Students and Fellows
Irene Ayakaka, MBChB, MIPH
PhD Fellow
Dr. Ayakaka trained as a medical doctor in Makerere University in Kampala; has a master’s degree in international health (MIPH) from the University of Sydney in NSW, Australia and a master’s degree in research (MRes- Global and Translational Health) from Lancaster University in the UK. She has been involved in TB control research and management for over 15 years in Uganda and has professional training in implementation science and mixed methods research training from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.
Currently, she is a research associate with the Makerere Lung Institute and a PhD fellow through the International Multidisciplinary Applied health research programme for Lung health and tuberculosis in Africa (IMPALA) program at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine with current research interests in patient centered communication for improved tuberculosis and non-communicable lung disease management.
Christopher Berger, MD, MSIMT
Clinical Fellow
Christopher Berger is a clinical fellow in the UCSF Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, clinically based at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. His research focuses on improving tuberculosis screening, diagnosis, and treatment programs globally through the use of implementation science and human-centered design principles. He works with Dr. Adithya Cattamanchi in Uganda designing improved versions of the globally utilized “Directly Observed Therapy” toolkit. Christopher completed his undergraduate degree in international health at the University of Pittsburgh where he went on complete his MD. He received his masters in tropical medicine and international health at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. He completed his internal medicine residency at UCSF where he is currently finishing his pulmonary/critical care fellowship.
Devan Jaganath, MD, MPH
Clinical Fellow
Devan is a clinical fellow in the UCSF Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health and a Pediatric Scientist Development Program (PSDP) Fellow. Devan works with Dr. Adithya Cattamanchi to evaluate new tools to better diagnose TB among children in Uganda in the END Childhood TB Study. Devan completed his MD at UCLA, MPH at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Pediatrics residency at Johns Hopkins.
Joanita Nangendo, BLT, MCEB
PhD Candidate
Joanita is a trained laboratory technologist with a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics from Makerere University. She worked with the Makerere University Walter Reed Project and has been involved in HIV research for the last 7 years. She also has professional training in Implementation Science from University of Carlifornia San Franscisco and Mixed methods research from Makerere University. Joan is also a trainee with the Makerere University Implementation Science Program and at present pursuing a PhD in Health Sciences. At the time her interests are in HIV research; diagnostics, testing, the care cascade in men and stigma. She is currently working on the HIV TB Stigma study.
Katherine Robsky, PhD, MPH
Post Doctoral Fellow
Katherine is a Post Doctoral Fellow in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is working with Dr. David Dowdy on the STOMP-TB study. Her specific research interests include using spatiotemporal patterns to identify populations at risk for TB that could be prioritized for prevention and case finding interventions. She previously completed her PhD in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins and her MPH in Infectious Diseases at University of California, Berkeley and has worked in TB control and research in Thailand, California, and Namibia.
Lizzie White
PhD Student
Lizzie is a PhD student in the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at Yale School of Public Health. She works with Dr. Luke Davis on projects looking at the TB care cascade in Uganda and determinants of quality TB care. Previously, Lizzie served as an AmeriCorps member in Florida doing health education and community outreach, and she worked as a research assistant at Brigham and Women's Hospital on clinical informatics and public health projects.