People - Namibia

Manza Agovi, PhD, MPH

HIV Program Technical Advisor
Afiba.Agovi@ucsf.edu

Manza Agovi, PhD, is a global health implementation scientist with interests in global maternal and child health (MCH) and infectious diseases, such as HIV and viral Hepatitis. She is particularly interested in studying how evidence-based interventions can be successfully implemented to enhance and support MCH program planning and delivery in resource-constrained settings to achieve improved health outcomes.  

Since coming to Namibia in 2014 as an ASPPH Global Epidemiology Fellow and joining the Global Programs team in 2015, she has served as a technical lead for various projects working in close collaboration with the Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services (MOHSS) to build institutional capacity for data use and evidenced-based decision making. Her current role as the project director for the Namibia PTracker Project entails providing technical support, strategic leadership and scientific direction to the MoHSS Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) program to design, develop and implement a patient- level electronic data capture and reporting system that will strengthen the PMTCT program’s monitoring and evaluation to achieve quality improvement and to ultimately validate Namibia’s progress towards eliminating mother-to-child-transmission (e-MTCT) of HIV.

Dr. Agovi holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. 

Roly Gosling, MD, PhD

Director, Malaria Elimination Initiative
roly.gosling@ucsf.edu

Roland (Roly) Gosling, BmedSci, BM, BS, MSc, PhD, is the director of the Malaria Elimination Initiative (MEI) at the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences and a professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF.

Prior to leading the MEI, Gosling worked in West Africa at the Medical Research Council laboratories in Gambia and spent seven years working in Tanzania, first as faculty for University College London and later for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). During this time he worked on clinical trials for malaria drugs and prevention and tuberculosis treatment. Since joining the Malaria Elimination Initiative in 2011, Gosling has helped the team grow from eight to more than 30 people, with staff based overseas in three countries and projects in many more. MEI has become a global leader in malaria elimination and is responsible for the development of programmatic tools to improve implementation and impact of new (and old) malaria control and elimination strategies, implementing epidemiological studies of malaria in low transmission settings, and setting the vision for future goals and costing that future, amongst a great number of other activities.

Roly has an MD from the University of Nottingham in the UK and an MSc and PhD from LSHTM.

Mike Grasso

Program Manager
mike.grasso@ucsf.edu

Mike Grasso is a member of the UCSF South Africa team, currently providing program management and technical advise to the Namibia Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA) and the Namibia Integrated Bio-Behavioral Surveillance Survey of Key Populations. His background includes the conceptualization, planning, implementation and results dissemination of several HIV surveillance projects and studies throughout sub-Saharan Africa and San Francisco. He supports strengthening individual and institutional capacity on HIV surveillance, data analysis and data use.

He has a bachelor's degree in biology from San Francisco State University and a master's in public health from San Jose State University.

Cara Smith Gueye, PhD, MPH

Associate Director, Namibia Country Programs
Malaria Elimination Initiative
cara.smith@ucsf.edu

Cara Smith Gueye manages the MEI portfolio of work in Namibia, with a particular focus on surveillance operational research and technical and operational support of the entomology and vector control unit of the National Vector-borne Disease Control Program (NVDCP) of Namibia. On these projects. Smith Gueye works closely with the NVDCP, University of Namibia, and serves on the management team of the Namibia Global Programs Office. She also provides strategic and technical support to the Elimination 8 (E8) initiative in Southern Africa.

Prior to managing the Namibia portfolio, Smith Gueye managed the malaria elimination case study series and UCSF’s support of regional malaria elimination initiatives in the Asia Pacific and southern Africa regions. Prior to joining the Global Health Group at the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences, she spent two years with an environmental NGO in California and four years in Cote d'Ivoire and Madagascar as a Peace Corps volunteer then working as a regional office associate on a maternal and child health initiative in Madagascar.

Smith Gueye has a PhD in public health and epidemiology from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute/University of Basel and an MPH from University of California, Berkeley.

Esme Kisting

GSI Project Support Manager
Esme.Kisting@ucglobalprograms.org

Esme Kisting provides administrative support to all projects and performs procurement and logistics duties at Global Programs Namibia office.

She worked previously at FNB for 16 years as administration department manager and at MoHSS/CDC COAG programs from 2010 to 2016 before joining Global Programs.

Kisting has completed Grade 12 at Dr Lemmer High School, Rehoboth, Namibia.

Priscilla Mudzingwa

Director of Finance and Operations
priscilla.mudzingwa@ucglobalprograms.org

Priscilla Mudzingwa is responsible for overseeing the management of human resources, finance, administration and logistics for all programs and projects.

She previously worked for ITECH Namibia as director of finance and for SASCCAL Regional Secretariat as director finance and administration and has seven years’ experience in leadership positions.

Mudzingwa is a Chartered Certified Accountant (ACCA) and has a Bachelor of Science in applied accounting from Oxford Brookes University, an MBA in strategic planning from Herriot Watt University. She is working part-time on a law degree at Free State University in South Africa

Maria Wittboi

Accountant
maria.witbooi@ucglobalprograms.org

Maria Witbooi provides financial support to the Finance and Operations team.

She has more than 10 years of practical financial experience in various reputable organizations, including procurement specialist at Rossing Uranium Ltd, assistant accountant at Letshego Namibia, financial assistant at the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA), and financial analyst with the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) in Namibia. She has also worked as an accounting teacher at Hochland High School.

Witbool has a postgraduate diploma in Business Administration from University of Namibia and a bachelor of technology degree in cost and management accounting.