Prof Taryn Young,
distinguished Professor at Stellenbosch University, has a driving passion to enhance capacity to advance the conduct of and use of relevant research. She has experience in coordinating international and national collaborative projects which facilitate the use of best evidence in healthcare policy and practice. She leads the Centre for Evidence-Based Health Care, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and the Department of Global Health, at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Email: tyoung@sun.ac.za
Prof Peter Nyasulu, PhD MScMed MACE: An Infectious Diseases Epidemiologist in the Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, Department of Global Health, within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is a Member of American College of Epidemiology and have a passion for mentorship and capacity building of future research leaders in control of infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. Our training programs at Stellenbosch University create an exciting platform for research and development through harnessing creativity and innovative approaches in problem solving.
Email: pnyasulu@sun.ac.za
Prof Celeste Naude, PhD (Nutritional Sciences), MNutr (cum laude); BScDiet. Celeste is an associate professor at the CEBHC, Co-director of Cochrane Nutrition, and a registered dietician (SA; UK). Her academic interests, research and experience include evidence-informed decision-making in policy and practice for nutrition, health and other sustainable development outcomes. Celeste is involved in African and international research networks via Cochrane and the Research, Evidence and Development Initiative (READ-It). She collaborates on the conduct of systematic reviews and projects related to evidence-informed decision-making. Celeste is an Associate Editor of Cochrane EPOC and Nutrition Journal (BMC), a member of the SA GRADE Network, the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa and NutriRECS. She is a peer-reviewer for national and international journals, and a post-graduate supervisor.
Email: cenaude@sun.ac.za
Prof Tonya Esterhuizen has an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University. She has 20 years' experience as a biostatistician and is passionate about improving research capacity and empowering students in biostatistical methodology. She provides biostatistical consulting, participates in collaborative research, and teaches and supervises students on both under- and postgraduate level. Working with local and international Cochrane Review authors and groups, she assists in the reviewing and writing of systematic review protocols and meta-analysis of data. She is an elected member of the International Statistics Institute and reviewer for the Health Research Ethics Committee at Stellenbosch University. Tonya has many collaborative publications in applied biostatistics and epidemiology, in various health disciplines, and her research interest is in alternative paradigms to Null Hypothesis Significance Testing.
Email: tonyae@sun.ac.za
Dr Carl Lombard is a Senior Biostatistician. He has been involved in the design, analysis, reporting and training in pragmatic trials and surveys at national, provincial and local community settings in South Africa. He also has experience in the evaluation of national programs in South Africa such as the HIV antenatal survey and the MTCT program. He has experience in the data management requirements to ensure the integrity of the data used for inference is valid and complete within the sampling and testing done in the field as well as experience of pragmatic trials in HIV, TB and NCD care and prevention including mental health. In total he has more than 30 years of experience working in the field of biostatistics and has collaborated on many training workshops related to biostatistics, research methodology and pragmatic trials.
Email: cjlombard@sun.ac.za
Dr Anke Rohwer is a senior researcher. She has a background in midwifery (BCur) and Clinical Epidemiology (MScClinEip) and graduated with a PhD in Public Health in March 2018. As part of her PhD, she investigated perceived and actual health research reporting practices related to authorship, conflicts of interest and plagiarism in low-and middle-income countries. Her other research activities include conducting systematic reviews on the effects of interventions, systematic reviews of qualitative research, overviews of systematic reviews and scoping reviews. Anke is particularly interested in systematic review methodology and currently acts as a methods editor for Cochrane Public Health. Anke develops and implements training on evidence-based health care and public health, systematic reviews and research integrity for students and healthcare professionals at various levels in South Africa and various other African countries.
Email: arohwer@sun.ac.za
Ms Anel Schoonees is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care, Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa. She has a background in food science and dietetics, and holds master's degrees in nutrition and in clinical epidemiology. She teaches evidence-based health care and research methods to under- and postgraduate students, healthcare professionals and other healthcare decision-makers; conducts health research including systematic reviews; and is involved in knowledge translation activities to promote the uptake of evidence from systematic reviews by healthcare decision-makers. Anel promotes lifelong learning and is currently undertaking her PhD in Public Health.
Email: anelschoonees@sun.ac.za
Dr Michael McCaul, PhD, MSc Clin Epi, BTech EMC, is a clinical epidemiologist and emergency care clinician by background. As a senior lecturer in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, much of his works involves postgraduate teaching, research synthesis, knowledge translation and biostatistical consulting. His interests include meta-epidemiological research, evidence synthesis and guideline development. Michael has experience in conducting systematic reviews and has contributed as a guideline methodologist in various topics, including for the World Health Organisation. Michael co-coordinates the MSc Clin Epi programme and convenes various postgraduate modules and short courses. Michael is a section editor for AFJEM, member of the SA GRADE Network and G-I-N. In his spare time, Michael enjoys gaming and trying to convince his daughter that he is not a rideable dinosaur.
Email: mmccaul@sun.ac.za
Dr Moleen Dzikiti qualified as a nurse in 2004 at the Moleen, BScNS, BCom Applied Statistics, MSc Clinical Epidemiology, MSc Biostatistics, PhD, is a trained epidemiologist – biostatistician. Her work involves many diverse roles – 1) conducting primary and secondary research, 2) biostatistics collaboration, 3) capacity building and 4) teaching. Her primary research interests include: design and analysis of observational studies, and clinical trials using both the classical and bayesian approaches. Her goals are to contribute to a society by generating research evidence for policy formulation and guiding clinical practice decision making, especially in people who are disproportionally affected by HIV/AIDS.
Email: moleenz@sun.ac.za
Dr Marianne Visser is a part-time senior researcher and registered dietician with a Master's degree in epidemiology and a PhD (public health) from the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape, respectively. She conducts systematic reviews and other methodological research related to public health nutrition. As member of Cochrane nutrition, she is involved in a number of knowledge translation activities, promoting and disseminating nutrition evidence. She is a postgraduate examiner and a peer-reviewer for national and international journals.
Email: mevisser@sun.ac.za
Dr Susan van Wyk is a part time researcher at the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care. She has a background in medicine and epidemiology. As part of the Research, Evidence & Development Initiative (READ-It), Susan collaborates in conducting TB related systematic reviews and qualitative evidence syntheses to inform national and international guidelines. She also teaches evidence-based health care and screening & diagnosis methodology to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Email: susanvanwyk@sun.ac.za
Dr Amanda Brand is a researcher at the CEBHC, a research associate at PenTAG (University of Exeter), and the field coordinator for Cochrane Nutrition (CEBHC/South African Medical Research Council). She holds an MSc in clinical epidemiology and a PhD in health-related water microbiology. She has experience in industry and academic settings, having worked as the head of an analytical laboratory before returning to academia; where she conducts health technology assessments as well as systematic reviews, translates synthesised evidence and disseminates these findings. Amanda has been involved in guideline development for the World Health Organization internationally; and supports evidence-informed decision-making within the South African National Department of Health and the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence at national levels.
Email: asbrand@sun.ac.za
Mrs Liesel Floor is the project manager for the Biostatistics Unit. She is responsible for the day-to-day running and all the logistics regarding the Unit and their activities. She is also responsible for the administration of the MSc Biostatistics as well as organizing various workshops.
Email: lieselfloor@sun.ac.za
Mrs Traci Naidoo is the project manager at the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care and Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is responsible for coordinating the day-to-day running of the Centre and Division.
Email: tracin@sun.ac.za
Mrs Anthea Henry the administrator for the MsC Clinical Epidemiology, MsC in Epidemioloy and PhD in Epidemiology programmes.
Email: ahenry@sun.ac.za
Dr Innocent Maposa is a Senior Biostatistician with close to 15 years of university teaching and providing biostatistical consulting services. His interests encompass application and development of biostatistical methods in addressing epidemiological problems. Focus areas include survival data analysis, longitudinal data analysis, spatial analysis as well as Joint modelling. Further interests include Data Science, Quantitative epidemiology, Meta analysis and Mathematical modelling. Dr Maposa has vast experience in the design of observational studies including prospective studies targeting key populations and evaluating effectiveness of interventions. In addition, he has experience analysing randomized clinical trials (RCTs).
Email: imaposa@sun.ac.za
Dr Idriss Ibrahim Kallon, PhD (Public Health), MTech (Environmental Health), BSocSc (Sociology; Development Studies Specialisation), BA (History & Political Sociology) is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Evidence-based Health Care (CEBHC) since January 2021. Idriss participates in several research projects at the CEBHC including an audit of the MSc Clinical Epidemiology course, publication practices of Cochrane authors in sub-Saharan Africa, systematic and scoping reviews on different health topics. With a background in social and health sciences, he has coordinated education development programmes in both disciplines for students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) from 2014-2018 (Department of Sociology) and 2019-2020 (The School of Public Health & Family Medicine). During his former postdoctoral fellowship at UCT linked to his research interests, he was involved in a collaborative and multidisciplinary research project in TB Infection Prevention and Control in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in 2019-2020 that led to several publications; four of which he co-authored.
Email: kalloni@sun.ac.za
Daniel Mashishi is a nGap lecturer within the Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics. His educational achievements include structured MSc in Mathematical Science (UWC - AIMS Stream) and MSc in Statistics (University of Limpopo). His duties include research, teaching, biostatistical consulting and student supervision.
Email: dmashishi@sun.ac.za
Jimmy Volmink is a Professor of Global Health and a former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University. He was the Founding Director of Cochrane South Africa. He began his professional career as a general practitioner caring for socially disadvantaged communities in rural Swaziland and townships in Cape Town. In addition to his medical degree from the University of Cape Town he holds an MPH degree from Harvard University and a DPhil in Epidemiology from the University of Oxford. He is a Member of the Academy of Science of South Africa and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He has been honoured with a Leverhulme Medal for Distinguished Contribution from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, SAMRC President’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lifetime Chancellor’s Award for sustained excellent career performance from Stellenbosch University. He has been awarded an honorary doctorate from KU Leuven, Belgium in recognition of his work to promote human dignity and his contribution to science and practice to improve health and well-being.
Email: jvolmink@sun.ac.za
