private and public health care impacting on lives of Malawians.
Passionate in nutrition, reproductive health, Maternal and Child Health Grace is well versed in the following key components; food systems, Social and Behavioral Change and Communication (SBCC) using the care group model and Timed Targeted Counseling (TTC) approach. She is further conversant with HIV management, essential newborn care, management of obstetric complications, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) using the syndromic approach, Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (IMCI).
She is certified with the Nurses and Midwives Council of Malawi.
Professional profile
- Nurse midwife Technician Ministry of Health: 2009 to 2016
- Nutrition Officer, Nutrition Sensitive Project World Vision International: 2016 to 2019
- Project Officer Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNeCH) program, World Vision International: 2019 to 2020
Dr. Mulinda Nyirenda is the pioneering practicing Emergency Medicine Specialist who is also an internal medicine specialist who is actively engaged with clinical care, medical education, health system strengthening and quality improvement, leadership and management, public health innovations, disaster preparedness as well as clinical research.
She led the establishment of the first adult emergency department in Malawi based at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre. She has led teams that worked on public prehospital care establishment and COVID-19 response Health workers training programs. She started undergraduate and postgraduate emergency medicine training programs at the College of Medicine in University of Malawi. She keenly contributes to medical education innovations and quality improvement. She is an avid mentor to students and health workers formally and informally. Globally, she contributes to emergency medicine education and clinical practice in Africa, and other continents. Her research interests include acute care, infectious diseases, injuries, medical education, medical Informatics and technology, and health care systems strengthening activities.
She is a senior lecturer at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences and a senior specialist in the Ministry of Health in Malawi.
Kupatsa is a Nurse in charge at Matawale health center, Zomba. She is a dedicated professional benefiting from experience, working effectively as part of the multidisciplinary team. Kupatsa is responsive to change whilst achieving collective objectives in providing respectful maternal care.
After completing her Masters in Nursing, she started working as a nurse midwife technician (NMT) in 2004 and worked in different departments before upgraded to nursing officer with a bachelors’ in 2014.
In addition, she is a certified sign language user in Malawi aiming at providing respectful maternal care to women including those with hearing impairments in Malawi.
When not caring for laboring women, she supports and assists novice midwives and students through mentorship and supportive supervision.
Marion Anganile Sanuka is a trained Nutritionist, and holds a Master of Science in Human Nutrition from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) – Malawi. She has 12 years teaching experience at university and 4 years community development work. She also does training consulting for partners.
In addition, Marion is passionate about pro-poor advocacy and as Value chain consultant (holds a post graduate certificate Food value chain in Agriculture from the University of Applied Sciences – Troisdorf Campus- Germany), her focus is on social inclusion, especially for the marginalized poor, women and children in the value chain.
She has always believed in the power of her voice and engaged in rights activism. She had been an executive unionist for 8 years advocating for better working conditions and fighting other forms of injustices in the work place through the union at Natural Resources College. She is also a serving board member of LUANAR SACCO Limited.
Vilant Mzunzu Tambulasi is a Public Health Educationist with research interests in public health issues, gender and women’s rights, disability issues, education, early childhood development, child protection and welfare, and reproductive health. She has vast experience in project management and in planning, monitoring of development programs and projects in Malawi.
She also has vast experience in partnership building, events coordination and teamwork. She has a strong command of English language and is able to communicate with people at all levels. Additionally, she has good writing and synthesizing skills that enables her to produce reports that could be used by policy-makers, academics, government, donors, international organizations and civil society organizations for monitoring, planning and advocacy purposes. In addition, she also has vast experience in lecturing at university and secondary levels.
Shamen Chauma is currently Pursuing a PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology (SMU,China)
Shamen Chauma has also a Masters Degree in Public Health (2021) SMU, China, bachelors Degree in Nursing and Midwifery (2014),UNIMA,KCN-Malawi.
Ms. Aulive gift Msoma
Ms. Aulive Gift Msoma, MPH, is a seasoned monitoring and evaluation (M&E) practitioner and researcher with over 20 years track record of successful program management, research, monitoring and evaluation of health and development programs and projects at USAID/Malawi and other partners. While at USAID/Malawi, Ms. Msoma played a pivotal role in the preparation of Annual Program Results, Country Operational Plans, setting annual targets and coordinating quarterly review meetings with partners for the PEPFAR initiative. Ms. Msoma is a proficient user Microsoft Office packages, ArcGIS, ODK Collect, CSPro, DHIS2, DATIM, SPSS and STATA. Ms. Msoma is currently the Director of Monitoring, Evaluation and Research for USAID Health Communication for Life (HC4L) project, a $24 million five-year project, since October 2016. Apart from initiating and leading establishment of M&E systems for the project and the Ministry of Health in Malawi, Ms. Msoma leads the development and updating of the annual Activity Monitoring and Evaluation Plan, which is the guiding document for program implementation. Ms. Msoma develops innovative tools and methodologies in results measurement and ensures that data collection and reporting is done on schedule to inform program performance against targets. Ms. Msoma leads the development of protocols as well as terms of reference for consultants to conduct qualitative as well as quantitative research.
Ms. Msoma is an efficient communicator, mentor and trainer, with extensive experience providing technical guidance and capacity building to project teams and partners in planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating programs to ensure that implementation is on course and, in collaboration with program implementation team, recommend necessary adjustments as required. Ms. Msoma is a dynamic and highly motivated professional, with a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Malawi at College of Medicine and a Bachelor’s degree in Humanities from the same university at Chancellor College, majoring Demography. Ms. Msoma is fluent in English, Chichewa and Chitumbuka.
Myness Stella Kasanda Ndambo is a Public Health specialist and a well experienced qualitative researcher. She holds a Master of Public Health Degree from the College of Medicine, a constituent college of the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHES) (formerly University of Malawi). She also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from the Mzuzu University majoring in Biology and minoring in Statistics.
Myness has spent almost her entire career researching on public health challenges affecting the rural population in Malawi. Currently she is working as a Social Scientist for the Generation Malawi Project at the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU) co-lead by the College of Medicine. Before joining MEIRU, she worked as a Research Fellow for Partners in Health where she helped to design and lead a number of studies. Her strong competencies are in qualitative research design, data collection, analysis and dissemination. Her passion is in contributing to finding ways of improving health delivery for the rural poor and vulnerable populations so as to assist them realize their development goals.
Vast training in performing gynecologic surgeries, including diagnostic and emergency procedures. Exceptional skills in imparting health teachings for a complete and speedy recovery. Incomparable critical thinking and analytic skills. Excellent social, interpersonal and communication skills to interact with patients and hospital staff.