Director
Director
Prof Dinky (Naomi) Levitt
MBChB, MD and FCP(SA)
Short Bio
Naomi Levitt is a diabetologist/endocrinologist and public health scientist. She is a Senior Scholar in the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes at the University of Cape Town and Director of the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA). CDIA was originally funded by NHLBI and United Health Care as a Center for Excellence to reduce the impact of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2009 and exists as a network of researchers drawn from a number of South African Universities, the South African Medical Research Council, and other African countries, with close links with policy makers. She has been involved in many national and international efforts to address clinical practice, research direction and policy relating to diabetes. She is a Fellow of the University of Cape Town, has authored over 270 peer reviewed publications and 14 chapters in books or monographs.
Academic
Senior Research Officer
Dr Peter Delobelle
MD PhD FRSPH
Short Bio
Peter Delobelle is a Medical Doctor with twenty years of experience in public health research, teaching and service delivery. His research focuses on health policy and systems research, health promotion, implementation research and integrated knowledge translation. He is the Deputy Director of the Chronic Disease Initiative for Africa (CDIA) where he works as Senior Researcher and Associate Prof at the Department of Public Health, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) where he teaches Global Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Essential Skills in Global Health. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK); member of the Public Health Association of South Africa (PHASA) and Health Promotion Development Foundation Network; International Union for Health Promotion and Education Working Group on Healthy Settings; and Chair of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) Process Evaluation Working Group.
Senior Research Fellow
Dr Kufre Joseph Okop
PhD (2017, UWC, South Africa); MPH (2004, University of Ibadan, Nigeria); BSc (1995, University of Calabar, Nigeria
Short bio
Kufre joined CDIA as a Senior Research Fellow on 1 January 2022, and prior to this, he was a postdoctoral research fellow (PDRF), joint with CDIA and the Division of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at UCT. His academic qualifications include:
PhD (2017, University of the Western Cape, South Africa); MPH (2004, University of Ibadan, Nigeria); BSc (1995, University of Calabar, Nigeria). He has extensive experience in managing programmes for implementation science intervention and research network engagement in many African countries, and other Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). He also remains actively involved in designing, and coordinating multi-disciplinary, multi-setting collaborative research projects, capacity building and advocacy focusing on Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) prevention. Primary research disciplines include Behavioural Sciences, Health Care Sciences and Services, Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Operations Research and Management Science as well as Public, Environmental and Occupational Health.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dr. Myrna van Pinxteren
PhD (Public Health) and M.Soc.Sc, Honours-Social Anthropology (UCT)
Short bio
Myrna joined CDIA on 1 January 2021 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDRF). She works on two qualitative studies to improve self-management, support and service delivery for diabetes patients and HIV+ patients with co-morbidities in South Africa. Previously, she was a research coordinator in the division of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Public Health, conducting research in the iALARM (Using Information to Link and Align Services and Retain Men in the HIV Cascade) project, focusing on improving the use of health information in Cape Town. As a qualified public health researcher, anthropologist and journalist, Myrna’s research interests are chronic disease management, the practical use of medical anthropology in everyday life, and communication (technology) within the health system.
Emeritus Associate Professor
Dr. Katherine Murphy
PhD, BA, HDE, PG Dip Health Promotion
Short Bio
Katherine Everett-Murphy has a post graduate qualification in Health Promotion from the University of Galway in Ireland. In 2011, she graduated with a PhD in Public Health from the University of Cape Town. She officially retired from UCT in December 2020, but continues to consult and conduct research in an Emeritus capacity, the primary of focus of her research is developing and testing behavioural change interventions around the lifestyle related risk factors for non-communicable disease – namely smoking, alcohol misuse, physical inactivity and an unhealthy diet.
Senior Research Officer (part-time)
Dr. Darcelle Schouw
MSc, PhD
Darcelle is a Researcher at the University of Stellenbosch in the Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care. She provides CDIA with part-time input as a Senior Research Officer that includes mentorship and training of our research support staff and postgraduate fellows in qualitative research, coordination of research projects, workshop facilitation and presentations. She is a registered Biokineticist, with a Masters degree in Sports Science, and a PhD in Family Medicine. Her research focuses on prevention and control of risk factors associated with non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs). Additional professional experience includes preventative medicine, chronic disease management, orthopaedic rehabilitation, behaviour change counselling, research, systems thinking, mentoring, managing, speaking, and presenting.
Honorary Professor
Professor Brian Oldenburg
BSc (Hons), Master in Psychology, PhD in Medicine/Psychiatry, UNSW
Short Bio
Brian Oldenburg is a global expert in the prevention and control of chronic diseases, in particular cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes in both high income and low and middle-income countries. He is the Director of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Digital Health and Chronic Conditions in Melbourne. Along with his research team, he recently re-located to the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute, where he holds a joint Professorship in Public Health and Implementation Science at the Baker Heart & Diabetes Institute and La Trobe University. CRE trains young scholars to develop new technology platforms and m-Health interventions to improve chronic disease outcomes.
Honorary Professor
Professor Andrew Farmer
BA Physiology, BMBCh (Oxford), DRCOG, MRCGP, FRCGP, D.M. (Oxford)
Short Bio
Professor Andrew Farmer is a Professor of General Practice in the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom (UK). In October 2020, he took over as Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Oxford Biomedical Research Centre Digital Health and Technology programme. It funds numerous research initiatives about the broader impact of healthcare treatments field of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs). In addition to his various leadership positions, he is an expert adviser for the Centre for Guidelines; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Professor Farmer is a recipient of several awards in recognition of his work and more recently was appointed as Emeritus, NIHR Senior Investigator.
Honorary Research Affiliate
Dr Kirsten (Kirsty) Bobrow
MBChB, MSc, DPhil, MMed
Dr Bobrow is a MBChB graduate from UCT and she completed her DPhil in Epidemiology at Oxford, United Kingdom (UK). Kirsty was the project lead for our *StAR study and she pursued and completed her Master of Medicine (MMed) registrar training in Public Health at UCT in 2018. Currently she is a post-doctoral fellow in neuroepidemiology at the University of California, San Francisco, in the United States of America (USA). With a background in clinical medicine, epidemiology and clinical trials. She has extensive quantitative research design and analysis skilss and continues to collaborate with CDIA affiliates in an honorary capacity.
Honorary Research Affiliate
Dr Nasheeta Peer
MBChB, MBA, MPH and PhD
Nasheeta is a Senior Specialist Scientist within the Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) Research Unit at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). Her research focuses on the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular risk factors in South Africa and internationally. She was previously supervised by Professor Naomi Levitt and the late Krisela Steyn. Nasheeta has collaborated with us in an HRA capacity since 2015 and this involves student supervision, mentorship, research grant applications and enhancing research network opportunities. Her work has had a major impact on the formation of health policy for the prevention of NCDs by the national Department of Health.
Research; Support & Administration
Grants Specialist
Short Bio
Carmelita has been part of the CDIA family for several years, first as a Senior Center Manager until 2017, and , more recently, as a part-time grants specialist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, specialising in Development Studies as well as Associate Management qualification from the UCT Graduate School of Business (GSB). She is currently an Executive Masters in Business Administration (EMBA) candidate at the GSB and her professional experience within the higher education sector spans over 20 years. Special expertise includes project management for multiple research studies, financial, operational and information management, staff management and training and grant management specialisation.
Senior Secretary
Tel: 021 650 5228
Short Bio
Chantal Stuart initially worked as a fieldworker for the Division of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine at UCT since 2008. Prior to this, she worked in the United Kingdom (UK) as a Call Center Administrator, and later, as the research activities for the CDIA increased, she worked as a Project Support Administrator for various projects and offered field-site support, data capturing and general research assistance. During 2010, she undertook a Pastel Accounting course and several technical courses at UCT and was promoted to Senior Secretary in January 2019. She supports the research and teaching administration of the unit ranging from procurement, human research ethics protocol facilitation and general administration.
IT Officer
Mr Moegamat Johnson
Moegamat joined UCT in 2015 and assisted in development of mobile apps, he manages the updating of a few websites and is involved with computer/technical support. Most recently Moegamat has become involved in helping the PK Laboratory achieve FDA compliance by implementing data integrity on a private network built and designed for the laboratory's use. Moegamat is the network administrator for the laboratory and is also involved in validating software.