Josephine Nkhowani, is a Research Associate with the University of Zambia. She also serves as Project Coordinator for the IS4NCDs Consortium at the University of Zambia and supports the Countdown to 2030 initiative in partnership with the Ministry of Health as a research fellow. She holds a Master of Science in Epidemiology, a Bachelor of Science in Public Health, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching Methodology. She has also completed several professional certifications in project management, data analysis (SPSS), and research methodologies.

Her work is rooted in the intersection of gender, health equity, and implementation science, with a strong emphasis on applying mixed methods to inform policy and practice. She has coordinated studies on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, harmful gender norms, and workplace harassment and violence in the health systems among frontline healthcare workers applying tools such as Dedoose and SPSS/Stata for qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

In her various roles, she contributes to grant writing, research design and stakeholder engagements. Notably, she has supported projects funded by international partners such as CDC Atlanta and has contributed to dissemination efforts that translate research findings into actionable insights. Beyond research, she is passionate about capacity building and evidence-informed development.

Dr. Adam Silumbwe is lecturer and researcher in the Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, University of Zambia (UNZA), with five years’ experience in training post and undergraduate students in health policy, systems, and implementation research. Dr. Silumbwe was a recipient of the inaugural WHO-TDR MPH training in implementation research between 2016-2018 at the UNZA, and after graduation, he has continued to coordinate and supervise implementation research projects among students in his department. He completed his PhD in Public Health in 2025, at the Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Sweden. His PhD focused on exploring the systems context and the collaborative dynamics in the tobacco control policy development and alcohol policy implementation in Zambia. Further, Dr. Silumbwe has been coordinating two NIH funded projects that seek to strengthen research on NCD risk factors as well as trauma and injuries in Zambia.

Choolwe Nkwemu-Jacobs, PhD, is a Global Health expert and Epidemiologist with extensive experience in research and academia. She currently serves as as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Zambia and is the Co-founder of Women in Global Health Zambia. Choolwe is committed to advancing equitable health outcomes and improving access to healthcare services through the application of robust epidemiological methods, mixed methodologies, and implementation science. Her research work span a range of critical public health issues, including women’s health, gender equity, newborn and adolescent health, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), HIV/AIDS, and the health workforce.
She is the Principal Investigator at the University of Zambia for IS4NCDs, an Erasmus+-funded collaborative project focused on strengthening implementation science education and institutional capacity for NCD care. In addition, she leads Zambia's Countdown to 2030 country collaboration, which tracks progress on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N) indicators, as well as gender-related metrics. She also leads the evaluation of the implementation of the Reaching Every Community/Reaching Every District (REC/RED) strategy within Zambia’s integrated Primary Health Care framework. Choolwe received her education from the University of Zambia, the University of Otago (New Zealand), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), and Johns Hopkins University (USA). She is also a faculty fellow at Washington University and an alumna of Harvard University and Vanderbilt University.