Meet the team
Editor-in-Chief - Dr. Helen Igobeko Lugina (ECSA HC)
Dr Lugina is the Coordinator of the Human Resources Development and Capacity Building (HRDCB) Programme of the East, Central and Southern African (ECSA) Health Community Secretariat. The East, Central and Southern African College of Nursing (ECSACON) is functionally under the HRDCB programme. Before joining ECSA in September 2005, Dr. Lugina was a Senior Lecturer of Nursing and Midwifery and the Dean of the School of Nursing at Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences in Tanzania.
From 1988-1992 she did her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) and Masters in Nursing (MN) degrees at Dalhousie University in Canada. She received her doctoral degree in 2001 from Uppsala University in Sweden. She was the Chairperson of Africa Midwives Research Network from 2001 to 2005 and thereafter, she was elected Deputy Chairperson of the Network. Dr. Lugina is an experienced researcher and has a number of publications, especially in the area of maternal and neonatal health, focusing on postpartum care and midwives experiences in caring for women during childbirth.
Joint Consultant Editor - Prof. Eta Elizabeth Banda (Malawi)
Prof. Banda currently works with Muzuzu University as a Professor of Nursing and Midwifery. She has worked with MSH/MOH in Malawi as a quality assurance specialist in the areas of child health, nutrition. She holds a doctorate degree in Nursing Administration, Education and Policy from the University of Maryland and a Master of Science in Community Health Nursing from Boston University. Through the Henry Keiser Family Foundation, she was responsible for designing and improving health care services for adolescents and youths in South Africa. The areas of focus included reproductive health, family planning, HIV/AIDS, STI, and TB.
Under the MSH/INTRAH/EQUITY health project she worked for several years providing technical assistance and training in primary health care with emphasis on integrated reproductive health, child health, HIV/AIDS, STI and TB. At Kamuzu College of Nursing she worked in a variety of academic positions and in addition she held a variety of management positions including Dean, Vice Principal and Principal. She was the President of ECSACO from 1992-1996. Prof. Banda has conducted research and has several publications, especially in the area of health policy planning.
Joint Consultant Editor - Dr. Margaret Maimbolwa (Zambia)
Dr Margaret Maimbolwa is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Post Basic Nursing, School of Medicine, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia. She received her PhD from Karolinska Institute in Sweden. She has been participating in collaborative reproductive health research projects between the University of Zambia and the Division of International Health (IHCAR) since 1994. She has conducted research on issues related to maternal and neonatal health with special reference to social support in hospital and community settings in Zambia.
Dr Maimbolwa was among the founder members of the Africa Midwives Research Network (AMRN) and is the present Chairperson. Currently she co-ordinates and supervises research projects undertaken by nurses and midwives including PhD students within the country and the SADC region. The studies are supported by the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), under the University of Alabama, United States of America, and the Institutional Collaboration (Training) Research Network under Sida. Dr. Maimblowa has several publications in reproductive and sexual and women's health with focus on social support during childbirth.
Joint Associate Editor - Tina Lavender
Tina is a Professor of Midwifery and Women's Health at the University of Central Lancashire and a Consultant Midwife at Liverpool Women's Foundation Trust. She is an experienced researcher with a number of research interests that focus on women's expectations, experiences and outcomes. Much of her work is International, through partnerships with groups such as the African Midwives Research Network.
Tina is a member of the National Clinical FGM group, the White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and the Cochrane Collaboration. In addition, she has recently edited a book entitled 'Demystifying qualitative research in pregnancy and childbirth'.
Joint Associate Editor - Yana Richens
Yana began her career as a state enrolled nurse in 1979 and is now a consultant midwife at University College London Hospital. She has a wide range of clinical experience as a nurse and a midwife, both in hospital and community settings. Yana was a member of both the Department of Health ("DofH") steering group for Making a Difference for midwives in 1999 and the external working group for the Maternity Module of the National Service Framework in 2004. She is a member of the Chief Nursing Officers national advisory group, providing specialist advice on black and ethnic minority issues in the NHS, and was the first midwife to be awarded the prestigious Mary Seacole Fellowship, an award made by the DofH, which enabled Yana to undertake a piece of qualitative research exploring the experiences of women of Pakistani origin within UK Maternity services (the full report is available at www.yanarichens.co.uk). Since the publication of this report Yana has continued to work within the community setting in her role as a consultant midwife to raise awareness within public and professional groups, something she also achieves from writing and publishing extensively as well as speaking at local, national, and international conferences.
Yana is a member of the NICE guideline development group for the guideline on puerperal/perinatal mental health, and an expert advisor to the National Patient Safety Agency Prioritisation Board. She is an honorary senior lecturer at City University, London, and in 2005 co-founded the Female Genital Mutilation clinical guideline group, which is committed to the support of women who have undergone FGM and the eradication of this practice in the UK for which she campaigns tirelessly.
Editor - Victoria Clift-Matthews
Victoria graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree in English in 1998. She went on to train as a midwife at King's College London before deciding to move into publishing. Victoria has since worked as an editor on a number of academic books produced by the Chartered Insurance Institute. As well as her role as Editor of African Journal of Midwifery and Women's Health, Victoria is also the Editor of British Journal of Midwifery.
Editorial board
Lexa Kawala (ECSA HC) - ECSACON Senior Programme Officer, ECSA Health Community Secretariat
Dr Maureen Chirwa (Malawi) - Practitioner, Educator, Researcher, and Consultant
Olive Munjanja (Zambia) - Registered Nurse and Midwife
Rose Mlay (Tanzania) - Coordinator, White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood in Tanzania (WRATZ)
Dr Thecla Kohi (Tanzania) - Lecturer and dean of the School of Nursing, Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Dr Helen Smith (UK) - Deputy Programme Manager, Department for International Development funded Effective Health Care Research Program Consortium
Dr Ruth White (USA) - Assistant Professor of Social Work, Department of Anthropology and social work, Seattle University
Dr Pia Olson (Sweden) - Researcher, International Maternal and Child Health, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University
James Watiti (ECSA-HC) - Information Communications and Dissemination Specialist, East, Central and Southern African Health Community
Dr Laetitia King - Chief Academic Officer and Associate Dean, Nursing, Aga Khan University, East Africa
Margaret Loma Phiri - Regional Adviser for Nursing and Midwifery, WHO, Africa Regional Office
Dr Naomi Mmapelo Seboni (Botswana) - Head of the Department of Nursing and Director of the WHO Collective Center for Nursing and Midwifery Development
Dr Karen Odberg Petterson (Sweden) - Senior Lecturer, International Health, Lund University, Sweden