CARTA Newsletter (July-Dec 2017) CARTA NEWSLETTER July Dec 2017 | Page 5

Kudos!
CARTA fellow and team win US$3.6 million
NIH grant to fight blindness in Africa
CARTA fellow elected deputy dean
CARTA Cohort two fellow, Linda Nyondo Mipando, has been selected
as deputy dean at the School of Public Health and Family Medicine in
the College of Medicine, University of Malawi. She is a registered nurse-
midwife by training and is currently a lecturer in the Department of
Health Systems and Policy at the college.
Cohort Five fellow Lester Kapanda congratulated Dr. Mipando on
her new role and described her as “our mentor, a dedicated and
hardworking lecturer”. “She is the first woman to attain this high
position at our college; once again, congratulations and keep up the
good work!!”
Dr. Mipando’s research interests include health systems and
implementation science research with a focus on service delivery.
She is also keen on researching on HIV and AIDS across different
populations, malaria, maternal and child health.
Dr. Mipando completed her PhD in health systems research from the
University of Malawi’s College of Medicine in 2015, funded by CARTA
and the National Commission for Science and Technology.
Her doctoral research explored the feasibility of male involvement in
services to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV in Blantyre,
Malawi.
In 2004, she graduated with a Master’s degree in Community Health
Nursing from the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) in South Africa,
with a thesis on client satisfaction with Primary Health Care Service
in Lilongwe, Malawi. She completed her Bachelor of Nursing at the
University of Natal, South Africa in 2003. She obtained her nursing
diploma and a university certificate in midwifery from the University
of Malawi in 1997 and 1998 respectively.
Olusola Oluyinka Olawoye, Cohort Seven fellow is also the president of her
cohort. She is a senior lecturer and glaucoma specialist at the University of
Ibadan, Nigeria.
Olusola Oluyinka Olawoye, Cohort Seven fellow, is part of a research
team from the University of Ibadan that won an H3 Africa National
Institutes of Health (NIH) research grant worth US$3.68million.
The grant is for a collaborative research project titled ‘Eyes of Africa: the
genetics of blindness.’ It will be carried out in Nigeria, Gambia, Malawi
and South Africa over a five-year period.
In September 2015, Dr. Mipando was one of four postdoctoral fellows
to receive a 12-month postdoctoral fellowship from CARTA, joining the
Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust in the malaria epidemiology group
that contributed to a national taskforce review of current malaria
evidence so as to inform the 2016-2021 national malaria research
agenda.
Dr. Olawoye is part of a seven-member team from the University of
Ibadan investigating the genetics of blindness with a focus on primary
open angle glaucoma (POAG) in sub-Saharan Africa: a global cause of
blindness that is among the most preventable. The condition leads to
optic nerve damage and potentially irreversible visual loss. Progression
of this optic nerve damage can usually be halted with treatment but
cannot be reversed once the damage is done.
Dr. Olawoye said that while the application process was demanding,
the skills she gained as part of her participation in CARTA helped her
draft the grant proposal submitted in November 2016.
The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative seeks to
facilitate a contemporary research approach to the study of genomics
and environmental determinants of common diseases with the goal
of improving the health of African populations.
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CARTA Cohort Two fellow, Linda Nyondo Mipando is the deputy dean at the
School of Public Health and Family Medicine in the College of Medicine,
University of Malawi.