Biography

I joined the University of Portsmouth in 2015 as Senior Lecturer in International Development Studies and Course Leader for the MSc International Development having taught research methods and demography modules in the Department of Demography and Social Statistics at the University of Southampton.  I have used my skills and knowledge in demography and social statistics to shape the distinctiveness of the MSc International Development DL course through modules in Applied Research Methods for Development and Population Health and Development.  My  educational qualifications are in the disciplines of economics, demography social statistics and my teaching is in international development and gender and this multidiscipline background has shaped my research.  

In my PhD thesis (completed in 2013) I used social statistics to study the global health challenge of child undernutrition in Malawi.  I have undertaken research on the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child from a global perspective which contributed to the WHO  2015 guidelines for the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission,  Female Genital Mutilation in Burkina Faso, Girls dropping out of school in Malawi and violence against women and girls in Malawi.

Research interests

My research falls within the disciplines of public health, gender, demography and international development but my strong footing lies in population health and gender related research focusing on maternal health and child health in the Global South.  I have been PI to externally funded research in collaboration with the Centre for Education Research and Training at University of Malawi.  This collaborative research on girls dropping out of school in Malawi   has been widely disseminated in conferences and invited non academic forums because of its interdisciplinarity; economics, gender and education.  I am currently a Co-I for the Girls Education Challenge project which is aimed at reviewing the impact of education interventions amongst women in Somalia after seven years, which is funded by the FCDO.

I am a recipient of several Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Strategic Funding individually and through the Globalised Africa project.  The 2022 funding has supported my project on Sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancies amongst women and girls during the Covid19 Pandemic in Malawi which is featured on the University of Portsmouth’s  international Development group’s gender focus website.  I belong to the Wessex Global Health Network, which is aimed at helping academics and researchers involved in global health know what other researchers  are doing in the United Kingdom or abroad.  My research has been cited in many publications  and all of my publications have an impact factor of more than 1 (club of 70% of journals).  I am an  Associate Editor for the International Journal for Equity in Health and an Academic Editor of PLOS Global Public Health journal.