Key DGHI Collaboration Partners Assume Leadership Roles in Moshi, Tanzania

Obstetric_Fistula_Research_Team

Members of the obstetric fistula research team at KCMC: (from left) Gileard Masenga (new executive director of KCMC), DGHI's Melissa Watt, Mary Mosha, Pili Nyindo and Samual Abado

Published August 11, 2015, last updated on June 3, 2020 under Research News

Four of the Duke Global Health Institute’s (DGHI’s) longtime collaboration partners in Moshi, Tanzania, have been selected for leadership positions at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMUC) and the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute.

These individuals’ well-deserved promotions reflect their excellent performance in research, clinical practice and teaching. 

New Leaders Have Long History with DGHI Faculty 

Gileard Masenga, formerly the chair of the KCMC department of obstetrics and gynecology, has been named executive director of KCMC. Masenga, who collaborates with DGHI professor Melissa Watt on obstetric fistula research, also heads the fistula repair program at KCMC and performs more than 80 fistula repairs per year across Tanzania. Masenga has also worked with DGHI professor Kathleen Sikkema, exploring psychological symptoms of women with obstetric fistulae.

Blandina Mmbaga has been named director of the Kilimanjaro Clinical Research Institute. Part of the East African Consortium for Clinical Research, the institute conducts research in malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Mmbaga, who leads the KCMC-Duke collaboration, is a pediatrician at KCMC and a lecturer at KCMUC. In addition to collaborating extensively with Bartlett over the past 10+ years, she has worked with DGHI faculty members Dorothy Dow and Robert Malkin on issues related to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

Venance Maro has been named dean of the faculty of the School of Medicine at KCMUC. Maro has been chief of the department of medicine at KCMC since 2004 and a senior lecturer at KCMUC since 2010. Over the past 10+ years, Maro has engaged in collaborative research with several DGHI faculty members, including John Bartlett, Kate Whetten and John Crump on topics ranging from HIV/AIDS to bacterial zoonoses.

Sarah Urasa has been named director of hospital services at KCMC. Urasa is a physician at KCMC, specializing in internal medicine, neurology and palliative care, as well as a lecturer at KCMUC. 

“My colleagues and I at DGHI are proud of these accomplished physicians and researchers,” said Bartlett, DGHI's associate director for research. “Having collaborated extensively with them for more than a decade, we’re confident they’ll be highly successful in their new roles and we look forward to continuing to develop our partnership with them and their colleagues for many years to come.”

Duke’s Partnership with KCMC

Since 1995, Duke has supported substantial collaborations with KCMC by placing medical students, Master of Science in Global Health students, medical residents and fellows in Moshi for training and research opportunities.

In 2010, KCMC received a five-year, $10 million grant from PEPFAR, Fogarty International Center and Health Resources and Services Administration to strengthen medical education in Tanzania. The KCMC-Duke Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) grant is helping to prepare a new generation of Tanzanian physicians for leadership in academics, research and policy. 

Learn more about DGHI’s partnership with KCMC.

Having collaborated extensively with them for more than a decade, we’re confident they’ll be highly successful in their new roles and we look forward to continuing to develop our partnership with them and their colleagues for many years to come.

John Bartlett, associate director for research at DGHI

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