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The IDEAS team was led by Professor Tanya Marchant and Professor Joanna Schellenberg, and based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and University College London and in Addis Ababa, Delhi, Lagos and Abuja.
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Professor Tanya Marchant

IDEAS Principal Investigator and Professor

Tanya is the Principal Investigator for the IDEAS project. She carries out implementation science to improve the effectiveness of programmes for maternal, newborn and child health, drawing on her training in demography and epidemiology. She lived and worked in sub-Saharan Africa for 15 years and is now based at the...

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Professor Joanna Schellenberg

IDEAS Co-Principal Investigator and Professor

Joanna is the Co-Principal Investigator of the IDEAS project. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of public health interventions for newborn, infant, child, and maternal survival in low and middle income countries, including evaluation of equity as well as effectiveness.

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Dr Bilal Avan

Associate Professor

Bilal is the IDEAS Data Informed Platform for Health and Community Based Newborn Care Evaluation Lead.

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Dr Della Berhanu

Assistant Professor

As the IDEAS Ethiopian Country Coordinator, Della worked closely with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and its partners. Dr Bilal Avan and Della led the evaluation of the Ethiopian Government’s Community Based Newborn Care programme, which includes antibiotic treatment of newborns with suspected bacterial infection by...

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Mehret Dubale

Research Fellow

Mehret has been trained in public health for development and is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Within the IDEAS project, Mehret’s work focuses on the Data Informed Platform for Health (DIPH) project, which aims to promote the use of local data for decision-making, priority-setting and planning; and to provide the...

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Professor Zelee Hill

Professor

Zelee’s research spans several areas of maternal, child and neonatal health including care seeking, micronutrient supplementation, adherence to anti-retroviral therapy, improving the performance of community health workers, and community newborn care. At its core her research has focused on interventions that can...

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Noreen Seyerl

IDEAS Communications Officer

Noreen is a development professional with experience working in global health communication. She takes care of communicating research results and findings to our audiences and keeping you updated with the latest news from IDEAS.

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Dr Nasir Umar

IDEAS Nigeria Country Coordinator and Assistant Professor

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Seblewengel Lemma Abreham

Research Fellow

Seble is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she works on collaborative implementation research projects using mixed methods and with an aim to embed capacity development components within her research. She conducts this research and provides mentoring and teaching in collaboration with the Ethiopian Public Health...

Mark Coombes

Project manager

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Abimbola Ayodele Olaniran

Research Fellow

Abimbola is based in Lagos, Nigeria working on understanding quality improvement in Lagos state. The two-year project is funded by the Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation and seeks to understand a quality improvement programme of maternal and newborn health services in Lagos state health facilities. It entails...

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Antoinette Bhattacharya

Antoinette’s work on the IDEAS project focuses on strengthening the quality of routine maternal and neonatal health data in Gombe State, Nigeria. She has lived and worked in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa for 10+ years, overseeing initiatives to improve health service delivery for women and children.

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Deepthi Wickremasinghe

Research Fellow

With great sadness we have to announce the death of our colleague Deepthi Wickremasinghe on 2 April 2020. Deepthi had been an integral part of our team since the beginning of the IDEAS project in 2011 and will be greatly missed. Deepthi specialised in qualitative research, systematic literature reviews, and information...

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Dr Barbara Willey

Assistant Professor in Epidemiology

Barbara is an epidemiologist with training in epidemiology during both her MSc and PhD. She works on impact evaluation of complex interventions to improve health service delivery, with a focus on maternal and newborn health. Within the IDEAS project Barbara’s work focuses on Nigeria and covers four main streams:...

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Dr Neil Spicer

Associate Professor

Neil Spicer is a Lecturer in Global Health Policy at the Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and has 15 years experience of qualitative health policy and systems research in the UK and low- and middle-income countries including India, Ethiopia, Nigeria,...

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Emma Beaumont

Research Fellow in Medical Statistics

Emma works across several large scale impact evaluations with both randomised and non-randomised designs. With a particular interest in complex interventions, Emma’s work focuses on a variety research areas, including maternal and newborn health and neglected tropical diseases. For the IDEAS project Emma provides both...

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Fanny Procureur

Research Fellow in social sciences (UCL)

Fanny has a background in Anthropology and has experience working on evaluations using qualitative methodologies.  With a particular interest in implementation research, Fanny’s work has focused on varied research areas, including maternal health, drug use among minors and child protection in East and West Africa....

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Faran Dhaliwal

Trials Assistant

Faran works in the Clinical Trials Unit and is involved in the data management of a number of randomised controlled trials. For the IDEAS project Faran provides data management support for the Community Based Newborn Care Evaluation in Ethiopia and IDEAS work in Gombe State, Nigeria.

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Jack Howlett

Project Coordinator

Jack is the Project Coordinator for the IDEAS project. He has a number of years of experience successfully supporting the delivery of projects within the international development sector. Jack provides project management, administrative and financial support to the IDEAS project.

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Josephine Exley

Research Fellow

Within the IDEAS project Josephine’s work focuses on Nigeria. She works on methodological work to improve measurement for maternal and newborn health; tracking progress in coverage to help stakeholders identify and focus on key objectives; supporting the use of evidence for decision making at multiple levels; and,...

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Krystyna Makowiecka

Krystyna organises the bi-annual data-driven learning workshops in Gombe State, Nigeria and is looking at the programmatic effect of this work in the State Primary Health Care Development Agency and among the implementation projects that support its work. She has a professional background in education and 15 years’...

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Matthew Quaife

Assistant Professor

Matthew is an Assistant Professor in Health Economics working with IDEAS in Ethiopia to explore the impact of a quality improvement intervention on health worker motivation. He holds a PhD in Health Economics from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), which estimated the cost-effectiveness of...

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Suzanne Welsh

Project Manager

Suzanne has over 12 years experience managing international health projects in the UK, Australia, sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Pacific.  On IDEAS, her major responsibilities are in the areas of project management, financial management, contracts, governance, relationship management, reporting, human resource...