Union Courses: faculty

Dr. Tara C. Bouton is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine of Boston University and an attending physician in the Section of Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Bouton’s research focuses on the impact of HIV infection and substance use on evolution and transmission of drug resistant tuberculosis and improving outcomes in these diseases. She is also working to better understand transmission and viral dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variants. She has lived and worked in Brazil, Ghana, Botswana, and South Africa.

Dr Miranda Brouwer is a public health medical doctor with over 20 years’ experience in clinical medicine and public health, and in supporting tuberculosis and HIV programmes. She is an analytical thinker with a practical approach to problem solving. She is able to make complex (medical) material understandable for all levels. She is a calm, flexible and reliable person with a good sense of humour, and focused to meet the objectives, and has strong abilities in planning, organising and monitoring.

Dr E. Jane Carter has dedicated her career to tuberculosis. She is both an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University, USA, and Director of the Brown Kenya Medical Exchange Programme at Moi University, Kenya. In Rhode Island she worked with the Department of Health sponsored TB Clinic for over 22 years. She is a past president of The Union. In recognition of her global health work, she was awarded the World Lung Health Award from the American Thoracic Society in 2013. Her TB work has focused on active case finding in resource limited areas as well as improving the care cascade for paediatric care and prevention.

Sheilla Chebore has a master's degree in medical microbiology and is currently doing a PhD. Sheilla has over 20 years’ experience in the field of laboratory science, working in diagnostic clinical settings, research settings and public health programmatic settings both in public, international agencies and non-profit organizations. Sheilla also has over 10 years’ experience in public health programmatic settings with extensive knowledge in TB, HIV, AMR and COVID 19 laboratory diagnostics. She has supported and consulted for the Kenyan National Tuberculosis Lung and Disease Programme (NTLD-P) and national public health laboratories.

Dr Chen-Yuan Chiang is a clinician specialising in respiratory and critical care medicine. He is a member of the Core Group of Global Drug-Resistant TB Initiative, the TB Technical Advisory Group of WHO Western Pacific Region, the Regional GLC in the Western Pacific, and the Technical Review Panel, Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Taipei Medical University. He is the Course Director of the international course on Clinical and Programmatic Management of DR-TB.

Dr Riitta Dlodlo has worked in both clinical and programmatic TB, TB-HIV and management of health services and projects for over 30 years in Zimbabwe and other sub-Saharan African countries. She joined The Union in 2003 and held various roles. Riitta coordinates the development of Union publications, leads and develops content for Union courses and provides advice in all aspects of TB. She is the course director of the Principles of TB Care and Prevention: Translating Knowledge to Action.

Steve Graham has served as a senior consultant in child tuberculosis and lung health for The Union since 2008. He is a paediatrician with over 20 years’ experience in clinical and operational research and training in tuberculosis and pneumonia in both the African and Asia-Pacific regions. Steve is currently based at the University of Melbourne and The Burnet Institute in Australia.

Anthony David Harries is Senior Advisor at The Union and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK. He is a physician and registered specialist in the UK in infectious diseases and tropical medicine. He spent over 20 years living and working in sub-Saharan Africa. His main interests are in the field of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases, tropical medicine and operational research.

Einar Heldal was with the national TB programme in Nicaragua, a model programme for DOTS development, from 1987 to 1990. He was the head of the TB registry in Norway from 1994-2005. Since then, Einar has been an independent TB consultant, part time with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. He has extensive international experience in TB programme support and reviews, long-term in Russia, East Timor and Zimbabwe. Einar worked with WHO and many non-governmental organisations, especially in recording and reporting, use of routine TB data for management, operational research, MDR-TB, LTBI, ethics, migration, and prison health. He has published on TB epidemiology, TB mortality and BCG vaccination.

Dr Stephen John has been active in TB, Leprosy and HIV control in Nigeria since 2003, having served as a TB Programme Manager and an HIV Agency Executive Secretary. Stephen is currently a Health Ministry Director of Planning, Research and Statistics. Stephen has served as a trainer at the National TB and Leprosy Training Center Zaria, Nigeria, a mentor to State TB and Leprosy Programme Managers and a university teacher. He has been a consultant for several organisations and is presently serving as a technical consultant to the United Nations Office for Project Services.
Stephen is a graduate of Medicine, has a Master of Public Health/International Course in Health Development and a has Professional Diploma in Education. Dr Jhon serves as a member of the Board of Directors of The Union.

Dr Kobto Ghislain Koura is a medical epidemiologist. He has participated in the management of international projects and his work over these years has focused on diseases, including malaria and anaemia, in low-income countries. He also completed a post doctorate in epidemiology at Claude Bernard University in Lyon, France. Since joining The Union in 2013, his work has focused on technical assistance, operational research and education, addressing the challenges of tuberculosis in Francophone African countries. He also serves as faculty member in several courses in France and he is associated researcher to MERIT Laboratory, a laboratory of The IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), a French research organism.

Dr Ajay Kumar is a seasoned Public Health Practitioner with over 24 years of experience in low- and middle-income settings. He currently leads the Centre for Operational Research of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. In the past, he has worked for WHO-India as a consultant for providing technical assistance to the Government of India’s National Tuberculosis Programme, particularly in leading TB-HIV co-ordination activities. He is an author/co-author of over 250 publications, with many contributing to a change in policy/practice and has facilitated over 100 national and international courses on operational research.

Rebecca Chou-Jui Lin is a pulmonologist working in Taoyuan General Hospital, Ministry of Health and Welfare and one of the lead physician of the five MDRTB teams in Taiwan. She had also participated in the DRTB workshop and technical assistance in Vietnam and the Philippines. Over the years, her patients had taught her how to appreciate simple but important things in life: a genuine smile, a few kind words, and a cup of good coffee, from which we can all find courage to move on.

Dr C. Patricia Macias has worked for The International Union since 2014 as a faculty member for several Union TB courses. She is the Medical Director for the Tuberculosis Unit at The Cook County Department of Public Health in the Chicago area of Illinois. She is dedicated to providing care to the immigrant and disadvantaged population of the region. She is a full time Physician at the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, where she works as an Academic Pulmonary Doctor.

Nqobile Mlilo is the monitoring and evaluation specialist at The Union Zimbabwe Trust. He provides technical support to the Zimbabwe National TB Control Program and has been working in the field of public health monitoring and evaluation of TB/HIV programs for 19 years.

Dr Ignacio Monedero is a medical doctor specialised in family and community medicine. He has been involved in NGO projects in developing countries, especially in tropical and infectious diseases. He has worked in more than 35 countries providing technical assistance, MDR-TB and TB-HIV trainings and supporting operational research projects. He has been involved in the writing of several Union guidelines, including TB-HIV and MDR-TB, in addition to different MDR-TB papers.

Divya Nair is an Operational Research Fellow at The Union. She is a medical doctor with post graduate degree in Community Medicine. She has close to a decade’s experience of designing and managing community-based multi-site multi-partner research projects related to epidemiology, public health and policy research. She is trained in Good Clinical Practices and regulatory guidelines governing the ethical conduct of biomedical and clinical research in India.

Dr Moorine Penninah Sekadde is a paediatrician and public health expert with more than 15 years of experience in clinical care, capacity building, research, design and implementation of public health interventions. Her current focus area is child and adolescent TB including aspects of integration within Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH). She is a core team member on the WHO child and adolescent TB technical work group as well as a WHO STAG-TB member.

Tafadzwa Priscilla Sibanda is a Public Health Specialist with a decade of experience in the health sector in Zimbabwe. She has worked through the various levels of health services from an intern at a tertiary hospital to positions at the district level for four years and MCH/TB/HIV programme manager at the provincial level for four years. Tafadzwa has been involved in both clinical and programme management, as well as monitoring and evaluation of these programs.

Dr Pranay Sinha is an Infectious Diseases physician and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University. He has been involved in TB research since 2014 and his primary interest is in the relationship between undernutrition and TB. Through epidemiological studies & health economic modelling, he hopes find ways to use nutritional policy to end TB. Dr Sinha has field experience in India, Benin, Togo, and South Africa.

Annika Sweetland is a social worker and Assistant Professor of Clinical Sociomedical Sciences in Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons/Mailman School of Public Health. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the TB and Mental Health Working Group at The Union. For the past 20 years, she has conducted global mental health work in Latin America, Africa and the United States, with a topical focus on TB and depression.

Pruthu Thekkur is a Senior Operational Research Fellow at the Centre for Operational Research (COR) at The Union. He is a medical doctor with MD in Community Medicine. He has a decade’s experience in leading multiple operational research projects in collaboration with various national governments, research institutes, and international NGOs in the South-East Asia and Africa region. He is a senior mentor for Structured Operational Research Training Initiative (SORT IT) and has mentored about 50 public health professionals from more than 15 countries.

Dr Mahalakshmy T is a medical doctor and currently teaches at the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, in Puducherry, India. She has expertise in epidemiology, qualitative research, medical education research and operational research. She is pursuing her fellowship in Health Policy and Systems Research. She has around 10 years of experience in designing and mentoring public health research projects for MD and MPH students. Her areas of interest are cancer epidemiology, adolescent health and tuberculosis.

Collins Timire is a Senior Operational Research Fellow at The Union, seconded to the National TB Programme, Zimbabwe. He recently completed a PhD at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK. In addition, he holds a Master of Public Health and a Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science. Collins is adept at both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Collins has more than 60 publications in peer reviewed journals, and is a recipient of the New Zealand Development Scholarship and the Fogarty Fellowship, National Institute of Health, USA.

Dr Yarly is a dedicated advocate for individual interests within complex systems, bringing invaluable expertise in capacity development, coaching, and leadership enhancement. With a robust background as an Organizational Development consultant, she has successfully facilitated people-centered initiatives globally for over fifteen years. Her role as faculty focuses on crafting content that drives sustainable structural change, particularly in the domains of Global Health and Education.

Stella Zawedde-Muyanja is a medical doctor and research scientist based at the Infectious Diseases Institute, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda. Her primary research focus is implementation research to improve delivery of and access to TB care services. While working with the Union Uganda, she led the pilot implementation of a project to decentralize child TB services in Uganda (the DETECT Child TB project). Dr. Zawedde-Muyanja has worked with the Uganda NTLP on a number of initiatives to improve provision of TB care services.