NECSI welcomes two new co-faculty to our team:
Drs. Paul Stephen Ayella-Ataro and Joa Ja’Keno Obitachiki Okech-Ojony
Dr. Paul Stephen Ayella-Ataro is a Ugandan Medical Doctor, Public Health Consultant and has recently been the Principal Investigator for ART Adherence study in South Sudan. He has previously been Head of Health and Nutrition Sector heading Ebola preparedness response in South Sudan and Emergency Response, Health Program Manager/Technical Adviser for Save the Children International, among other public health positions in Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Liberia, and other countries. He has multi-country epidemic preparedness and response experience as well as sexual reproductive health in humanitarian emergencies for over 10 years. Dr. Ayella-Ataro serves as Part-Time Team Physician for Uganda Netball Federation (Team Uganda She Cranes) for international games; he has recently been accepted as a Member for Canadian Academy of Sports and Exercise Medicine (CASEM). He has been collaborating with NECSI in Ebola research and community level interventions since 2014.
Dr. Ayella-Ataro is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Public Health in the UK. He received his MSc in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Makerere University Kampala, International Child Survival Strategies from Uppsala University in Sweden, and Postgraduate Diploma in Development Studies majoring Project Planning and Management.
Dr Ayella-Ataro has a special interest and career in music playing gospel and cultural music, he leads a musical band of Christian doctors in Uganda and East Africa region where they perform at international events—his main instrument is the Yamaha Synthesizer Keyboard and does lead vocalist role as well along with his three children who have music expertise. He is married to Christine Ayella-Ataro, a University Lecturer and Specialist in Gender and Development.
Dr. Joa Ja’Keno Obitachiki Okech-Ojony’s goal is to be involved at the forefront of Uganda’s, Africa’s, and the World’s efforts to redress health service delivery systems, having taken part in most EVD/MVD outbreaks in Uganda, West Africa and DRC. He is multilingual. He speaks French, English and other regional languages.
He has widely traveled in the Francophone and Anglophone regions of Africa. He has managed and directed a personal medical complex in the South Kivu region of Zaïre, now DRC, for over 15 years.
He is at the moment a consultant with WHO in EVD as a Field Coordinator Epidemiologist on preparedness and response in eleven districts of West Nile region of Uganda.