Dr. Richard Chivaka is a visionary leader in public healthcare transformation, leveraging over 16 years of multi-country experience to revolutionize health systems across Africa. Dr. Richard Chivaka is a recognized thought leader and connector, driving transformative change to achieve universal health coverage and self-reliance across Africa. As the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Spark Health Africa, Dr. Chivaka has driven transformative leadership and mindset change to strengthen health systems in Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Mozambique. His expertise bridges business, health, and government sectors, forging robust partnerships with African governments and major funding organizations to achieve sustainable health outcomes. In academia, Dr. Chivaka is an Associate Professor of Business Strategy and Supply Chain Management at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. An author and researcher, he supervises PhD students specializing in transformative leadership, business strategy, value chain innovation, and operations management. Dr. Chivaka’s thought leadership extends globally as a Member of the Expert Group for the World Health Organization’s Implementation Guidance on Demand-led Scaling Innovation in the Public Sector and the Harvard Business Review Advisory Council. He is a member of the Scientific Program Committee for the International Conference on Public Health in Africa and currently chairs the Scientific Program Committee Track on Advancing Self-Reliance and Health Security for the 2025 Conference. Dr. Chivaka is also a key leader in early childhood development as a member of the Advisory Group for the Early Childhood Development Action Network (ECDAN), where he leads the Childcare Systems Mapping Working Group.

Chiratidzo Ndhlovu (Rati) is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Zimbabwe Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (formerly UZ College of Health Sciences). Have been a Chairperson of the Department of Medicine as well as ex-Deputy Dean of the UZ College of Health Sciences. I am a physician and lecturer who also provides clinical service at one of the teaching hospitals in Harare. My main areas of interest include HIV Medicine, Nephrology and the essential medicines concept. My research publications have been in HIV and in particular cryptococcal meningitis. I also coordinated the development of the Competency based curriculum for our faculty during the time that UZ was a MEPI recipient.

Zohray M. Talib is Executive Vice Dean for Education and Professor of Medical Education and Medicine at the California University of Science and Medicine.Dr. Talib is also serving as the Head of Internal Medicine at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. Her experience spans the field of medical education and global health, with a particular focus on social accountability in health professions education. She has worked with undergraduate and graduate medical education programs in the US and across Sub-Saharan Africa to bring best practices into medical education, especially in low-resource settings.

I have had the great pleasure of becoming familiar with CONSAMS at an early point in my career when I collaborated with my mentor Dr. Quentin Eichbaum of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine to produce a documentary film, A Doctor of My Own, about UNAM and some of Namibia’s first medical students. My background prior to becoming a physician was in broadcast journalism and filmmaking. After working for CNN, ABC News, and The New York Times, I am now a weekly columnist at The Washington Post where my stories reach approximately 1,000,000 readers every month. 

Marleen Temmerman, Professor Obstetrics and Gynaecology,  Director Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University East Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. AKU-UNESCO Chair on Youth Leadership in Science, Health, Gender and Education.

Quentin Eichbaum was born and raised in Namibia and South Africa. He initially studied law at the University of Cape Town. Then, he completed his MD, MPH, and postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He did his residency and fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston.

Global Health

Clinical Work

Olli Vainio is a Senior Advisor at the Faculty of Medicine University of Turku (UTU), Finland. He has a long international career in different professional appointments as a researcher and visiting professor in immunology in Switzerland (8 years) and in Finland. He has an extensive administrative experience (e.g., Dean for Education at the Faculty of Medicine, Oulu 2006-2013, Director of Degree Program on Medicine, Oulu University 2006-2017). He has participated in several European Union projects and activities in different roles 1998 – 2024. Vainio has published over 150 articles in international peer-reviewed journals. He has been an editor of APMIS (1997-2017) and an editor of Scandinavian Journal of Immunology 2008-2021. From 2023 Vainio serves as International Editorial Board Advisor for the Undergraduate Research in Health Journal (URHJ) based in South Africa. His collaboration with African Universities started with University of Namibia (UNAM) in 2006 when he was appointed as a member of the Steering Committee to establish the School of Medicine at UNAM. He has received funding for several capacity building programs in Africa funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs (North-South-South programs I-STEP and Next-STEP; Interprofessional Education promoting Public Health, 2009-2015; HEI-ICI programs MEDUNAM I and II; 2013-2016); Online EduHealth and Interprofessional Simulation Education in Africa (ISEA) 2022-2025 with partners from Namibia, Rwanda and Tanzania. Olli Vainio is also a founding member of the Consortium of New Sub-Sahara African Medical Schools (www.consams.net). Vainio is a UTU coordinator of an EU funded ERASMUS+ capacity building program Dirisina+ (2021-2024) for health professions’ education in southern Arica, coordinated by the University of Pretoria with partners from South Africa and Namibia.