Meet The Trainees

Elisabeth Mamani-Mategula

Elisabeth Mamani-Mategula is a Ph.D. Research Fellow in Health and Social Science at the Training and Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE) under the Randomised controlled trial of the Effect of intravenous iron on Anaemia in Malawian Pregnant women-Implementation Science (REVAMP-IS) component. She has a BSc in Food and Nutrition from the University of Malawi, (Chancellor College) and an MSc in Global Health Implementation from the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (College of Medicine). Currently, Elisabeth is doing her PhD at Kamuzu University of Health Sciences.

Applying her qualitative research skills, Elisabeth’s passion is to contribute to child and maternal health well-being through conducting implementation science research and teaching. Her PhD research topic is “An evaluation of the feasibility and acceptability of implementing intravenous iron therapy to treat anaemia in pregnant women in Zomba district, Malawi.” In this, she is exploring the factors influencing the approachability, acceptability, availability and accommodation, feasibility, and appropriateness of implementing IV iron intervention from the provider’s perspective whilst understanding the pregnant women’s ability to perceive, seek, reach, and engage for IV iron access to treat anaemia in pregnancy in Malawi. Suppose the use of IV iron during pregnancy would be effective in Malawi, her study will ultimately provide the basis for knowledge to policymakers and healthcare workers and promote evidence-based decision-making guide towards the use of IV iron and possibly change how we treat and manage anaemic pregnant women to improve maternal and child health outcomes.

Myness Ndambo

Myness is a PhD Fellow-Social Science at the Training and Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE) through the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHEs) previously known as the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. She holds a Master of Public Health from KUHEs. She also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Mzuzu University majoring in Biology and minoring in Statistics. Myness has 6 years of experience working as a Social Scientist. Over the years, she has worked with the Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit (MEIRU), College of Medicine, and Partners In Health researching Public Health challenges affecting the rural population in Malawi. Her PhD research is on exploring demand and supply side determinants to the Post-discharge malaria chemoprevention (PMC) implementation to reduce child mortality and morbidity among children with severe malaria. Her passion is in contributing to finding ways of improving health delivery for the rural poor and vulnerable populations so as to assist them to realize their development goals.

William Nkhono

William Yankho Nkhono is a research fellow pursuing a PhD in data science. He is a PhD research fellow under the IMPALA project and has enrolled as a PhD student in big data and machine learning with the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Department of Computer Sciences in the Netherlands. His work is mainly focused on developing algorithms to predict critical illness in Malawian children using social demographic, continuous vital signs monitoring and biomarkers and applying machine learning to detect, train, and test predictive algorithms. He holds an MSc in Informatics from the University of Malawi and a BSc (honours) in Business Information technology from the University of Greenwich.

Maclean Vokhiwa

Maclean Vokhiwa is a PhD Fellow active in neurodevelopmental research. He studies with the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, in Malawi and completed support program for PhD students at North-West University, Faculty of Health Sciences in South Africa (2022). He receives supervision from KUHeS and University of Nottingham, UK. He holds a Master of Public Health from the College of Medicine and a bachelor’s degree focusing on Psychology and Philosophy from the University of Malawi. Maclean’s profile of trainings includes Research Ethics, Human Subjects Protection, Good Clinical Practice, and Clinical research methods.

Maclean’s research interests are in child neurodevelopment and educational outcomes assessment aiming to clarify the links between these outcomes among developmentally at-risk children. Such clarity contributes to global and public health policies by delivering direct recommendations that help to avert avoidable effects of disability, prioritization of special educational provisions and resources for mainstream learning especially in low resource settings. He is team leader for the BICO study.

Glory Mzembe

Glory Mzembe is a PhD Fellow under the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) and registered with the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Malawi.  Her PhD work is focused on assessing the impact of pregnancy interventions on early childhood clinical health outcomes. She holds a Master of Science degree in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – LSHTM and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) degree from the University of Malawi.

Through her current work in various research projects at the Training and Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE) where she embedded her PhD, Glory has amassed experience in designing, setting up and implementing large clinical trial trials and observational cohorts especially in pregnancy and children.

Daniel Mwale

Daniel Mwale is a Social Science PhD. Research Fellow under IMPALA project a clinical observational trial “Innovative Monitoring in Paediatrics in Low-resource settings: an Aid to save lives? (IMPALA).” He enrolled as a PhD student with the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands under the School of Medicine in collaboration with Kamuzu University of Health Sciences. He has a Master’s in Public Health from Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (College of Medicine) and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from the Catholic University of Malawi.

As a Social Science PhD. Research Fellow his research work focuses on understanding if novel technologies are feasible, appropriate, and acceptable for improving children’s health is not often adequately investigated and can compromise implementation and scaling-up efforts. His research work considers appropriate health technologies for early detection of critically ill have the potential to improve the quality of care and children’s health outcomes. His work will act as a catalyst in improving child health outcomes and influence policy change as far as critical illness care is concerned.

Grace Wezi Mzumara

Grace Mzumara is a Malawi-trained Medical Doctor, holding an MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine from the University of Oxford. Grace is a research fellow at the Training Research Unit of Excellence (TRUE) in Malawi and a PhD Candidate in Health Economics PhD at the University of Bergen in Norway. Her PhD is a European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) funded project evaluating the cost-effectiveness of introducing Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine and azithromycin for the post-discharge management of severe anaemia in children in Malawi, Kenya and Uganda. This is part of a large multicentre clinical trial with study teams at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI-CDC) in Kenya, Global Health Uganda and TRUE in Malawi. 

During her PhD period, Grace was selected as the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Travel Grant awardee in 2024 and the World Congress on Public Health Travel Grant recipient in 2026. Based at the University of Bergen, Centre for International Health, Grace has received an award for the best poster presentation in her department in 2026. Grace is a Schlumberger Faculty for the Future Fellow, being granted her first award in 2025. 

Completed PhD Fellows

Dr Steve Gowelo

Registered: Wageningen University
Completed: 2020

Dr Tumaini Malenga

Registered: University of Malawi
Completed: 2021

Dr Lufina Tsirizani Galileya

Registered: University of Cape Town
Completed: 2025

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Training and Research Unit of Excellence

10 Marshall, Mandala, Blantyre, Malawi