External Advisory Board

Moses Bockarie, Chair

Professor Moses John Bockarie joined European and Developing Countries Clinical Trial Partnership (EDCTP) as Director of South-South Cooperation and Head of Africa Office on 1 July 2016. Prof. Bockarie, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, is a specialist in the field of neglected infectious diseases and an internationally experienced researcher. He has worked in many countries in Africa, Europe and the Pacific region, and in the United States of America. He is the 2016 recipient of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Mackay Medal for outstanding work in tropical health. Professor Bockarie is also Chair of the WHO/TDR Scientific Working Group for Vectors, Environment and Society and a member of the WHO Regional Programme Review Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases in the African Region. Before joining EDCTP as a Director, Moses Bockarie was a member of the independent EDCTP Scientific Advisory Board. He was Director of the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Professor of Tropical Health Sciences at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), United Kingdom from 2008 to 2015. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from the University of Sierra Leone and a Masters and PhD in tropical health sciences from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Prof. Bockarie worked on various research programmes on malaria and other neglected diseases in Sierra Leone, before taking up an appointment at the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, becoming Principal Research Fellow in Medical Entomology and Head of the Vector Borne Disease Unit in 1996. In 2005 he joined the Centre for Global Health and Diseases, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Ohio, USA as Visiting Professor, where he continued his research on neglected diseases until his appointment in Liverpool in 2008.

Abraham Mnzava

Dr Abraham Mnzava is currently the senior malaria coordinator at the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA). Until the end of July 2016, Dr Mnzava was the Coordinator, Entomology and Vector Control unit within the WHO Global Malaria Programme. He has 36 years of experience in malaria control. Twenty years of these were spent in a number of malaria endemic countries in Africa (Tanzania, Kenya and South Africa) before joining the WHO in 2001. Dr Mnzava worked in two of the six Regional Offices of WHO (AFRO and EMRO) before his final assignment at WHO headquarters. In his final assignment in WHO, Dr Mnzava was responsible for leading and coordinating the policy setting process for malaria vector control. Dr Mnzava understood the challenges that national malaria and other vector-borne disease control programmes faced and was committed to responding to these challenges based on the available evidence. Dr Mnzava has conducted research initially focusing on the biology, behaviour and ecology of the African malaria vectors and later on the impact of the key malaria vector control interventions – including treated nets and indoor residual spraying. He has published extensively (over 120 scientific articles) in malaria as well as on other vector-borne diseases such as dengue, leishmaniasis, lymphatic filariasis and chikungunya. He holds a Bachelor and a Master of Science Degree in Biology from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a Master of Science in Medical Entomology and Parasitology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK and a PhD from the University of Basel, Switzerland. He is passionate on building capacity in entomology and vector control and believes that unless addressed, this gap is a ticking bomb! Dr Mnzava believes in his continued engagement with national and inetrnational partners to address this gap, especially in Africa where the need is huge

Erica Di Ruggiero

Dr. Erica Di Ruggiero is the Director of the Office of Global Public Health Education & Training at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Director of the Collaborative Specialization in Global Health and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Social and Behavioural Health Science. Her research interests include:

  • Study of population health interventions (policies, programs), their health and health equity impacts
  • Relationship between context and population health interventions
  • Social and economic policies influencing decent work at the global level
  • Global agenda setting in policy
  • Population health intervention and implementation research
  • Qualitative research and mixed methods research; discourse analysis
  • Knowledge utilization and exchange strategies to influence public health decision-making at national and global levels

Sarah Rees

Dr. Sarah Rees manages the IVCC portfolio of development projects aimed at producing new active ingredients with novel modes of action for sustainable vector control. She focuses on products that have been shown to have an impact in blocking indoor transmission such as LLINs and long lasting IRS formulations. Sarah works closely with industrial and academic partners.

Sarah joins IVCC following a 30 year career in agrochemical research and development with Syngenta and its legacy companies. She has held a variety of biotechnology and crop protection R&D roles and has considerable experience in technical management and portfolio leadership in all aspects of product development, from the generation and evaluation of ideas to project management from discovery through to launch. Sarah has a degree in Plant Sciences from King’s College, London and a PhD in Phytochemical Insect Antifeedants from Reading University.

Graham Sandford

Prof. Graham Sandford is a Professor in the Dept. of Chemistry at University of Durham. His area of expertise is organoflourine chemistry, and he is the Scientific Coordinator of another GCRF grant under the same call developing new drugs for NTDs.