George Ohabuenyi Abah
PhD, obtained his B/Phil and B/TH respectively from the Pontifical Urban University, Rome; his Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) at The College of Education, Nsukka, Nigeria; his M.A and Ph.D. respectively in Moral Philosophy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). He is currently a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at UNN, and Institute of Public Health, UNN, Enugu Campus (UNEC). His research interests are, environmental ethics, bioethics, virtue ethics, and African philosophy. He has many publications on diverse disciplines.
Emmanuel Nwabueze Aguwa
MD, is a public health physician, consultant, and professor with University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu campus. He was the Director for Institute of Public Health (IPH) which oversees the training of Bioethics postgraduate students. He has been trained in ICH Good Clinical Practice E6 (R2) and completed CITI Program courses like, Human Research - Basic Course, Nigerian National Code for Health Research Ethics; and Responsible Conduct of Research – Basic Course. He was the clinical site (Nigerian) coordinator for a WHO/TDR sponsored multi-centered drug trial. Professor Aguwa currently has over 100 peer-reviewed journal publications.
MD, was the pioneer chairperson of the Zeta-12 Independent Research Ethics Committee (ZIREC) in Nigeria and Pioneer Chair Eastern Nigeria Research Ethics Forum (ENREF). At present he is the Chair College of Medicine Research Ethics Committee (COMREC) University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, which is responsible for bioethics curriculum development for the medical students and research ethics training for resident doctors. He is also the International Bioethics Chair at the College of Medicine University of Nigeria. His area of interest and publications in bioethics include culture, morality and comparative ethics as well as clinical trials in Africa; religion and ethics in health research.
Cornelius Ewuoso
PhD, is a senior lecturer and director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He has research interests in African bioethics and African philosophy. Specifically, Ewuoso has been forcing conversations – through his research – about how various values and theories dominant in Africa may be used to inform ethical conversations not limited to AI and genomic issues.
Jantina de Vries
PhD, is an Associate Professor in Bioethics in the Department of Medicine of the University of Cape Town. Her expertise is in the ethics of African genomics research, and she is currently leading a large program that brings together knowledge from the African humanities with the ethics of new and emerging health technologies. She is a member of the Research Ethics Board of Médecins Sans Frontières, the H3Africa Steering Committee, the Steering Committee of the Global Forum for Bioethics in Research and the Advisory Board for the Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis (CERA) at Stanford University.
Yaw A. Frimpong-Mansoh
PhD, is a Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Sociology, Anthropology, and Philosophy Department at Northern Kentucky University. His research and teaching interests are primarily in the areas of African perspectives of bioethics, healthcare ethics, research ethics; environmental ethics; and African philosophy. His recent book is called Bioethics in Africa: Theories and Praxis. Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2018. He has published and presented in various international journals and conferences on bioethics and research ethics with a particular focus on informed consent in African cultural and health care systems.
Ike Iyioke
PhD, has extensive teaching, collaborative research, and administrative experience both in the U.S., Nigeria, and lately in South Africa, that span almost two decades. This includes teaching stints at Alma College, MI; Department of Public Health, University of Michigan, Flint; and Division of Public Health, Michigan State University (MSU), Flint. His research interests include issues about research subject/participant selection; biomedical research partnerships between the Global South and the Global North; and environmental science and public policy. He has led and participated in international capacity development/research teams with collaborators in Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Vietnam, etc., and applied for external funding with US government agencies (e.g., NIH). Iyioke has authored several publications including, Clinical Trials and the African Person: A quest to re-conceptualize responsibility, (2018) and, Rethinking clinical trials and redefining responsibility for research participants: A focus on Africa (2023).
PhD, is an immunologist and ethicist with 21 years of research experience working with the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tanzania. Currently, Dr. Kafuye serves as the Head of the Department of Laboratory Sciences at NIMR-Mabibo Traditional Medicine Research Centre, facilitating research and quality assurance of herbal medicines. Dr. Kafuye is a former head of the National Health Research Ethics Committee’s Secretariat and former head of the Department of Health Research Coordination and Regulatory Affairs at NIMR. She is currently Co-leading an EDCTP funded project which aims at strengthening capacity of National Regulatory Agencies.
John-Moses Maduabuchi
Dr. Maduabuchi John-Moses Uwanduoma is a well-motivated Bioethicist and Quality Assurance Professional, with ample experience in clinical practice as s a General Practitioner. He has been part of several training courses in Clinical Trials Conduct. He trained under the US-NIH Fogarty International Center (FIC) supported programme at the University of Ibadan, and now teaches post-graduate Bioethics Courses in the University of Nigeria Nsukka. His areas of interest include the Ethics of Genomics Research. John-Moses also heads the Society for Quality Assurance in Nigeria as the Executive Director. He has done a lot to promote the teaching and practice of Bioethics including the initiation of the Eastern Nigeria Research Ethics Forum (ENREF), and directing of a local Contract Research Organization, ZETA-12.
Heidi Matisonn
PhD, is a senior lecturer and philosopher whose main research interests are bioethics and research ethics. She is an executive member of SARETI (South African Research Ethics Training Initiative) which is based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). She is particularly interested in Ethics of Care and how this can be operationalized in healthcare settings. As such, she is developing an ethics training program for nursing students at UKZN. Heidi is also involved in a project to introduce philosophy to the broader public by examining our responses to – and the philosophical justifications for – various social taboos.
Dr. Olivia P. Matshabane is a Neuroethics Researcher at the South African Medical Research Council Genomics of Brain Disorders Extramural Unit within the Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is trained in psychology, bioethics, neuroethics and neuropsychiatric genomics. Her research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the ethical, social, psychological, and cultural implications of neuropsychiatric genomics and neuroscience research. She is the past Chair of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa Fellows Committee, a member of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium: Africa Ethics Working Group and South Africa’s coordinator for the African Brain Data Network.
Ruby Mcharo,
MD, is a Research Scientist at the National Institute for Medical Research-Mbeya Medical Research Center (NIMR-MMRC), Tanzania. She studied Medicine at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences before pursuing a master’s degree in public health/international health) at the University of Nottingham, UK where she is also a Visiting Lecturer. She is also the Secretary of the Mbeya Medical Research and Ethics Review Committee (MMREC). Mcharo is involved in a number of research activities on human cohort studies, medical ethics, clinical research activities on STI s, HIV, HPV and adolescent health.
Thaddeus Metz
PhD, is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He is known for drawing on the African philosophical tradition analytically to address a variety of contemporary moral/political/legal controversies. Metz has had more than 300 works published, with articles in Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Ethik in der Medizin, Monash Bioethics Review, and Developing World Bioethics and chapters in Bioethics in Africa (Vernon Press) and Bioethical Insights into Values and Policy (Springer). His most recent book is A Relational Moral Theory: African Ethics in and Beyond the Continent (Oxford University Press), which includes chapters on both biomedical ethics and research ethics.
Ndivhoniswani Elphus Muade
PhD, is a healthcare practitioner in the field of Dental Therapy. He holds a degree in dental therapy (BDT), master’s degree in philosophy (MPhil), Master of Science in Medicine (MSc MED) and a Doctoral degree in Philosophy (PhD). His interests are in Moral Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Bioethics, and Medical Law. He gives lectures in health ethics and health law to fellow colleagues in the health profession for CPD points and further learning. He is also an accredited Mediator.
is affiliated to the Department of Clinical Trials Control and Pharmacovigilance of the Tanzania Medicines and Medical Devises Authority (TMDA).
Nyanda Elias Ntinginya
PhD, is the Principal Research Scientist and Centre Director at National Institute for Medical Research – Mbeya Region in Tanzania. He is a Co-PI for the ASCEND and SMERT projects.
Tara Mtuy
MPH., is a Social Scientist and a doctoral candidate at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She is working on consortium programs at KCMUCo collaboration with LSHTM.
Mramba Nyindo
is a Professor of Parasitology and Immunology. He is the Chairman of the College Research Ethics Review Committee at KCMUCo.
Tonia Onyeka
MD, is an associate professor of anesthesia, pain medicine and palliative medicine at the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria. She is the pioneer/current Head of the Pain and Palliative Care Unit. Onyeka is a faculty member for the Masters in Bioethics program at the Institute of Public Health, University of Nigeria where she teaches ethics of palliative care at the end-of-life and ethics of research with dying children. She is also a member of the College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee. Her research interests are adult and pediatric palliative care, bioethics, and end-of-life issues.
Rose Mwangi
is a Behavioral Scientist and a beneficiary of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Fogarty Fellowship at the Michigan State University - Center for Bioethics and Social Justice. Mwangi is very passionate about bioethics in Africa and teaches bioethics at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUCo), and in other medical institutions in Tanzania. She is the ethics mentor in several research projects supported by European and Developing countries Partnership (EDCTP). Ms. Mwangi also Co-Chairs the Institute Review Board (IRB) of the joint KCMUCo, Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC); and Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI) in northern Tanzania.
PhD, is Professor of Philosophy and faculty in AgBioResearch and Environmental Science & Policy at Michigan State University. He is Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative, an NSF-sponsored research consortium that investigates philosophical approaches to facilitating interdisciplinary research (http://tdi.msu.edu/), Executive Director of the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Center, a service center at MSU that is the principal locus of Toolbox work, and former Director of the MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity. His research interests include interdisciplinary theory, epistemology, communication and epistemic integration in collaborative, cross-disciplinary research, responsible conduct of research, and linguistic communication between intelligent agents.
Wilber Sabiiti
MD, PhD, is a biomedical scientist and Senior Research Fellow in Medicine at the University of St. Andrews UK. He has over 10 years of infectious disease research experience between UK, EU, and Africa. He currently leads a translational research group focusing on development and field trials of respiratory disease diagnostics. Dr. Sabiiti received his doctorate from University of Birmingham UK, Master of Science in Molecular biology from Free University of Brussels (Flemish) Belgium, and Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Zoology from Makerere University Uganda.
Beatrice Temba
MPH, is a Principal Administrative Officer at the Directorate of Research and Consultancy. She serves as the Secretary to the College Research Ethics and Review Committee at KCMUCo. She is engaged in facilitating research ethics topics particularly on the role of ethics committees among other public health research activities.
Retha G. Visagie
PhD, is a thought-leader in research ethics governance in Africa. She established the University of South Africa’s Research Integrity Office in 2014 and continues to be a catalyst for ethics reform, both nationally and internationally. In the last five years, she has been on a mission to indigenize research ethics governance. To this end, she has advocated for policy changes, conducted research, initiated capacity-building programs for academic staff and research ethics committees, and facilitated social dialogues with the goal of disrupting the research ethics, management, and governance practices that disadvantage Indigenous Knowledge Systems. She is an advisor to various higher education institutions in Africa and remains active as a doctoral supervisor. Retha is a co-editor of Social Sciences Research Ethics in Africa (Springer, 2019).
PhD, is the Director of Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute (KCRI) in Moshi, Northern Tanzania. She is a paediatrician by profession and an Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke Global Health Institute, and at University College Cork’s Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. Prof. Blandina provides mentorship and supervision to several students both within and outside Tanzania who pursue their careers in different health disciplines. She has been involved in leading clinical trials in infectious diseases; TB, HIV, etc., and works with other multidisciplinary epidemiological studies within the Directorate of Research and Consultancies at KCMUCo. She has a passion for building and supporting capacity for Bioethics training and has been the Principal Investigator of the SMERT Project.