2022-2023 Global Cancer Program Fellows
David Ayangba Asakitogum, MPhil, RN is a UCSF SON scholor, studying his PhD in nursing. He received his nursing diploma from Bolgatanga NTC, masters in nursing at University of Ghana, and a certificate in Leadership and Managment in Health at the University of Washington. His experience includes working as a nurse clinician and nurse educator in rural districts in Ghana, became a women's health advocate on Malaria in Pregnancy Prevention, HIV PMTCT, Cervical cancer awareness creation, and promoted adolescents' sexual reproductive health policies. Asakitogum's interest in oncology started when he took obstetrics and gynecological studies in college, where this shaped his research interest in cancer care and prevention with an emphasis on the quality of life of patients with gynecological cancers. His previous research includes cervical cancer, screening practices, traditional and orthodox care, and management modalitie. The UCSF Global Cancer Fellowship will support him with his research goal to develop an intervention to improve the quality of life of rural gynecological cancer patients and establish a cancer registry in Ghana.
Melissa Carvalho, MPH is a global health researcher from Senegal pursuing a Ph.D. in Global Health Sciences at UCSF. Before joining her doctoral program, Melissa received a master’s in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from the Yale School of Public Health; and spent nearly five years working as a Global Surgery Program Manager for the UCSF and UCLA Departments of Surgery. In this role, she managed a diverse research portfolio (e.g overseeing epidemiologic studies, community-based surveys, and policy analyses) primarily focused on strengthening surgical systems and characterizing the unmet surgical disease burden in Sub-Saharan Africa. Melissa also contributed to developing and implementing several NIH-funded projects to build capacity for trauma QI and mHealth follow-up of trauma patients after hospital discharge. Presently, her research interests lie in cancer care systems planning in low-and-middle-income countries and optimizing cancer care delivery using implementation science methods and approaches. The UCSF Global Cancer Fellowship will support her dissertation work which aims to assess the feasibility, appropriateness, and cost of integrating Next-Generation Sequencing technology into pediatric oncology care in Ghana to improve diagnosis and treatment planning.
Priscilla (Priz) Espinosa Tamez, MD is a researcher in the Center for Population Health Research at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico City, Mexico. Dr. Espinosa received her medical degree at the University of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. As the Manager of the UCSF-Mexico Cancer Collaboration in Mexico, she contributed to the analysis of results of the Mexican National Cancer Institute and the University of Veracruz colorectal cancer screening studies. She managed the study to evaluate the feasibility of colorectal cancer screening in Mexico City, which developed a context-appropriate screening program that aims to overcome barriers at multiple levels. She is a Fulbright-García Robles scholar studying at the University of California, San Francisco in the Ph.D. in Epidemiology and Translational Science. The UCSF Global Cancer Fellowship will support her studies in the design and implementation of context-appropriate screening interventions in the primary care health system in Mexico.
Cham Nguyen, PharmD MAS is an oncology pharmacist at UCSF. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy at Loma Linda University and master's in healthcare quality and patient safety at Johns Hopkins University. She is dual board certified in oncology and infectious diseases. Her research interest is in quality improvement and implementation science . The UCSF Global Cancer Fellowship will support her studies in the quality improvement and implementation of interventions to improve safe handling of hazardous drugs among healthcare workers in Vietnam.
Baraka Musimu, MD is an Otorhinolaryngology graduate of the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He works at Bugando Medical Centre, a tertiary zonal referral hospital in Mwanza region (Tanzania). He is a member of the Tanzania ENT Society (TENTS) and ENT UK. He’s a dedicated and passionate junior clinician researcher with an interest in HNC and has actively participated in various researches related to women infertility, tracheostomy care, sinonasal cancer. He is currently a fellow in the Centre for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) and the Global Cancer programs at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) working on the psycho-oncology project. The UCSF Global Cancer Fellowship will support this work which aims to assess the prevalence and predictive factors for depression and anxiety disorders among head and neck cancer patients at three tertiary hospitals in Tanzania.
Click here to access bios for our previous Global Cancer Fellows.
