Full-time Assistant Professor focusing on functioning, rehabilitation and AT, disability and inclusion in low and middle income countries.
I am currently an Assistant Professor with the International Centre for Evidence in Disability (ICED), where my focus has been on developing population-based survey methodology to estimate impairments, functioning and related needs for services and assistive products in low and middle income countries, including The Gambia, Turkey (with Syrian refugees), Chile, Guatemala and Uganda.
I am especially interested in health, functioning and disability metrics and measurement approaches, rehabilitation and assistive technology (AT) systems level strengthening, and improving access to these essential services globally. I have a clinical background as an adult and paediatric occupational therapist in varied settings in US, UK, Australia and LMICs with diverse focus, primarily specialising in neurological rehabilitation.
I received an BSc Occupational Therapy from Boston University and a MSc Public Health from LSHTM. I subsequently worked for disability non-government organisation, Humanity and Inclusion (formerly Handicap International), focusing on policy and advocacy work and primary and secondary research, including coordinating Source and Sustaining Ability, a participatory sustainability analysis process methodology strengthening the sustainability of rehabilitation health systems in 10 post-conflict countries. I joined LSHTM in 2016 as a researcher and completed my PhD in 2023. [Source: https://asksource.info/; SAP: https://www.hi-us.org/sn_uploads/document/Rehabilitation_The_Sustainabi…]
I am a member of LSHTM’s MSc ethics committee and a Fellow of the ge2p2 Global Foundation which strives to advance scientific rigour and ethical resilience in research and evidence generation.
Affiliations
Teaching
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and teach on the Global Disability and Health course. I lead seminars on the Statistics for Epidemiology course and previously have led seminars for Fundamentals of Global Mental Health and Introduction to Epidemiology courses.
I was the Academic team MOOC coordinator for LSHTM ICED’s Global Health and Disability massive online open course (MOOC) (https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/global-disability).
I also am a personal tutor for MSc Global Mental Health students and a MSc summer project supervisor. I have supervised/co-supervised the following MSc student summer project thesis topics:
- Association of anxiety and depression with musculoskeletal impairments among Syrian refugees living in Sultanbeyli, Turkey (2022)
- Plans for low vision services in 21 countries: a review of national blindness plans and interviews with eye care professionals (2020)
- A review of facility-based birth registration initiatives and innovations in low and middle income countries (2018, part of ENAP metrics project)
- A system level analysis of the human resource crisis in the rehabilitation sector in Tanzania (2017)
- Mixed methods study of facility-based birth registration in two hospitals in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2017, part of ENAP metrics project)
Research
I am a mixed methods researcher whose ICED current research projects include:
- Development of a hybrid self-reported and clinical assessment methodology estimating impairments, functioning and related service and assistive product needs in seven functional domains including vision, hearing, mobility, communication, cognition, self-care and mental health utilising bespoke tablet-based modular data collection tools (Funded by UK Aid through the AT2030 programme (https://at2030.org/) led by the Global Disability Innovation Hub)
- Joint UCL/LSHTM Systematic review of population-level estimates of need for five priority assistive products and development of Global Assistive Technology Repository (Funded by UK Aid through the AT2030 programme (https://at2030.org/) led by the Global Disability Innovation Hub)
- Measuring access to assistive technology using the WHO rapid Assistive Technology Assessment (rATA) questionnaire in Guatemala (Funded by WHO led by the Liliane Foundation)
Previously I was a member of MARCH’s ENAP metrics team involved in maternal, newborn and early childhood development (ECD) metrics studies and an ECD journal supplement (https://adc.bmj.com/content/104/Suppl_1).
- Research coordinator (2017 & 2018) for Every Newborn - Simplified Measurement Integrating Longitudinal Neurodevelopment & Growth (EN-SMILING), a multi-country longitudinal ECD and disability cohort study in Bangladesh, Nepal and Tanzania working closely with in country research partners, WHO and UNICEF and utilising bespoke tablet-based data collection child development tools (Funded by CIFF)
- ENAP facility-based research work stream team member (2016 & 2017) coordinating various study and knowledge management research activities for Every Newborn- Birth Indicator Research Tracking in Hospitals (EN-BIRTH), a multi-country observational study investigating the routine recording of newborn metrics utilising bespoke tablet-based data collection tools and working closely with research partners in Bangladesh, Nepal and Tanzania, WHO and UNICEF (Funded by CIFF)
Selected Publications
