About
My vision is to use data driven approaches in order to advocate for better outcomes in early child development and dhildren with neurodevelopmental disabilities. I work as a global expert by both WHO and UNICEF on over five different initiatives including interventions for children with disabilities and developmental delay, home based health records in order to support teams in making more informed decisions on research and programmatic evaluation. I support impactful research on the validation and creation of normative values for children’s development through the Global Scales of Early Development which is currently validating a tool on over 8,000 children across 8 countries. I particularly focus on the validation of the "long form" - the direct observational tool and am now focussing on ensuring that we can well validate the tool for identifying children with disabilities in the youngest years to ensure they get the interventions they need in a timely manner.
Having conducted studies with collaborative grants over 12 million in over 10 countries in the world on early child development and disability, I have gained experience and knowledge in ensuring best data collection through the use of electronic databases, standard operating procedures, the use of well-adapted tools and good quality control procedures.
I have a natural talent working across cultures and contexts managing ongoing projects by bringing people and systems together to deliver results as demonstrated by my 23 year history of conducting research across contexts particularly in Africa with over 100 publications. I am driven to ensure that I do this most by capacity strengthening and supporting growth and leadership of the teams and individuals I work with globally.
Prizes or Honours
- Royal College of Paediatrics David Harvey Award (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2011)
- Paul Polani Prize (British Academy Childhood Disability, 2011)
Funded Fellowships
- Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund Fellowship (Wellcome Trust, 2012)
- Heinz Fellowship Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, 2004 - 2006)