Dr. Ella Compaore
Dr. Ella Compaore has a PhD. in Human Nutrition and is a lecturer at Joseph KI-ZERBO University (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso). Dr. Compaore has been the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) focal person for Burkina Faso since 2017. She has also performed important roles since 2017, including the Strategic lead on the National Information Platform for Nutrition (PIN) and the West African Food Coordinator. She is also the focal person of the thematic and research program on food security and nutrition and the general secretary of the African Federation of nutrition societies (FANUS). Dr. Compaore’s expertise spans maternal, new-born, infant, child and adolescent nutrition, nutrition financing, multisectoral approaches, policies, strategies, and evaluation in the field of nutrition, and strategy building for behaviour change communication through innovative approaches.
Prof. Amos Laar
Prof. Amos Laar has academic training in Nutrition, Public Health, and Bioethics. In his independent scholarship, he draws on theoretical, conceptual, and methodological perspectives from the social sciences, bioethics, and public health to understand how physical environment, social environment, as well as structural forces affect health. Currently, his research focuses on two distinct, yet related areas of public health – bioethics (ethics & public health; health & human rights, food ethics, & nutrition rights); public health nutrition (food literacy, nutrition-related non-communicable diseases, and the nexus between food environment and health). He spent most part of the past decade exploring the socio-cultural, socio-ethical, and medico-ethical dimensions of HIV. He has led/co-led such projects as the HIV/AIDS Interactive Training, Education and Development Center Project (which developed interventions to increase uptake of HIV testing, and reproductive health literacy of students and staff of the University of Ghana); the Non-prescription Medication Use Project (which assessed multiple non-prescription medications use among Ghanaian HIV-positive persons on antiretroviral therapy). He was one of two experts/consultants who supported the development of Ghana’s ~78 million US Dollars Global Fund Grant for HIV/TB for the period 2018-2020. In 2017, he supported UNAIDS to develop Ghana’s Fast-Track HIV Prevention Roadmap. He was recently involved in the implementation of the UK-AID/Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-funded “Dietary Transitions in Ghanaian Cities”, as well as the MRC-funded “Dietary Transitions in African Cities Project” (both projects aimed to identify how social, and physical environments drive consumption of energy dense nutrient-poor foods and beverages). He is the PI of the IDRC-funded MEALS4NCDs Project which is “measuring the healthiness of Ghanaian children’s food environments to prevent obesity and non-communicable diseases”. Prof. Laar is a Co-PI and Ghana Lead on a 5-year NIH-funded project which will establish a masters programme in Bioethics at the University of Ghana (the first of such in Ghana). Prof. Laar’s international engagements in public health nutrition include his participation in the 66th Session of the UN-General Assembly Meeting in New York, 2011; in the UN Economic Commission for Africa Expert Group Meeting in Addis, Ethiopia, 2017; in the FAO’s Future of Food Symposium, Rome, 2019, and several other international meetings. He was recently recognized in the Lancet, for his efforts at combating nutrition-related NCDs in Ghana.https://www.thelancet.com/journals/landia/article/PIIS2213-8587(19)30216-5/fulltext. His scholarly works include 68 peer-reviewed publications (one book, five book chapters, 62 Journal articles).
Dr. Nii Addy
Dr. Nii Addy is Associate Director (Africa Outreach)/Senior Outreach Advisor in the office of the Deputy Provost, Student Life and Learning (DPSLL) at McGill University. In this role, he develops, manages, and assesses cross-sector partnerships, training and applied research supporting McGill Mastercard Foundation (MCF) Scholars’ transitions from academic studies to entrepreneurship and employment for impact in Africa. Dr. Addy also teaches at the Max Bell School of Public Policy and in the African Studies Program. He is an Associate Member of the School of Continuing Studies (SCS) and the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (FAES). He has previously been Assistant Professor (Research) at the McGill Center for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE) in the Desautels Faculty of Management, and the Institute for the Study of International Development (ISID). Dr. Addy’s interdisciplinary work focuses on institutional change in multi-stakeholder partnerships across societal sectors (businesses, public agencies, and civil society organizations) and industrial sectors (education, agriculture, nutrition, health, etc.). He combines qualitative and quantitative approaches, with the goal of informing how diverse stakeholders can work together effectively. He applies research in developing knowledge sharing tools, and in training leaders from various sectors as they engage in partnership processes for sustainable development, in Anglophone and Francophone contexts. He has been a researcher and consultant on projects for a number of organizations, including the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the World Bank, the Hewlett Foundation, Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and ICF International. He obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education, where he specialized in Organization Studies and International Comparative Education. He has a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College, and a Master in Public Affairs (MPA) from Princeton University.
Dr. Agartha Ohemeng
Dr. Agartha Ohemeng is a Senior Lecturer of Nutrition at the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, Legon. Her research interests are MaternaI and Young Child Nutrition, School Child Nutrition, and Diet and Disease. Dr. Ohemeng has about fourteen years of experience in community-based nutrition research activities and has conducted research and published on using integrated education intervention and moringa fortificant to address complementary feeding, household food insecurity and child health, nutrition among school aged children, and nutrition among children with sickle cell disease. She is currently the Programmes Coordinator of the University of Ghana Nutrition Research and Training Centre in Asesewa and the Director of the Dietetic Internship in Rural Community Nutrition Program.
Prof. Richmond Aryeetey
Prof. Richmond Aryeetey is an Associate Professor at the University of Ghana. Richmond is leading the Ghana Stories of Change in Nutrition work for Transform Nutrition West Africa and has worked in Ghana as a researcher in maternal and child health for the last 13 years. His expertise spans Primary research skills, formative research, and Monitoring and Evaluation, Training and Facilitation. Richmond’s current research projects include studies on food environment of urban-dwelling adolescents, and exploring policy options for scaling up optimal feeding among infants and young children in Ghana.
Dr. Grace Marquis
Dr. Grace Marquis is Associate Professor in the School of Human Nutrition at McGill University (Canada) and Affiliate Associate Professor at Iowa State University (USA). She received her doctorate in international nutrition from Cornell University. Her research program began at the Nutrition Research Institute in Lima, Peru and expanded to Ghana, West Africa. Her community-based research has examined (i) determinants of diet and nutritional status of women and children living in poverty and the means by which families, communities, and societies can intervene to promote optimal feeding and caregiving. Over the last 20 years, her research group has developed cross-sector, integrated strategies that support health and growth, with a special focus on those living in rural communities. Her long-term collaboration with the University of Ghana led to the building of the Nutrition Research and Training Centre in 2010 in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Today, the Centre provides support for diverse research projects and houses the training of local and international graduate students and professional interns. Dr. Marquis was Canadian Research Chair in Social and Environmental Aspects of Nutrition for 10 years (maximum award) and received a Doctorate of Laws, honoris causa, for her contribution to tertiary education from the University of Ghana in 2013.