OMNI MED STAFF
Mwebe Edward is the president of Omni Med-Uganda. He is a local resident of Nsumba village, where his parents were born and raised. Trained as a Village Health Team (VHT) Member in May 2009, he has worked tirelessly to educate his neighbors about the critical health issues facing their communities. Now, as Omni Med’s Uganda president, Edward takes the hard work and positive attitude that he practiced at the local level to the larger context of the Sub-County, helping to organize VHT Trainings, coordinate follow-up meetings and quarterly meetings, and provide invaluable input to the direction of the VHT Program.
Hamala Rebecca is the CFO of Omni Med, a resident of Mukono and a 2016 graduate of Makerere University where she earned a degree in Development Studies. After graduation, she worked with Mukono District NGO Forum as an administrative assistant for two years. She joined Omni Med in November 2018. She is passionate about extending a hand to other people and is excited for the opportunity to be a part of Omni Med and help to improve the health of people in different communities of Mukono. She is also interested in reading, writing, travelling, and meeting new people and has a vision to see all people in Uganda living decent and desirable lives.
Dr Kenneth Kabali serves as Omni Med's Medical Officer. Dr Kabali is an MD, MPH trained at Makerere University in Kampala. He lives in Ntinda with his wife and children. Dr Kabali overseas all of Omni Med's operations, teaches & supervises all student volunteers, and helps the staff with strategic vision and execution. He has been a driving force behind our research efforts, and will co-author several research publications with Omni Med. He began working with Omni Med in November, 2015.
Namanda Allan Saul graduated from Kyambogo Univeristy in 2016 with an honors degree in Development Studies. He also holds a certificate in Human Resource Management from Makerere Centre of Business and Management Sciences and completed an internship with Nakisunga sub-county in the Mukono District. He joined Omni Med in December 2018 and serves as our facilities manager and research/field assistant. Allan was previously working as a pump attendant at a petrol station in Mukono for over one year. Allan has enjoyed assisting James O'Donovan with his research and helping bring more health knowledge to the community. His work ethic and ability to fill a variety of roles have made him a wonderful addition to our staff.
Mugabi Henry is our community coordinator. He is from Ssayi village in Ssayi parish and was elected to be the chairman of his village. Henry completed his Advanced level and served as head boy at Helm Senior Secondary School. He is a talented VHT and joined Omni Med staff in March 2018 and has been a wonderful addition to the team. He an effective coordinator and outstanding in all aspects of field work from teaching to construction protected water sources. Henry is married and is expecting his first child soon.
Luyiga Cissy is a VHT for Kiyoola village in Kiyoola parish. She works with Omni Med as a supervisor for VHTs across seven sub-counties that have been trained in taking blood pressure measurements. She also assists in our daily fieldwork by leading quarterly trainings, conducting home visits, and acting as a translator. Initially a part-time worker with us, she became full-time staff in 2021. Cissy is a single mother with four children.
Nalweyiso Elizabeth is our vice president. Prior to taking on this role, Elizabeth was, and remains, an outstanding teacher and translator as we have trained and maintained VHTs over the years. Elizabeth combines compassion with adroit attention to detail and general business savvy. She helps to maintain our master lists of VHTs, protected water sources, and cook stoves. She also serves as a wonderful Luganda teacher for our volunteers. Her background is in business and agriculture; for many years she has run a successful farm in the Bugoye parish.
Dr Edward O’Neil Jr. is an ER Physician at Steward St Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston and an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. He is the author of Awakening Hippocrates and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service. He previously served as Chair of the Health Service Taskforce in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of the Brookings Institution’s International Volunteering and Service Initiative and directs the Omni Med-US operations. He can be reached at ejoneil@omnimed.org
Nalukomo Ruth (left) and Tusubira Judith (right) are both VHTs that have taken on caretaker roles for everyone at Omni Med. They are both wonderful cooks and keep the compound clean. Ruth and Judith always give our volunteers a warm welcome and are considerate and accommodating to any special requests. They are a valuable part of our work and always make sure our staff and volunteers are comfortable.
RESEARCH PARTNERS
Dr. Edison Mwrorozi is a Professor of Pediatrics at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, and a widely respected health leader. He serves as a clinical and research leader through Uganda Chartered HealthNet, also based at Makerere, and has scores of publications on community health, pediatric illness, and public health issues. He is a close partner wtih Omni Med, co-authored Omni Med's first RCT, and second survey trial. He is on staff at Mulago Hospital in Kampala.
Dr. Deo Sekimpi is one of the founding fathers of Uganda's Village Health Team Program. He is a physician and epidemiologist who serves as the Secretary General of the Uganda National Association of Community and Occupational Health (UNACOH) in Uganda. He received the 2012 World No Tobacco Day Award from World Federation of Public Health Associations. He has served in the Ugandan Ministry of Health, at Makerere University's School of Public Health and has scores of publications on numerous public health issues. He has worked closely with Omni Med and served as a mentor and guide to Dr O'Neil, Omni Med staff, and many volunteers. He helped design our VHT maintenance program, advised on all of our research and will be a key contributor in the Enhanced VHT Pilot and Full Trial to start in 2018.
Dr. Alan Penman is a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Mississippi. He has a medical degree from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, an MPH from the University of Alabama, a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Mississippi. Dr Penman has been bringing groups of medical and public health students from the University of Mississippi annually since 2014. He has been involved in research, grant and program design with Omni Med directly for years and is a core collaborator on the ongoing Enhanced VHT Trial. He has over 60 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He travels to Uganda every year with UMMC medical students.
Mr. Patrick Kibaya is a senior associate at Uganda Chartered Healthnet in Kampala, a Ugandan NGO that promotes access to information by healthworkers using information and communication technologies (ICTs). Mr Kibaya coordinated the data collection for Omni Med's first RCT in Uganda and has considerable expertise in monitoring and evaluation. He has served as a frequent consultant to our research in Uganda.
Dr. Benjamin Lough is a Professor and Director of Social Innovation at the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Prior to this, he worked as a senior researcher at Washington University's Center for Social Development. Dr Lough is widely considered one of the world's experts on service abroad. He has authored multiple papers on service and served as epidemiologist on Omni Med's first RCT and our second study authored primarily by Dr. Daniel Mays. He continues to work with the International Forum on Development Service and with the Building Bridges Coalition at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. His research focus remains the impacts of international volunteerism.
Dr. James O'Donovan is a physician who did the field work for his doctoral studies with Omni Med in Uganda. He joined Omni Med in 9/17 as Omni Med's Research Coordinator, and spent parts of 2017-2020 working with us in Uganda. He completed his PhD at Oxford University in the UK in 2021. James received the Velji Award for Emerging Leader in Global Health Innovation from CUGH, and has published multiple papers on e-medicine, and community health workers in multiple journals. He was the primary investigator/ author for Omni Med's Tablet Trial, as well as several other papers. He was also a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard University in the Division of Global Health and Human Rights. He is currently working as a family practitioner in Northeast England through 2024.
Omni Med Research/ Strategic Coordinators
Omni Med has provided a one-year opportunity for recent college graduates to serve in the role of Research/ Strategic Coordinator in Uganda for many years. Zachary Tabb served first in this role while he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in 2008-2009. He subsequently attended medical school at Brown University prior to a residency in Pediatrics at Baylor University in Houston, Texas. The research/ strategic coordinator serves as the liaison between Omni Med staff and visiting volunteers, helps to coordinate research activities, and is intimately involved in all aspects of our programming, including field work. The role provides a unique window into a global health NGO's operations, along with a deep understanding of life in rural Uganda. The coordinator lives in comfortable housing at the Omni Med compound in Makata, Mukono District, with easy access to Kampala or Jinja on weekends. Room and board are provided, along with a monthly stipend. The position is ideal for someone interested in global health before embarking on a career in medicine or public health. Of 6 people who filled this position prior to the Covid Pandemic, four completed medical school and two completed training in public health/ epidemiology. There are only six coordinators pictured here because several Peace Corps Volunteers filled the position partially in between Drs Tabb and Mays, and we did not open the position from 2020-2022 due to the Covid Pandemic. We will reopen the position starting in the summer of 2023. Dr Mays served in the role for 9 months as part of a graduate program from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Dr O'Donovan, above, worked closely alongside Ms. Behringer while he completed his doctoral work at Oxford University, spending nearly a year with us in Mukono. Three of the coordinators have been recent graduates of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
Anyone interested in applying for this position should reach out directly to E O'Neil at ejoneil@omnimed.org
2008-2010
2016-2017
Dr Zachary Tabb graduated from the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University in Rhode Island and is a Pediatric resident at Baylor University in Houston, Texas. He worked with Omni Med for most of his 29 months of Peace Corps service in Uganda in 2008-10, coordinating and leading much of our earliest efforts. He helped us train 406 VHTs serving 73,000 people, and co-wrote our hybrid training manual with Dr Jenny Thompson. In 2011, he worked in the Omni Med office as assistant director. He is a co-author of Omni Med's first RCT, which he helped to design and implement. In 2016-17, Zac was a Fogarty Global Health Fellow in Moshi, Tanzania, working on an NIH trial involving youth living with HIV. He remains actively involved in the Omni Med work in Uganda. Given his extensive experience there and knowledge of the program, his input remains valuable for all.
Margarita Chukhina completed a duel MSW/MPH degree from the University of Maryland prior to joining Omni Med. While working with Omni Med, she facilitated and is a co-author of the 2018 Tablet Trial, in the Research section. Since completing a year at Omni Med, Margarita returned to the US and dove into doing global health work on a larger scale. She spent 1.5 years working with Management Sciences for Health (MSH) but discovered that "global health from the US side can feel very far removed from hands-on direct services." She switched gears and now works as a program manager for So Others Might Eat (SOME Inc.) at one of their supported housing buildings for individuals who were formerly homeless and/or returning citizens.
2018-2019
Hannah Behringer graduated from Bates College in 2015. She served as the Omni Med Research/ Strategic Coordinator from June 2018 to August 2019. It was a challenging year during which Hannah worked with Omni Med staff and many contractors to move our operations into our current compound in Makata. After completing her work with Omni Med, Hannah completed an MPH in Global Epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta in 2018. She currently works for Booz Allen Hamilton in Atlanta.
2014-2015
Dr. Daniel Mays completed his Internal Medicine/Primary Care resident at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. While a GWU Medical student, Class of 2016, he received two prestigious scholarships, the Primary Care Scholarship, and the Lazarus Family Scholarship in Health Care Delivery, through which he undertook graduate studies in global health policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and spent 9 months working with Omni Med in Uganda. While there he performed a study that assessed how VHTs can be better supported in their work and retained over time. Danny also helped Omni Med staff reorganize the budget & administrative structure, and drafted a reading list for incoming volunteers. Danny and GWU student Anne Waldrop, '17, designed the Health Equity Scholars Program, ongoing at GWU currently.
2017-2018
Dr Christina Stiles graduated from Bates College in 2016. She served as the Omni Med Research/ Strategic Coordinator from August 2017 through July 2018. She subsequently attended the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, graduating in May of 2022.
While in Uganda, she helped to coordinate the Tablet Trial and subsequently was the lead author of the paper, "The Use of Low-Cost Android Tablets to Augment In-Service Training of Community Health Workers in Mukono, Uganda: Perspectives and Lessons Learned from the Field." Please see link in Research section.
2019-2020
MacKenzie MacRae graduated from Bates College in 2016, where she majored in Neuroscience and Philosophy. She completed her Masters in Biomedical Sciences from Tufts University in 2019 and then worked in Uganda as the Omni Med Research/ Strategic Coordinator from July 2019 until March 2020 in a Covid-shortened year. MacKenzie coordinated the arrival of many volunteers through January 2020. She is currently a medical student at Tufts University in Boston, MA.