Esther Buregyeya, MBChB, PhD
Affiliated Investigator
Associate Professor
Makerere University School of Public Health
Kampala, Uganda
Dr. Esther Buregyeya is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health at Makerere University School of Public Health. She holds a Ph.D. in Medical Sciences from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and a Master’s in International Health with a focus in Occupational Health from the University of Bergen, Norway.
She completed her Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine (MBChB) from Makerere University, Uganda. She has over 16 years of experience in service including clinical work in a district as a medical officer, teaching, and research. Dr. Buregyeya has a strong background in field research with 10 years of experience designing and implementing community and facility-based research, mainly in TB, HIV, and malaria.
She is also a One Health Champion formerly working with the One Health Central and Eastern Africa (OHCEA) Project-(Current AFROHUN).
Elsa Ghebrendrias, MPH
PhD student Global Health
SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health
Elsa Ghebrendrias is pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Health with a concentration in Global Health in the San Diego State University and University of California San Diego joint doctoral program. Her primary interest is studying the impact of systemic inequities and global policies on vulnerable populations to create and implement holistic interventions that improve health outcomes. This interest is inspired by her experiences as an East African refugee, her work in clinical and epidemiological research, and her efforts in health education within marginalized communities. She is passionate about empowering communities facing serious health challenges complicated by economic, social, and cultural barriers worldwide. Elsa worked with the County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency’s COVID-19 pandemic response team as a contract epidemiologist.
Susan M. Kiene, PhD, MPH
Director, Building Research Initiatives Advancing Global Health Equity
Professor of Global Health
School of Public Health
San Diego State University;
Honorary Professor
Makerere University School of Public Health, Kampala, Uganda
Susan M. Kiene is a Professor of Global Health in the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at San Diego State University School of Public Health. Trained in population health and experimental social and health psychology, Dr. Kiene is a social and behavioral epidemiologist who studies the multilevel (e.g., social environment, behavioral, structural) factors that affect health and inequities in access to health services among underserved and historically marginalized populations. Her research is primarily on infectious diseases (HIV, COVID-19, TB), sexual and reproductive health, alcohol and substance use, and implementation science, with a focus on developing, testing, and preparing for the scale-up of multilevel interventions to improve health and health equity. Recent research has extended this work to associated areas including stigma, mental health, and intimate partner violence. Within these research areas, Dr. Kiene incorporates digital health solutions (e.g., mobile data collection, cloud-based architecture, standardization, personalized interventions) to improve data accessibility, interoperability, and health service delivery in resource-limited settings.
As a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded researcher for two decades, Dr. Kiene has built collaborations with interdisciplinary researchers and communities in Uganda, Nigeria, Brazil, South Africa, and the U.S. Through this research Dr. Kiene and collaborators create opportunities for bidirectional student training and exchange opportunities. In recognition of the longstanding contributions and collaboration with Makerere University School of Public Health in Uganda, Dr. Kiene is appointed as an Honorary Professor.
Before joining SDSU’s School of Public Health in 2015, Dr, Kiene was faculty at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine from 2011-2014 and at Brown University from 2007-2011, where she remains an adjunct faculty member in the School of Public Health.
Having been a first-generation college student, Dr. Kiene is passionate about mentoring students and junior researchers.
Joseph KB Matovu, MHS, PhD
Affiliated Investigator
Senior Research Associate
Makerere University School of Public Health
Kampala, Uganda
Dr. Joseph KB Matovu is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health at Makerere University School of Public Health. He is a Social and Behavioral Epidemiologist by training. He holds a Ph.D in Public Health from Makerere University; a Master of Health Science in International Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work and Social Administration (SWSA) from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Dr. Matovu has experience in the design and implementation of social, behavioral, and epidemiologic research; he is the author of ~109 peer-reviewed scientific papers; he is a peer reviewer for many international scientific journals; he is an Associate Editor with AIDS and Behaviour and BMC Public Health journals; and he is an Academic Editor with PLoS ONE.
Additionally, he is a Commonwealth Professional Fellow at the PRIMENT Clinical Trials Unit, University College London, UK, and a Career Development Fellow supported by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). Dr. Matovu’s research interests include HIV/AIDS (with a particular focus on HIV testing and linkage to HIV care, sexual risk behaviour, HIV incidence, male circumcision for HIV prevention), sexual and reproductive health (with a particular focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, fertility desire, and family planning), social and behaviour change communication (SBCC), migration health, urban health, implementation science, and impact evaluation. Dr. Matovu is passionate about the integration of social and behavioural sciences into epidemiologic research. His research has particularly focused on married couples, men, adolescent girls and young women, adolescent boys and young men, female sex workers, truck drivers, and men who have sex with men.
Amanda P. Miller, PhD, MS
Investigator
Assistant Research Professor
School of Public Health
San Diego State University
Dr. Amanda Miller’s research focuses on the syndemic of alcohol use, intimate partner violence, HIV, and mental health. She is interested in improving access to mental health and substance use services in low-resource high-need settings. These health issues are frequently risk factors for and sequelae of experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and HIV making them especially pertinent health issues in settings where HIV and IPV are prevalent. She is currently supported by a career development award (K01) from the National Institutes of Health to gain expertise in adaptation and implementation of interventions to address this syndemic in global context.
Jamie Moody, MS
Research Manager for BRIDGE
San Diego State University
School of Public Health
Jamie Moody has worked as a research manager with the SDSU School of Public Health in Health Promotion and Global Health for over 25 years. Most of her work has been with community-based research promoting health equity in vulnerable communities. Her experience is highly diverse, encompassing the development of academic and community collaborations, preparation of grant proposals, recruitment and training of student interns from middle school to doctoral levels across various disciplines and universities, and the creation and implementation of community interventions. Jamie was a first-generation college student from a small Midwest rural community. Prior to working in research, she worked as a recreation therapist and a counselor for troubled adolescents.
Rose Naigino, MHSR
Ph.D. candidate in Global Health
SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health
Rose Naigino is a Ph.D. candidate who is now at the tail end of completing her doctoral program in Public Health at San Diego State University (SDSU) and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). Rose has accumulated over 10 years of experience working with diverse HIV subgroups in Uganda including pregnant women, fishing communities, adolescent girls and young women. Her primary interest lies in examining the intersection between alcohol use, HIV and mental health among adolescent girls and young women in low-income settings. Prior to joining the doctoral program at SDSU-UCSD, Rose supported the implementation of several NIH-funded HIV-related research studies in Uganda led by faculty at Makerere University School of Public Health, which is Uganda’s leading Public Health School.
Ijeoma Nwabuzor Ogbonnaya,
MSW, PhD
Affiliated Investigator
Associate Professor
Arizona State University
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Dr. Ijeoma Nwabuzor Ogbonnaya is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. Her research investigates how intimate partner violence (IPV) and IPV services impact health and well-being and how this impact varies across culture, race, and ethnicity. She focuses on populations most vulnerable to IPV, including child welfare system-involved families and people living with HIV. She is the recipient of fellowships through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). She received an NIMH Diversity Supplement to study HIV-related outcomes of women living with HIV in rural Uganda who have experienced IPV and a National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) grant to develop and pilot test a savings group intervention to reduce IPV and depression among young mothers formerly in foster care (sub-project to U54MD002316). She also conducted a feasibility study funded through ASU Watts College. This study aimed to understand if using myPlan, an online risk-informed safety planning intervention, has the potential to assist child welfare caseworkers in intervening appropriately in cases involving IPV. Currently, she is implementing a study in Wakiso District, Uganda to develop and pilot test a couples-based intervention to help adolescent girls and young women living with HIV (15-24 years) access HIV care and improve the outcomes of their HIV treatment by targeting male partner alcohol use to reduce IPV risk. This study is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) (R34AA030489).
Elizabeth Reed, ScD, MPH
Investigator
Professor of Global Health
School of Public Health
San Diego State University
Dr. Elizabeth Reed is a Professor of Global Health at San Diego State University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Trained in social epidemiology, she conducts research related to the intersection of gender inequality, poverty, and health. Specifically, she focuses her research on the social and economic factors influencing gender-based violence and sexual/reproductive health outcomes, including HIV/STI as well as adolescent and unintended pregnancy. She uses the findings of her research to support the development of public health programming to promote economic opportunity, health, and safety. Her research is based in the US, Latin America, South Asia, and Africa.
Katelyn Sileo, PhD, MPH
Affiliated Investigator
Associate Professor
Boston College
Boston, MA, USA
Dr. Katelyn (Katy) Sileo is an Associate Professor at the Connell School of Nursing and faculty in the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. She is trained in global public health, with a geographic focus on sub–Saharan Africa. Her research aims to understand and intervene on multilevel determinants of sexual and reproductive health inequities, with a particular interest in the intersection of gender norms and health outcomes in global settings. Her current work focuses on using community-engaged and mixed methods to develop and evaluate gender-transformative behavioral and health system interventions to improve HIV and family planning outcomes in Uganda.
Prior to joining Boston College, Dr. Sileo was faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She received her Ph.D. in Global Public Health from San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego’s Joint Doctoral Program in Global Health. She was a 2014-2017 NIDA Fellow in HIV/AIDS and substance abuse at the University of California San Diego, a 2016-2017 NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellow, and a 2017-2019 postdoctoral fellow in the Yale AIDS Prevention Training Program (Y-APT) in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University.
Doreen Tuhebwe, MPH
PhD student Global Health
SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health
Doreen Tuhebwe is pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Health with a concentration in Global Health in the San Diego State University and the University of California San Diego joint doctoral program. Her research interests include: 1) disease control and equity in service delivery focusing on HIV among high-risk groups such as fishing communities; 2) understanding drivers of vulnerability such as alcohol use, urbanicity, poverty and climate change, and 3) public health intervention optimization through client preference modeling, people-centered design and community engagement. She is also interested in working with adolescent girls and young women, teaching and student mentorship. She has over 7 years of experience writing research protocols, monitoring field work and experiments, and conducting ethnographic studies resulting in over 20 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Doreen is a founding member of the Women in Global Health-Uganda Chapter and the Makerere University-Master of Public Health Alumni Association, Uganda.
Adriane Wynn, PhD
Affiliated Investigator
Assistant Professor
University of California San Diego
School of Medicine
San Diego, CA, USA
Dr. Adriane Wynn is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California San Diego. Her research interests are related to diagnosing and managing sexually transmitted infections, with a focus on assessing costs, benefits, and cost-effectiveness of interventions. She is also the Principal Investigator of a K01 award through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which supports training on the relationships between alcohol use and HIV as well as integrating infectious disease modeling with cost-effectiveness analysis. Dr. Wynn received her PhD in Health Policy and Management at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
María Luisa “Mari” Zúñiga, PhD
Investigator
Professor, School of Social Work
Co-Director, SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Research on Substance Use
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA, USA
Dr. Zúñiga is professor in the School of Social Work at San Diego State University (SDSU). She serves as the Campus Director of the SDSU-UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Research on Substance Use. She is Co-Principal Investigator and Faculty Development Core Director of the NIH-funded SDSU FUERTE Program, (Faculty United towards Excellence in Research and Transformational Engagement, U54CA267789) and Co-Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the Faculty Development Program “Addiction Scientists Strengthened through Education and Training” (ASSET, R25DA050724) focused on supporting Black and/or Latinx junior faculty. Trained as an epidemiologist, she is a public health researcher with over 20 years of experience in community-based participatory research with communities impacted by migration and communities in the U.S.-Mexico border region. She studies health disparities and healthcare access among vulnerable populations, including Latinx and other minority communities, populations who use substances, and those living with HIV. Her international research collaborations include ongoing work in México and Brazil. Throughout her academic career, she has cultivated expertise in research training of early-stage investigators and creating and supporting academic and research climates and communities that nurture, at their core, diversity and inclusive excellence.
Over the last 20 years Dr. Zúñiga has mentored over 44 junior faculty, 32 (73%) of whom are underrepresented in health-related research; 43 PhD students, 23 of whom are underrepresented; and nine post-doctoral fellows, six from underrepresented groups. Her own background as a Latinx faculty and researcher and over 20 years of experience as a mentor to underrepresented junior faculty gives her an in-depth understanding of how to lead system-level efforts to support scientific workforce diversity.
PhD program in Interdisciplinary Research on Substance Use (IRSU). ASSET. SDSU FUERTE.