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East African Institute for Health Equity Research and Innovation (EAHERI)                                        info@eaheri.org   +256 751-084-986 / +256 777-202-332

 International Collaborations

We partner with leading global institutions to bring rigorous methodology and technical expertise to our work, while keeping community engagement and local priorities at the center of every study.

Collaborator | University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Dr. Gretchen Bandoli, PhD, MPH, MBA is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California, San Diego, and an Associate Director of the UCSD Altman Clinical and Translational Research Institute. She earned her PhD in Epidemiology from UCLA and her MPH in Epidemiology from San Diego State University, and she co-directs research within UCSD's Center for Better Beginnings. Dr. Bandoli's work focuses on maternal exposures during pregnancy including medications, mental health, and substance use and their effects on offspring outcomes, and she is known for advancing statistical methods to better characterize complex exposures across gestation.

Dr. Bandoli leads several major research initiatives, including the Study of Outcomes in Mothers and Infants (SOMI), an administrative cohort covering roughly seven million California births, and serves as a site Principal Investigator for the national Healthy Brain and Child Development (HBCD) Study. She also co-directs the epidemiology track of the SDSU–UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Global Health, where she mentors doctoral students in perinatal epidemiology and pharmacoepidemiology and epidemiology methods.

A Bridge Between EAHERI and UCSD

Dr. Bandoli serves as a key academic collaborator connecting EAHERI's health-facility data work in Uganda with methodological expertise from UC San Diego in longitudinal cohort design and linked-records research. The SOMI study, which links vital records, hospital discharge data, and other administrative sources across millions of mother-infant pairs has directly informed how EAHERI's own linked hospital data platform at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital was designed and framed.

This collaboration has focused on:

  • Shaping EAHERI's linked hospital data platform – The SOMI methodology helped guide the decision to center EAHERI's Jinja Regional Referral Hospital protocol on the pregnancy, maternal, newborn, and child health continuum, using probabilistic record linkage to connect antenatal, delivery, postnatal, and child health encounters, with HIV, mental health, substance use, and IPV/GBV data captured as key exposures and comorbidities.

  • Strengthening causal and methodological rigor - advising on high-relevance, fundable causal questions modeled on SOMI's approach to studying maternal chronic conditions, medication patterns, and social risk factors in relation to pregnancy and infant outcomes, helping position EAHERI's protocol for funder interest.

  • Mentorship and protocol review - reviewing draft study protocols and providing methodological and ethical feedback as EAHERI finalizes its data-sharing agreement and memorandum of understanding with Jinja Regional Referral Hospital.

Current Collaborative Protocol

Protocol Skeleton: Hospital Data Platform for Pregnancy, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, HIV, NCDs, Mental Health, and GBV at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda.

Protocol title: Hospital Pregnancy, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health Data Platform at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital: Linked Routine Records for Sexual and Reproductive Health Research.

Working name: Jinja Maternal and Child Health Linked Data Platform.

This partnership reflects EAHERI's broader model of locally-led, globally connected research: EAHERI leads community engagement, facility relationships, and data collection on the ground in Uganda, while Dr. Bandoli and her UCSD team contribute deep expertise in longitudinal cohort methods, exposure assessment, and large-scale linked-data research - helping ensure EAHERI's platform is built on rigorous, fundable science from the outset.

Collaborator | San Diego State University (SDSU) & University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Dr. Elizabeth Reed, ScD, MPH, is a Professor of Global Health at San Diego State University (SDSU) and Co-Director of the SDSU–UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Global Health. Trained in social epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dr. Reed has spent nearly two decades studying how gender inequality, poverty, and structural violence shape health outcomes for women and girls — with a particular focus on intimate partner violence (IPV), sexual and reproductive health, and HIV prevention. Her research spans the United States, Latin America, South Asia, and Africa.


A Bridge Between EAHERI and SDSU/UCSD

Dr. Reed brings expertise at the intersection of gender, poverty, and health, with a particular focus on how gender and economic inequalities shape sexual and reproductive health, violence, and health disparities among women and adolescents. Through collaboration with faculty at San Diego State University and UC San Diego, she complements EAHERI’s community-grounded research, local partnerships, and implementation experience in Uganda with interdisciplinary expertise in intervention development, evaluation, and sexual and reproductive health research. Together, this partnership combines locally grounded knowledge and community trust with the scientific expertise needed to develop and evaluate contextually relevant, evidence-based interventions.

Together, this collaboration has focused on:

  • Adapting evidence-based interventions for the Ugandan context, including the adaptation of the Jenga Dada model to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) among adolescent girls and young women in rural Uganda, and the adaptation of the Girls Invest economic-empowerment model (originally piloted in Nigeria) to integrate HIV stigma reduction and clinic linkage for adolescent girls, pregnant and postpartum women, and female sex workers in Uganda.

  • Joint grant development, co-developing concept notes and full proposals for international funders focused on HIV, gender-based violence, and adolescent and maternal health, with EAHERI leading community implementation and Dr. Reed contributing technical design and monitoring frameworks grounded in implementation science.

  • Capacity building and mentorship, supporting EAHERI's research team in applying rigorous, equity-centered methods to program design and evaluation, consistent with principles of locally led global health partnership.

Current Collaborative Protocol

Protocol Skeleton: Hospital Data Platform for Pregnancy, Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, HIV, NCDs, Mental Health, and GBV at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda.

  National Collaborations

We work closely with government ministries, local authorities, and health facilities across Uganda, ensuring our research stays grounded in national priorities and directly strengthens the health systems we study.

Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH)

MakSPH brings Uganda's leading public health training expertise to EAHERI's work, strengthening research design, epidemiology, and biostatistics across our studies in Jinja and Mayuge.

The partnership also supports mentorship and technical review for EAHERI's research team, helping ensure findings meet the rigor needed to inform national health policy and academic scholarship.

Uganda Ministry of Health (MoH)

The Ministry of Health aligns EAHERI's research and health systems work with national priorities, particularly around maternal, newborn, and child health data quality and use.

This partnership anchors our Hospital Data Platform at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital, ensuring it complements national health information systems and keeps EAHERI's evidence directly relevant to policy.

Ministry of Gender  Labour and Social Development

This collaboration supports EAHERI's gender-based violence prevention and response program, aligning our community work with national frameworks for protecting women, children, and vulnerable populations.

The partnership strengthens referral pathways and survivor support standards, reflecting EAHERI's commitment to addressing the social determinants of health alongside clinical and epidemiological research.

Mayuge District Local Government 

As one of EAHERI's two districts of implementation, Mayuge's local government facilitates community entry and stakeholder engagement for our research and health promotion programs.

This partnership supports data quality work at Mayuge Health Centre IV and helps coordinate GBV prevention and capacity-strengthening programs with district health priorities and existing systems.

Jinja City Local Government 

Jinja City's local government is central to EAHERI's work, given our headquarters and primary research site sit within the city, Uganda's second largest.

This partnership facilitates community engagement for our health promotion and education programs, and supports alignment between EAHERI's hospital-based research and city-level health planning.

Jinja Regional Referral Hospital

Jinja Regional Referral Hospital is EAHERI's primary clinical research site, hosting our planned Hospital Data Platform for maternal, newborn, child, HIV, NCD, mental health, and GBV data.

This partnership gives EAHERI direct access to routine hospital data and anchors our Health Information Systems Strengthening Initiative, improving data quality and patient care across the region.

Mayuge Health Centre IV

Mayuge Health Centre IV is a key site for EAHERI's maternal and child health data project, assessing hospital register quality and longitudinal patient follow-up feasibility.

The partnership also supports service delivery, including health promotion, counseling, and referral support, extending our evidence-generation work into direct improvements for patients at the facility.

St. Francis Buluba Hospital

St. Francis Buluba Hospital contributes routine data to EAHERI's maternal and child health quality assessment, helping design a longitudinal data platform and broadening our research base.

As a private, not-for-profit partner, the hospital also supports our Health Information Systems Strengthening Initiative, improving data practices for both research and everyday patient care.