About Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) was founded in 1898 and was the first institution in the world dedicated to research and teaching in the field of tropical medicine. The school aims to reduce the burden of sickness and mortality in disease endemic countries through the delivery of effective interventions which improve human health and are relevant to the poorest communities.
It provides postgraduate teaching, technical assistance and research into areas such as health policy and systems research, neglected tropical diseases, maternal and new-born health, malaria and other vector-borne diseases, and more recently COVID-19.
More on Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine on its website [opens new tab]
LSTM and ReBUILD for Resilience
Staff from LSTM’s Health Systems and Workforce Strengthening Unit and Centre for Health Systems Strengthening are leading ReBUILD for Resilience as well as co-directing the research with IGHD. The team successfully delivered the programme’s precursor, ReBUILD, and is now applying that experience and knowledge to fragile and shock-prone settings. The team’s expertise lies in delivering robust and innovative research, education and capacity strengthening with partners in the Global South, with a focus on the health system and health workforce.
During ReBUILD for Resilience the team will work with partners to deliver research that engages with communities, networks and policymakers at the sub-national, national, regional and international levels. Research uptake activities will influence attitudes, practice and policy, fostering resilience and sustainability.
LSTM-supported projects
Follow the links for project details and outputs:
- Liminal health systems: health seeking behaviour of migrants and internally displaced people from Myanmar along the Thailand-Myanmar border
- Exploring health workforce preparedness for shocks in Turkey
- The role of non-state actors in health service delivery and health system resilience in Myanmar (2015-22)
- Working with community leaders to address shocks, increase inclusivity, accountability and trust, and support health system resilience in Sierra Leone
- The gendered experience of close-to-community providers in fragile and shock-prone settings: implications for policy and practice during and post COVID-19
- Close-to-community providers addressing gender norms and power dynamics: participatory action research in fragile and shock-prone settings
- Mapping the resilience capacities and coping mechanisms of health workers and other cadres in hospital emergency departments in Sana’a during protracted conflict and crisis in Yemen
- Understanding health system resilience to respond to COVID-19 in a federalised context: a case study of health workforce management at sub-national level in Nepal
- Cross-country learning on health system resilience: synthesis of OPM findings on the role of community health workers in COVID-19 and on governance for health system responses to emergencies
- Understanding and developing a resilient health system in Bar Elias/Majdal Anjar, Lebanon
- Understanding and strengthening local health governance and planning to build resilient local health systems that leave no one behind: Nepal
- Health system resilience amid outbreaks: understanding the politics of sexual and reproductive health service adaptation in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo
- Webinar: No health without peace: Health justice in armed conflict settings
- Podcast: The Health Workforce in Times of Crisis
- Podcast: Migration, displacement and health systems
Dr Joanna Raven
Research co-director
Joanna is a health systems researcher with more than 20 years’ experience of research, training and partnerships in Africa and Asia. She has managed multi-partner research grants, fostering networks based on trust, innovation and quality outputs. She has a strong track record of developing the capacity of researchers, managers and health workers and has helped build an extensive network in health systems research at the policy/practice interface.
Joanna is senior lecturer in health systems research at LSTM and leads the Centre for Health Systems Research [opens new tab]. Her recent research has centred on fragile and conflict-affected and resource poor settings, focusing on strengthening district-level health management, health workforce performance (including informal health workers), gender equity and scaling-up complex health system interventions.
Contact Joanna via the LSTM website.
Clara Burton
CEO
Working alongside researchers and partners, Clara is responsible for the strategic oversight and accountability of operational and financial aspects of the ReBUILD for Resilience consortium.
Clara has extensive experience managing large and complex programmes in low- and middle-income settings. She has worked in senior programme manager positions at LSTM since 2017 and before that at iNGOs (CAFOD, CARE International, PRI) in project management and business development roles. She holds an MSc in International Development.
Clara is also working closely with senior academics to establish the Institute of Resilient Health Systems, a new initiative aiming to build on and extend LSTM’s health systems research, education and knowledge exchange programmes. She also leads the programme and financial management sessions on LSTM’s Diploma for Tropical Nursing, Practice of Humanitarian Relief, and Global Health.
Contact Clara via the LSTM website [opens new tab]
Professor Sally Theobald
Lead on gender, equity and justice theme
Sally is a social scientist with more than 25 years’ experience of collaborative research projects focusing on health systems strengthening systems in different contexts in Africa and Asia.
Sally’s PhD is in Gender, Health and Development and she has particular interests in gender, equity and health systems in fragile and shock prone contexts. She chairs the gender, equity and justice working group for ReBUILD for Resilience and during ReBUILD worked with colleagues on the Building Back Better resource [opens new tab].
Contact Sally via the LSTM website [opens new tab].
Dr Wesam Mansour
Researcher
Wesam is a post-doctoral research associate at LSTM. Her research interests focus on health systems strengthening in low-and-middle income countries, fragile settings, health policy, health workforce, capacity building, healthcare quality and patient safety, and external evaluation systems. As well as ReBUILD for Resilience, Wesam has produced qualitative research for another LSTM-led project, PERFORM2Scale [opens new tab]
Wesam is a physician, a paediatric and neonatology specialist, a healthcare quality and accreditation specialist, and a Fellow of the International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua). She has a PhD in Health Policy and Management from the University of Manchester, UK.
Contact Wesam via the LSTM website [opens new tab].
Kate Hawkins
Communications and research uptake manager
As the Managing Director of Pamoja Communications, Kate has extensive experience working with research partners and consortia in the creation of strategies and plans; brokering engagement with stakeholders and their networks, creating impactful communication products and targeting dissemination. She is adept at translating academic research into communication products for a variety of audiences. Kate is an experienced writer with many years’ experience of communication work in the NGO, academic and private sectors. She has created and managed many websites and online platforms to promote research findings and partnerships. Kate has supported partners to improve the demand-side of research communications – engaging with policy makers and practitioners throughout the research process, brokering partnerships between academia and government, supporting capacity development for evidence use.
Contact Kate on kate@pamoja.uk.com
Karen Miller
Communications manager
Karen manages the ReBUILD for Resilience communications products and social media platforms. She fulfils a similar role for LSTM’s CHESS partnership, and previously worked on ReBUILD for Resilience’s precursor, ReBUILD.
Karen has extensive experience in a variety of communications roles, working across both digital and print media. When not at LSTM she works as a freelance copywriter, editor and project manager, delivering projects for museums and galleries, heritage organisations, universities and the private sector.
Karen has a master’s degree in international relations and security.
Contact Karen via the LSTM website.
Nick Hooton
Research uptake officer
Nick is a specialist in pro-poor research/policy processes and research uptake. He has a master’s degree in international animal health and modules in international development and development management from the Open University. He worked at the International Livestock Research Institute in East Africa for five years, focusing on rural livelihoods and on the better use of evidence for pro-poor policy and practice. From 2014-19 he was research, policy and practice advisor for the ReBUILD consortium.
Nick is also a qualified veterinary surgeon and still practices in South Wales.
Contact Nick on nick@hooton.plus.com
Eunice Ngundo
Finance project manager
Eunice is responsible for providing financial management to REBUILD for Resilience.
Eunice joined LSTM in September 2015 as a Finance Officer in the Nairobi office, providing day-to-day accounting/finance support, including set up of finance & administrative systems/processes and finance/administrative personnel recruitment for the Tanzania office before being appointed as Finance Manager (Kenya & Tanzania) from September 2018. In this role, she provided oversight on the finance and operations of the FCDO, Global fund, Johnson and Johnson, USAID and UN-funded programmes, in addition to governance support for the two offices.
She is a CPA(K) with a bachelor’s degree in commerce (finance option) and an MBA (Strategic Management option), with 10 years’ work experience in the not-for-profit sector.
Louise Bauer
Project coordinator
Louise has extensive experience in co-ordinating complex projects.
She joined LSTM in 2023 as Programme Administrator in the Liverpool office, providing day-to-day administrative and logistical support.
Louise is passionate about projects that have a positive impact which is one of the reasons she was attracted her to the role in the ReBUILD programme.
Contact Louise at louise.bauer@lstmed.ac.uk
The ReBUILD for Resilience partners are:
The team is supported by research associates
