Professor Margaret Gyapong

A medical anthropologist by training, Professor Gyapong is Director of the Institute of Health Research (IHR) and Coordinator of the Centre for Health Policy and Implementation Research (CHPIR) at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ghana. Under her leadership, the centre was designated as a TDR Regional Training Centre for Implementation Research in 2018.

Prior to joining the university in 2017, she spent almost 25 years as a researcher in the Ghana Health Service and was foundation Director of the Dodowa Health Research Centre from 2005 to 2016, transforming it from a small research station to an internationally acclaimed research centre. Her interests are in socio-cultural aspects of tropical diseases, implementation research, health systems and maternal and child health.

Professor Gyapong is currently a member of the Sightsavers board of trustees, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute External Review Board, the Task Force for Global Health’s Health Campaign Effectiveness Coalition advisory board, WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) on neglected tropical diseases, the WHO/AFRO Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development, and advisor on capacity building and training for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s “Rethinking malaria” programme.

She has in the recent past been member of the WHO Task Force on Malaria Research Capability Strengthening in Africa, Vice chair of TDR’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Integrated Community Based Interventions, Co-Chair of TDR’s Technical Review Group on social science and gender, and a member of the Global Technical Strategy on Malaria steering group 2010-2013.

In 2017, she was one of 12 women across the world to receive the first Heroines of Health award for her work in drawing attention to the needs of women suffering from the consequences of neglected tropical diseases. On International Women’s Day in March 2021, she was celebrated by TDR as one of 15 women who champion mentorship and collaboration among scientists tackling infectious diseases in low- and middle-income countries. In October 2021, she was given the Outstanding Female Scientist award by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). 

In academia, Professor Gyapong is full Professor of Applied Health Social Science at UHAS and adjunct professor of Global Health at Georgetown University. She has 105 publications in peer reviewed journals to her credit.