Professional Experience:
I have had more than 20 years of active clinical and public health practice in the developing world. As Country Director of the Harvard PEPFAR program, I provided overall leadership and management of the project, with the goal of improving the care and treatment of adults and children in Nigeria. I have also been responsible for ensuring that project objectives are met. I have been responsible for being the primary liaison with CDC/US Government group and Harvard, and forging as well as building linkages with national and international organizations to influence national Maternal and Childhood Health, Prevention of Childhood Killer diseases, HIV/AIDs, Tuberculosis (Tb), other opportunistic infections, and Malaria policies, while representing the institution to key stakeholders and policy makers meetings.
I have significant national and international experience providing technical assistance and capacity building strategies for cost-effective interventions. I have been a very successful manager of complex and culturally diverse teams in the very heterogeneous Nigerian environment. I have also had extensive direct experience of program implementation in Africa through the presence of the Harvard PEPFAR program in Botswana and Tanzania. I perfectly understand grant-making and grant-management and I am accustomed to leading in a results-based organization with an intense focus on impact and efficiency.
Part of my responsibilities has been to lead, manage and supervise a team of program, administrative and finance managers to meet the objectives of the PEPFAR project. I have supervised administrative staff to ensure efficient office function and support for programs and program sites.
I have more than 15 years’s experience in health systems programming, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and development work in Nigeria. My experience includes supervision of the design and implementation of various local and international/global health programs and activities with the goal of ensuring that program design and implementation are in line with funders’ goals. I have worked with many development partners such as the Gates Foundation, Sidaction, Global fund, World Health Organization and the Harvard School of Public Health, the Northwestern University Chicago, and the University of Houston, and the Pharmaccess Foundation , among others.
I am also involved with overseeing program planning, monitoring and evaluation, and to ensure that measurable outcomes are attained. Working with key project staff, I have ensured the delivery of quality training, technical assistance and administrative and financial services to all partner sites. I have also been establishing and maintaining an excellent working relationship with counterparts within the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health and other implementing partners to ensure effective coordination and support of national programs. I have also been a Consultant to WHO and UNICEF on Maternal and Child He