Mentor- Mentee Pairs

2011 Pair
Dr. Jean-Claude Desenclos (France) and Abiba Banla (Togo)

2010 Pairs
Dr. Francisco B. Tancredi (Brazil) and Fátima Omar Mecupa (Mozambique)
Samuel Perry (USA) and Dr. Busarawan Sriwanthana (Thailand)

2009 Pairs
Dr. Oni Idigbe (Nigeria) and Dr. Amabelia Rodrigues (Guinea-Bissau)
Dr. Oman Khan (USA) and Dr. M. Mushtuq Husain (Bangladesh)
Dr. Richard Rothenberg (USA) and Dr. Mary Mayige (Tanzania)

2011 Pair

Dr. Jean-Claude Desenclos  (France) and Abiba Banla (Togo)

Jean-Claude Desenclos is an alumnus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) and is a specialist in tropical medicine, public health, epidemiology and biostatistics. He practiced medicine in Thailand for several years, first with the Embassy of France, then as a doctor in a refugee camp with Doctors Without Borders (MSF). He later joined the European Centre for the Epidemiological Monitoring of AIDS (Saint Maurice). He has since joined the National Network of Public Health (later InVS), since its inception and now heads the Department of Infectious Diseases. With his national and international field experience, the author of more than 140 international scientific publications has trained epidemiologists in France for many years.

Dr. Abiba BanIa graduated as pharmacist biologist from the University of Dakar (Senegal) in 1986, and received her MPH at the University Henri Poincaré of Nancy (France) in 2006. She worked in the Togo Ministry of Health from 1986 to 2000 and was responsible for pharmacy, laboratory, and blood transfusions in Sokodé, central Togo. Since 2000, she has provided leadership at the National Institute of Hygiene of Togo (INH), coordinating the activities of laboratories for surveillance of epidemic diseases, assuring quality control of water and food, vaccinating travelers to meet International Health Regulations. and training laboratory technicians and assistants. Since INH joined IANPHI in November 2010, Dr. Banla has worked to strengthen disease surveillance, research, staff training, and health promotion.

2010 Pairs

Dr. Francisco B. Tancredi (Brazil) and Fátima Omar Mecupa (Mozambique)

Dr. Francisco Tancredi retired from the Kellogg Foundation in 2008, where he led program development for Latin America. He was responsible for selecting proposals and monitoring projects in the areas of public health, medicine, and nursing and also assisted in leadership development activities, community development, and youth programs.

Tancredi received his MD and PhD in public health at the University of Sao Paulo where he was a professor at the School of Public Health from 1978 to 1998. Between 1983 and 1987, he worked for the Health Secretariat of the state of Sao Paulo, where he led the health planning division. In 1998 he left the university to dedicate full time to the Kellogg Foundation, where he spent 10 years as the regional director for the Latin America and Caribbean program. Since 2008 he has been helping the foundation monitor its projects in Southern Africa, where he was exposed to the public health challenges in Mozambique. With his experience with the Kellogg Foundation, coupled with his experience as a professor and practitioner in public health, Tancredi believes he can help his mentee Fátima Omar Mecupa of the National Institute of Health in Mozambique.

Fátima Omar Mecupa, deputy director for administration and finances at Mozambique’s National Institute of Health (INS), has been chosen to pair with Francisco Tancredi for IANPHI’s mentorship program. She received her bachelor of science in administration and management at the Universidade Politecnica in 2006 and has worked in Mozambique’s Ministry of Health since 2009.  As the newly appointed deputy director for administration and finance, she is responsible for the management of INS. She has been developing new human resource and strategic plans for her institute and hopes to implement a quality management system in the future. She wants to use the IANPHI mentorship program to acquire skills that will allow her to create a stronger human resource foundation at INS while better defining the institute’s strategic plan moving forward.

Samuel Perry (USA) and Dr. Busarawan Sriwanthana (Thailand)

Sam Perry, MPH, served for more than 35 years as a senior public health manager and advisor at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He currently provides technical and managerial consultation to CDC as an associate with a leading U.S. scientific and technical consulting organization. Over the course of his exemplary and highly regarded public health career, Perry has planned, implemented, and managed programs at all levels of the U.S. public health system, and also served as resident technical advisor for WHO and USAID in Southeast Asia and Africa for many years. He has helped implement programs for STI/HIV prevention, TB control, immunization delivery, and bioterrorism preparedness and response. Perry also participated in the founding of the Laboratory Response Network for Bioterrorism and coordinated the recruitment and deployment of international response teams during the SARS outbreak.  Perry has management skills and experience and understanding of the challenges that come with managing public health programs. As a mentor, he will be a great asset as Busarawan Sriwanthana works to gain expertise to help improve the Thai NIH.

Busarawan Sriwanthana is a microbiologist in Thailand’s National Institute of Health who is taking on new responsibilities as a deputy director for technical affairs. Sriwanthana trained at Mahidon University in Thailand and received her PHD in microbiology and immunology at the University of Maryland in the United States.

As a laboratory section chief at NIH, she focused on transfusion-transmitted pathogens, managing and monitoring testing programs for HIV and HCV. In this capacity, she helped institute the IANPHI-funded project to improve regional laboratory services for disease detection in neighboring Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar through scientific exchange and participation in external quality assurance programs.

As a mentee, Sriwanthana hopes to gain skills in policy development, strategic planning, and institutional management and administration. She hopes that the IANPHI mentorship program will “provide a good opportunity to interact and work with experts to enhance the capability of THAI NIH [so it] can become an institute that plays a central role in public health issues in the Southeast Asia region.”

2009 Pairs

 Dr. Oni Idigbe (Nigeria) and Dr. Amabelia Rodrigues (Guinea-Bissau)

Oni Idigbe, former director-general and current director of Research Emmanuel of the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), and Amabelia Rodrigues, president of Guinea-Bissau's national public health institute (INASA), were the first “mentor-mentee” pair named to the IANPHI Mentorship Program. These two public health professionals make an exemplary team, working tirelessly to raise the profile and increase the capacity of their respective institutes and demonstrating a commitment to collaboratively addressing the public health challenges facing West Africa.

A founding member and strong supporter of IANPHI and former member of IANPHI’s executive board, Dr. Idigbe has distinguished himself in Nigeria and internationally as an innovative and transformative leader, a pioneering researcher, and a role model to his colleagues and staff. In his role as IANPHI mentor, Dr. Idigbe is now providing advice and support to Dr. Rodrigues as she guides and leads the creation of a new national public health institute in one of the poorest and most diminished countries in the world. The initial focus of their partnership is on increasing capacity and infrastructure at INASA’s national public health laboratory.

Amabelia Rodrigues was chosen to attend the 2010 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID) in Atlanta as part of its 2010 Leaders Program sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The program is designed to bring to the conference leaders from a number of regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. One of 21 public health leaders chosen against intense competition, Rodrigues is recognized as an outstanding leader who has demonstrated leadership and innovation while overcoming great hardship to advance public health in Guinea Bissau.

Dr. Oman Khan (USA) and Dr. M. Mushtuq Husain (Bangladesh)

Dr. Omar Khan, director of global health and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Vermont, serves as mentor to Dr. Mushtuq Husain, senior scientific officer at the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) and member of the IANPHI-IEDCR project team. An active clinician and academic, Dr. Khan has been recognized for his scholastic achievement, leadership qualities, and service to the global health community. In addition to his primary responsibilities, Dr. Khan works on a variety of other projects, including quality improvement education in teaching hospitals and increased access to primary care in Bangladesh, and he serves as a principal for Writers Without Borders, an initiative to help developing country health professionals communicate their work effectively.

During the first year of their partnership, Drs. Khan and Husain focused on strengthened capacity for public health research – by developing capacity in scientific publication, providing opportunities for scientific presentations and publications, and providing networking opportunities with in-country scientists and peers abroad. Dr. Khan also visited IEDCR, where he facilitated a workshop on scientific writing and publication.

Dr. Richard Rothenberg (USA) and Dr. Mary Mayige (Tanzania)
Dr. Richard Rothenberg, professor of public health at the Institute of Public Health, Georgia State University, is matched with research scientist Dr. Mary Mayige of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR). Dr. Rothenberg worked previously at Emory University as professor of medicine and prior to that spent 25 years at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He is widely recognized for his career-long contributions to the study of the transmission dynamics of sexually transmitted diseases, as well as for his leadership position as associate director for science for CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.

Dr. Mary Mayige’s goal for the mentorship partnership is to enhance her capacity to serve as coordinator for a newly established NIMR project in non-communicable disease surveillance and control. The program plan for Drs. Mayige and Rothenberg focuses on improved capacity in program management, grant writing, and professional networking.