Public Health team


Ms. Mary Pat Selvaggio

Director of Health and Research

Ms. Selvaggio has more than twenty-five years’ experience in designing, implementing, managing, and evaluating international health programs with a focus on maternal/child health, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS in Africa. Specialised skills include M&E (including development of results, indicators, and data management systems for measuring program performance, and data quality audit programmes), Data Quality assessments/auditing, Performance Assessments, programme process mapping, programme/project design and evaluation, and management of people, programmes, and organisations. She has many years' direct work experience with bilateral and multilateral donor agencies (including US Government, European Union, UN Agencies) as well as international NGOs, and has extensive knowledge of the southern African HIV/AIDS and public health context.



Ms. Salome Omolo

Associate Director, Public Health

An Economist by profession, Ms. Omolo has extensive management skills and vast experience in research, strategic planning, internal controls, monitoring and evaluation.  Ms Omolo is responsible for providing overall management and programmatic support for Khulisa’s consulting activities in the public health sector.  She previously worked as a Senior Researcher and then Manager at the Research Unit of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, managing a team of researchers who were responsible for advising 18 Committees of the Legislature.  Ms Omolo is well versed in South Africa’s financial regulatory and legal frameworks that ensure districts and provinces manage public resources in an efficient, effective and economical manner.

For over 16 years, Ms Omolo has worked and consulted with financial institutions, government departments, international organizations and small, medium and micro enterprises in various African countries including; Kenya, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa.  She holds Masters Degree in Economics, and a First Class Honours Undergraduate Degree in the same discipline from the University of Nairobi. Ms. Omolo was recently appointed as a judge for the 2008 Enablis National Business Plan Competition.

 
 

Ms. Edna Berhane

Senior Manager Corporate Affairs: Health Specialist

Ms. Edna Berhane has worked in the field of International Development for over 15 years. She has extensive experience in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of health and nutrition programs. Ms. Berhane spent eight years working with ORBIS International, an eye care training organization, where she conducted needs assessments, organized symposia and managed training programmes in many regions of the world including the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and Asia. Prior to coming to Khulisa, Ms. Berhane was responsible for providing oversight to the strategic development and implementation of micronutrient deficiency programmes in Ethiopia and Kenya for the Micronutrient Initiative, an International NGO. More recently, Ms. Berhane has successfully managed a national survey for the South Africa Department of Education covering 525 schools and conducted Data Quality Audits (DQAs) for the PEPFAR programme in South Africa. Ms. Berhane is a member of the South African Monitoring and Evaluation Association (SAMEA) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). Ms. Berhane has a Bachelors degree in Biology with a concentration in Nutrition and Masters Degrees in Public Health and International Affairs.



Mr. Peter Njaramba

Senior Associate, Public Health

 Mr Njaramba is a Public Health specialist and a data quality auditor with a wide range of experience in designing, implementing and managing public health research, as well as monitoring and evaluation of Public Health programmes. He holds a Masters in Public Health from the University of Witwatersrand. Mr Njaramba initially worked for over ten years as a Pharmacist and accumulated a wealth of experience in managing drug supply programs in Kenya. Mr Njaramba has in-depth knowledge of M&E principles and concepts including logic models, indicator definition, research and evaluation methods, Data Management Systems, Data Quality Audits/Assessments and capacity building. He is a practising data quality auditor and an experienced trainer in M&E and Data Quality Systems. He has worked with NGOs and institutions in East, West and Southern Africa that provide a range of services in HIV prevention, care and treatment. He has excellent understanding of the PEPFAR program goals and implementation, USAID and South African Government HIV/AIDS priorities, policies, rules, and regulations. 

 



Mr. Zach Akiy

Technical Specialist: M&E and Research

Mr. Zach. Zeh Akiy is a public health specialist, a trained professional nurse and a certified ISO 9001 Quality Systems auditor with extensive experience in data quality audits and assessments (DQA) and systems or programmes performance assessments. Mr. Akiy completed an MSc Med in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of Witwatersrand, JHB-SA. He has practiced as a professional nurse and worked in a number of heath care clinical settings in Cameroon (CMR) where he obtained a BNS Honours (Bachelor of Nursing Sciences) from the University of Buea. Mr Akiy has participated and presented papers in a number of international forums and conferences including the Copenhagen Consensus 2008 in Denmark, the AMANET research ethics seminar 2008 in Uganda and the SAMEA Conference 2009 in South Africa among others. Before joining Khulisa in September 2008, Mr. Akiy worked as a consultant with Constella Futures (Futures International), Soul City, Compact Communication, Benguella Health and UNIME Health in doing research, data analysis and reporting and providing general M&E technical assistance. At Khulisa, in addition to the above, he has conducted a number of programme evaluations and performance assessments. As a qualified Data Quality Assessor, Zach has conducted DQAs for PEPFAR organizations in South Africa and Swaziland and for the Global Fund in the Comoros Islands, Haiti, South Africa, Malawi and Zimbabwe. He has excellent computer skills and proficient in the statistical packages Epi-info, STATA, SPSS and Atlas ti. Mr. Akiy is fluent in English, French, and Pidgin English with functional knowledge of Latin.


Ms. Cornelia Van Huyssteen

Associate

Ms van Huyssteen joined Khulisa Management Services in 2009 as a Junior Researcher in the Health Division. Ms van Huyssteen has extensive health experience.  Her experiences at Khulisa include working on the South Africa PEPFAR Partners Performance Assessment (SAPPPA) project.  She was also involved in an impact evaluation for the Coca Cola Africa Foundation in South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt. Cornelia was responsible for the qualitative analysis for the impact study.  In addition she has been extensively involved in documenting OLIVE LEAF FOUNDATION’s and REPSSI’s achievements and successes of their work among orphans and vulnerable children.  Cornelia was promoted to Associate in January 2010.Prior to joining Khulisa she worked as a critical care nurse at one of the largest teaching hospitals in the UK, where she was involved in randomised clinical trials.  Participating in research was an integral part of the care offered to patients.  Ms van Huyssteen is currently pursuing a Master degree in Research Psychology at the University of Pretoria. For her master thesis she is exploring issues related to the nature and extent of HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination in FBO.