Presenter Biographies

Salome Maswime

Salome Maswime is a Professor and the Head of the Global Surgery Division at the University of Cape Town. She is a pioneer and expert in the discipline of Global Surgery, a member of the high-level council of the Global Surgery Foundation, and member of the Association of Academic Global Surgery. She currently serves as the Vice President of Women in Global Health South Africa, and Chairperson of the Health Systems Trust Board. She is an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, a member of the South African Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, a member of the FIGO Committee on ethical aspects of Human Reproduction, and a member of the United Nations Core Stillbirths Estimates Group. 

She is a member of the Academy of Science South Africa, and the founder and President of the South African Clinician Scientist Society and Chairs the University of the Future Project at the University of Cape Town. She studied at UKZN and Wits University, and has a PHD in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and did a Discovery Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She completed a Certificate in Leading Organisations and Change from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Young Physician Leaders Programme at the European School of Management and Technology.

She has received numerous awards for her research contribution to science and to healthcare, including the trailblazer and young achiever award by the President of South Africa in 2017, Mail and Guardians 50 most powerful women in South Africa in 2020, World Economic Forum Young Scientist in 2020, Young Shaper of the Future of Health and Medicine by Encyclopedia Brittanica in 2021, the NSTF SA MRC Clinician Scientist award for pioneering Global Surgery in Africa, in 2023.

Alixandra Bacon

Alixandra Bacon, RM MA (she/her) is Adjunct Professor and Co-Lead of Global and International Health at UBC Midwifery. She is Past President of the Canadian Association of Midwives (CAM) & Midwives Association of BC. Alixandra has worked on Midwifery Association Strengthening and midwifery educational projects led by CAM, UNFPA and UBC in Nepal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda.

Emilie Joos

Originally from Montreal, Dr. Joos completed medical school at McGill University, a general surgery residency in Quebec City, a Trauma and Surgical Critical Care fellowship at LAC+USC and has been on staff at Vancouver General Hospital since 2014. She completed a Masters in Global Health Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2019. She has been working with Médecins Sans Frontières since 2015 and was deployed several times in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Joos is the founder of the Global Surgery Lab, the associate director of the UBC Branch for Global Surgical Care and the UBC Trauma and Acute Care Surgery Fellowship program director.

Esther Chin

Dr. Esther Chin is an Obstetrician/Gynecologist, Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct), and Global Health Lead of the Department of Ob/Gyn at McMaster University. She completed medical school and residency at McMaster University and holds a Master’s in Global Surgical Care from the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is Adjunct Professor at UBC in the Faculty of Medicine’s Branch for Global Surgical Care and co-instructs SURG512: Global Disability – A Global Surgical Care Mandate. She is a Principal Investigator at UBC’s Global Surgery Lab and is also a Content Consultant and Lecturer for their Essential Surgical Skills Curriculum – a collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières - which is currently in its second iteration in Aweil, South Sudan. She is visiting faculty at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda for their Ob/Gyn Clerkship Bootcamp and their Master’s of Global Health Delivery – Global Surgery Option.

She underwent training in the repair of obstetric fistula in Angola and has previously worked in Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Guatemala, primarily at the district hospital level. Her areas of interest and research are in obstetric fistula, surgical care systems, maternal morbidity/mortality, medical & surgical education, capacity building, and health equity.

Martin Chigwede

Martin Chigwede is a pediatric Surgery Quality Improvement Nurse at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi, Africa. Martin’s area of expertise is in pediatric surgical care in low-resource settings, providing facilitation between the pediatric surgical team and the unit nurses in the care of a variety of patients such as abdominal wall defects, pyloric stenosis, necrotizing fasciitis, and teratomas. In his unique position, Martin creates a variety of surgical care plans for patients, helps to manage the lack of resources; monitors outcomes; and works to address the underlying determinants of health for affected families to improve patient outcomes. From his experience, it is apparent the high burden of disease in global surgery, particularly for neonates. Martin has recently been awarded a grant by Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the National Institute of Health and Care Research to conduct a study exploring the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Healthcare Workers’ on Gastroschisis Pre-referral Management Interventions in Central Malawi. Martin’s diverse experience in clinical work, research, community service, and academia, combined with his strong passion for maternal, neonatal, and child health position him to provide important and thoughtful contributions to the global surgery community. His career goals are focused on expanding his knowledge in global surgical care and working towards improving pediatric surgical healthcare delivery in Malawi and other low-resource settings.

Moses Kasumba Kaggya

Kasumba Moses Kaggya (M.D FCS (ECSA), FACS) is a Pediatric Surgery Fellow at BC Children’s Hospital.  He served as the Surgery Program Director with the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons, Malamulo Adventist Hospital, Malawi from 2017-2023. He Attended medical School at Kharkov National University in Ukraine and trained in General Surgery with PAACS (Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons) affiliated to Loma-Linda University and become a fellow of COSECSA (College of Surgeons of East and Central Southern Africa. He is an international fellow of the American college of Surgeons (FACS).

Dr. Kaggya holds a Global Surgery Volunteer Assistant Professor role with Loma-Linda University and worked at the WHO evaluating the Global unmet needs in cancer care.
His Clinical interests are in the areas of Pediatric Surgery, Pediatric Surgical Oncology and Surgical Pathology.

Norgrove Penny

Dr. Penny is a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and is a faculty member at the Branch for Global Surgical Care at UBC where he teaches a graduate course on global surgery. He worked for six years in Uganda setting up a children’s orthopaedic rehabilitation program and now consults in developing countries around the world. He works in advisory positions for non-governmental organizations involved in orthopaedic training and clinical care in some of the world’s poorest countries. He is an Overseas Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA).

Teresa Skelton

Currently my research focuses on two main topic areas, safe perioperative transfusion medicine practices and global health partnerships and education. Through this recent initiative: Transfusion Camp Rwanda, a currently very successful training program for anesthesia residents in Canada and the UK, that delivers core transfusion medicine education in Africa, we have managed to develop a successful knowledge translation strategy to improve access to transfusion medicine education among multidisciplinary teams in Rwanda.

I also support research in quality improvement initiatives including the perioperative use of oral iron to decrease usage of blood products in children and I work to make long lasting system changes in the emergent transfusion of pediatric trauma patients across small and large hospitals through education and protocol development.

Jan Christilaw

Until April 2017, Dr. Jan Christilaw served as President of BC Women’s Hospital + Health Centre, and Vice President, Provincial Women’s & Newborn Health, Provincial Health Services Authority. Since stepping down, she has continued her clinical work as a Clinical Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. She also serves as Director of Women’s Health with the Canadian Network for International Surgery, providing capacity building and skills training in several countries.

Dr. Christilaw has spent her career advancing women’s health in British Columbia. Her 25+ years of accomplishments include: President, Society of Obstetrics-Gynecologists Canada; Expert Advisor, Canadian Institute for Health Information for Maternity; UBC Clinical Professor, Editorial Board of JOGC, and Chair, BC Consensus Panel on Cesarean Birth. During her long career, she has delivered thousands of babies in British Columbia and worked as a full service community Obstetrician-gynecologist in White Rock-South Surrey for over 20 years.

In recent years, she has been awarded the YWCA Women of Distinction Award in the Health and Wellness category, the British Columbia Community Service Award, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal, Waterloo University Distinguished Alumni Award, the National Leadership Award of the Federation of Medical Women, the Canadian International Surgery Volunteer of the Year award, and the UBC MAA Honorary Medical Alumnus Award in 2016. Most recently, as of January 1, 2017, she was appointed to the Order of Canada for her work in obstetrics nationally and internationally.

Faizal Haji

Faizal Haji is a pediatric neurosurgeon at the BC Children’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Haji is also co-lead for the Surgical Education Research Interest Group and Associate Director of the Global Surgery Lab within the Department of Surgery at UBC.

Dr. Haji completed undergraduate studies followed by medical training at McMaster University. After graduating from medical school in 2008, he completed his neurosurgical residency at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. During residency, Dr. Haji obtained a PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, alongside completing research fellowships at the Ronald R. Wilson Centre for Research in Education at UHN and the Learning Institute at the Hospital for Sick Children. His dissertation focused on the effect of fidelity, complexity and cognitive load on learning and transfer of procedural skills for novices engaged in simulation-based education. Upon completing neurosurgical residency and becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2018, Dr. Haji completed a postgraduate fellowship in pediatric neurological surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where his research focused on capacity development for postgraduate surgical training in resource-limited settings. After training, Dr. Haji spent two years as a pediatric and adult neurosurgeon at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Medical Education Scholar at Queen’s University. Dr. Haji’s academic interest is in health professions education, with his program of research focusing on three areas: (i) optimizing the design of simulation-based education for medical and surgical skills training with particular focus on cognitive load and learner engagement; (ii) surgical decision making and factors influencing the quality of education and assessment during surgical training; and (iii) translating innovations in health professions education to facilitate surgical capacity development in resource-limited settings through global surgical partnership.