ASSET External Advisory Group
Prof Oye Gureje is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria and Director of World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health, Neurosciences, Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
He is a member of the WHO International Advisory Group for the Revision of ICD-10 Chapter on Mental and Behavioural Disorders, Chair of the Workgroup on Somatic Distress and Dissociative Disorders and Vice Chair of the Field Studies Coordinating Group of the revision exercise.
He plays a leading role in mental health policy development in Nigeria as the Chair of the Federal Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Action Committee. A Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Science, he was, in 2008, conferred with Nigeria’s highest award for academic achievement, the Nigeria National Order of Merit, by the country’s President for his contributions to medicine.
Prof Gavin Yamey is the Professor of the Practice of Global Health and Public Policy, Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health based in Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI). Prof Yamey currently serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis. He previously served on two international health commissions, the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health and the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery.
He has been an External Advisor to the WHO and to TDR, the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. He directs the Global Health Track in Duke’s Program on Global Policy and Governance in Geneva.
Prof Brian Mittman is a research scientist in the Department of Research & Evaluation with additional affiliations at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the University of Southern California, and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he co-leads the UCLA Clinical and Translational Science Institute Implementation and Improvement Science Initiative.
He was a founding member of the U.S. Institute of Medicine Forum on the Science of Quality Improvement and Implementation and chaired the National Institutes of Health Special Emphasis Panel on Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health in 2007 and 2010.
He is a member of Methodology Committee, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute; Co-chair of International Advisory Board, SPOR Evidence Alliance, Canada; and a member of the Board of External Experts, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
Charlene Sunkel is a global voice for the rights of people with mental health conditions/ lived experience. She’s been working in the field of mental health, advocacy and human rights since 2003. She authored several papers from a lived experience perspective. She has written and produced theatre plays and a short feature film on mental disorders – to raise public awareness. Ms Sunkel had been involved in the review and drafting of various policies and legislation in South Africa and provided technical assistance to international mental health related reports and documents.
She serves on a number of national and international boards and committees. Ms Sunkel is the Principal Coordinator for the Movement for Global Mental Health and the Founder/CEO of the Global Mental Health Peer Network. She received a number of national and international awards for her work.
Prof Johnny Gyapong is a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Disease control and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ghana. He is also an Adjunct Professor of International Health at the Georgetown University in Washington.
For over 30 years he has practiced as a doctor in Ghana, rising to becomes the Director of Research and Development of the Ghana Health Service where he was responsible for health systems and implementation research.
He established and managed the Ghana Neglected Diseases Control Programme for 8 years. His main area of research is infectious disease epidemiology especially neglected tropical diseases.
He is a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; and the Ghana Medical Association.
He has served as chair/member of several World Health Organisation and other international and local scientific committees.
Prof Marleen Temmerman is the Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aga Khan University (AKU) Hospital Nairobi, Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women, Child and Adolescent Health, AKU East-Africa, and also a full Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Ghent University in Belgium.
From 2012-2015, she was the Director of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) at the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva. She was one of the main pen holders of the UN Global Strategy for Women’s, Children and Adolescents’ Health 2016-2030, launched by the UNSG and partners in September 2015, transitioning from the MDGs to the SDGs.
Prof Lucy Gilson is a professor both at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and is an honorary professor at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Throughout her career, her research has been driven by a concern for equity in health and health care. This has involved conceptual and empirical work on issues of health care financing, organisation, management and policy change.
She has played a leading role in developing the field of health policy analysis, and currently manages a continental initiative to strengthen training in this field. She has also conducted collaborative research with colleagues in other countries in Eastern and Southern Africa, and in Asia.