Mesh is governed by a Steering Committee composed of experts in community engagement with a focus on Global Health Research

The role of the group is to provide advice, advocacy and strategic oversight of the Mesh project, as well as bringing new users and new content to the site. The Committee provides advice and support to the Mesh Project Team on Strategic Planning and the future of Mesh

Dorcas Kamuya

Dorcas is a Wellcome Trust Society & Ethics Fellow, conducting empirical ethics research examining if and how communities could be engaged on complex ethical topics, with bio-banking as a case study. As a social science researcher in an LMIC, her research interests span several interrelated areas including developing ethical frameworks for Controlled Human Infection Studies in LMICs; the value of community and public engagement in health research, and ethical dilemmas for frontline research workers. She is primarily based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kilifi, Kenya. Dorcas is the current chair of the Health Systems and Research Ethics Department and co-leads the Health Systems Research theme in the Programme.

Bella Starling

Bella is a Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellow and Director of Public Programmes at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. Her career has spanned basic research, science writing, biomedical ethics, public engagement, patient involvement and science policy, as a practitioner, action researcher, strategic adviser and funder. She is passionate about inclusion in, and democratisation of, research; her Fellowship explores how public engagement with research acts as a catalyst for social change. During her time at the Wellcome Trust, she set up a programme funding community engagement in low to middle income countries. Sometimes, she is called a change-maker.

Sarah Iqbal

Sarah is the Lead, Communication and Public Engagement, at the Indian science funding agency, the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, a public charity funded by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and the Wellcome Trust (www.indiaalliance.org). She manages India Alliance's science communication and research leadership training as well as public engagement programmes. Sarah also assists in developing organisational strategy and national and international partnerships that empower India Alliance to strengthen the Indian biomedical research ecosystem. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, UK, and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Scripps Research Institute, USA.

Mary Chambers

Mary is the Head of Public Engagement (PE) at the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit Vietnam. Mary has been in Vietnam for almost 20 years – initially as a medical entomologist, working on malaria and dengue transmission.  Over the past decade, she has developed the PE programme in Chi Minh City, and daughter units in Hanoi, Nepal and Indonesia. The PE team has over 20 members who work on a diverse range of engagement projects with a range of communities including schoolchildren, farmers or patients in clinical research trials. They also have a strong emphasis on strengthening capacity of researchers and health-care workers to engage with their communities. Mary’s personal interests lie in using participatory art and film to amplify community voices and bring them into conversations about research.

Michael Parker

Michael is Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, and the Ethox Centre at the University of Oxford. Together with partners in Kenya, Malawi, South Africa, Thailand, and Vietnam he co-ordinates the Global Health Bioethics Network which aims to build ethics capacity and conduct empirical bioethics research of the practical ethical issues arising in collaborative global health research. In 2018-19 Michael chaired a Nuffield Council on Bioethics Working Group on ethical issues in research conducted during global health emergencies.

Noni Mumba

Noni heads the Community Engagement Platform at the KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kenya. Their activities aim to strengthen relations and build mutual understanding between researchers and communities in all KWTRP research sites. She works with an experienced team of 8 community liaison staff and has over 10 years’ experience in Health and Strategic Behaviour Change Communication, Social Marketing and more recently Science Communication. Noni’s role involves developing best practice strategies for the involvement of communities and publics in research, through innovative engagement initiatives. She is also responsible for mentoring and building capacity of community liaison and research staff, as well as monitoring and evaluation, and sharing lessons learnt within different global networks.

Georgia Bladon

Georgia focuses on identifying and implementing strategies for ensuring that the interests of non-scientists shape and improve science; that health research is developed with cultural and ethical sensitivity; and that science more broadly is recognised as a core and valued part of society and culture. In the past, this has involved managing the European communications and engagement campaign of the Hubble Space Telescope; running the public engagement programme for the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research at the University of Bristol; and creating community engagement network Mesh. Now, Georgia works at the Wellcome Trust managing the portfolio of work engaging research communities and the public with research across Africa and Asia.

Phaik Yeong Cheah

Phaik Yeong is a bioethicist and Associate Professor at University of Oxford. She heads the Department of Bioethics & Engagement at the Bangkok based Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU). She teaches bioethics at University of Oxford and conducts research on ethical issues related to conducting research in low-income settings. Her current projects include research on issues around malaria elimination, data sharing, and community engagement. Phaik Yeong leads many community engagement activities in Thailand and Southeast Asia as a way to incorporate community voices and experience in research. She has been involved in managing and conducting clinical trials for more than 20 years. She has a degree in pharmacy, MSc in bioethics and a PhD in Pharmaceutics.

Robin Vincent

Robin is a social anthropologist and independent learning, evaluation and research advisor with over 20 years’ experience working in social development and public health, in the UK and international settings. Robin has designed and facilitated peer learning forums on social development, and community and public engagement with health research, encouraging learning among local communities, development practitioners, policy-makers and academics. He has conducted evaluation and provided advisory inputs on evaluation for a range of international agencies and organisations including DFID Uganda, UNAIDS, UNAIDS Kenya, Australian and Cambodian Red Cross, Soul City Institute (South Africa), H3Africa, Nurture Development, and Wellcome. Robin is currently leading REAL - a Realist Review of community engagement with health research, supported by Wellcome and hosted by Oxford University Centre of Medicine and Global Health Nuffield Department of Medicine, in collaboration with an international team.

Rodrick Sambakunsi

Rodrick is an experienced and committed Public/Community Engagement Practitioner. He has worked with diverse audiences including research communities, the general public, students and research stakeholders. Rodrick currently leads a vibrant Science Communication and Public Engagement team at Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme in Blantyre, Malawi. As a Science Communication Manager, his role involves spearheading all science communication and public engagement initiatives with the aim of supporting ethical research practice and promoting a two-way dialogue between researchers and research communities. The programme’s main activities include, a radio program, journalist in residence program, Samala Moyo exhibition project, community film shows, science cafes, the Kafukufuku Research Festival and ‘Science 4 All’ programme.

Jim Lavery

Jim is the inaugural Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Global Health Ethics, Professor in the Hubert Department of Global Health in the Rollins School of Public Health, and Faculty of the Center for Ethics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to joining the Emory faculty, he was a Research Scientist and Managing Director of the Centre for Ethical, Social & Cultural Risk at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, and an Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Institute of Medical Science, and Joint Centre for Bioethics at the University of Toronto. Jim was the co-principal investigator of the Ethical, Social and Cultural (ESC) Program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Global Health and Global Development programs from 2005-2015. He is currently leading the development of the Human Engagement Learning Platform (HELP) for Global Health, to support funders and implementation partners to improve community and stakeholder engagement in global health and global development programs. Jim is the 2017 recipient of the Global Forum for Bioethics in Research Award for Contributions to Progress in International Research.