Steering Committee

Dr. Gene D. Morse is a SUNY Distinguished Professor, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Director, Center for Integrated Global Biomedical Sciences (University at Buffalo/SUNY) and the Co-Director, SUNY Global Health Institute. Dr. Morse is the Co-Chair, SUNY-UWI Health Research Consortium and co-founder of the Buffalo Jamaica Innovation Enterprise, a partnership between UB, the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus and the Jamaica Ministry of Health. This project has established the Jamaica Center for Infectious Diseases Research and begun a research capacity building collaboration with SUNY and the University of the West Indies through the SUNY-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development. He is the Program Director for the Global Infectious Diseases Research Training Program between UB/SUNY and UWI Mona Campus (Jamaica) and the HIV Research Training Program between UB/SUNY and the University of Zimbabwe supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center.

Dr. Lindo is a consultant parasitologist to the University Hospital of West Indies. Professor Lindo is co-chair of the SUNY-University of the West Indies Health Research Consortium. Professor Lindo is Co-PI of the Global Infectious Diseases Research Training Program supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center between UWI Mona Campus and UB/SUNY, and is a member of the Executive Committee, Buffalo Jamaica Innovation Enterprise. His research has focused on the epidemiology of soil-transmitted helminths and emerging infectious diseases. This includes the epidemiology of strongyloides stercoralis infections and toxocariasis, the emergence of malaria and angiostrongylus cantonensis infections in Jamaica, epidemiology of free-living amoebae in Jamaica and opportunistic parasitic infections in persons living with HIV/AIDS.  

Dr. DeHovitz is a SUNY Distinguisher Service Professor with a longstanding interest in infectious diseases that led him to establish an HIV ambulatory care clinic at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn. This program has steadily grown and now provides care for more than 1,200 people living with HIV and is home to multiple NIH Fogarty International Center research training programs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia that spans 11 countries.  

Dr. Grant is a UWI Researcher and Grantee Contact for the Small Grants Program in Jamaica in its 6th Operational Phase (OP6). This proposal outlines the approach that will be taken to help the SGP, Jamaica to undertake apreparatory process to develop its strategy for OP6. This will involve multi-stakeholder consultations, development of baseline assessment(s) of priority identified landscape(s)/seascape(s), and elaboration of the Country Program Strategy (CPS) for OP6. 

Dr. Mohler is the past Chair, National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Prostate Cancer and Prostate Cancer Early Detection. His laboratory focuses upon the role of androgen metabolism and the androgen receptor in racial differences in prostate cancer aggressiveness and prostate cancer recurrence during androgen deprivation therapy. He has authored or co-authored more than 300 publications and book chapters, and a book “Androgen Action in Prostate Cancer.”

Dean Tomlin Paul has led the UWI School of Medical Sciences' undergraduate programs in Medicine, Nursing, Dentistry, Physical Therapy, Basic Medical Sciences and Diagnostic Imaging to a total student enrolment of 3,645 with an additional 700 pursuing postgraduate qualifications in faculty programs. His strategy of growing the medical school not only saw to expansion of the facilities, resources and clinical opportunities, but it also embraced a philosophy of affording students exposure to diverse clinical settings. This is facilitated through partnerships with international universities for internship and student exchange, and even combined into their curriculum as can be seen in our radiology programme.

Dr. Reid completed medical and doctoral studies at the University of the West Indies Mona and post-doctoral training in Paediatric Nutrition at the Baylor College of Medicine under the mentorship of Prof Farook Jahoor and Prof William Heird. His research interests spans the gamut of community medicine, clinical trials and human metabolism. Specifically, as a metabolist and clinical nutritionist, Prof. Reid conducts research into the use of non-radioactive molecules to investigate how the body responds to illness. In particular he and collaborators have sought to describe the metabolic adaptations that children with severe undernutrition and persons with sickle cell disease experience with the aim of modulating those adaptive responses to improve health.

Dr. Thame is a Professor of Perinatal and Paediatric Medicine and a Consultant Paediatrician, Department of Child and Adolescent Health, The UWI/ UHWI.  She is involved in active clinical neonatology, administration and research. Her research involves the roles of maternal anthropometry and body composition on fetal growth in pregnant women with Sickle Cell Disease and pregnant adolescents comparing them to the mature pregnant women. In collaboration with colleagues from the CNRC, Baylor College, Texas, they have published on the relationship between maternal nutritional status and pregnancy outcome using stable isotope techniques. Their work has shown a significant difference with the way in which the adolescent uses nutrients in pregnancy compared to the mature pregnant adult. Administratively she was previously the Head of the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and the Deputy Dean for Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Mona and presently, she is the Director, Graduate Students and Research for the Mona Campus. Clinically, she is one of the Consultants in charge of the Special Care Nursery/ Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University Hospital of the West Indies. This clinical role involves caring for the neonate and teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in paediatrics. In 2007 and 2009 she received the Principal’s Award for the Most Outstanding Researcher in the Faculty of Medical Sciences receiving also the Principal’s Award for Best Research Publication for the three publications in 2009. She was recognized by the Rotary Club and received the Paul Harris Fellow Award in 2009 for recognition of her work in clinical medicine in Jamaica. In 2011 she received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in the Category of Research.   

Dr. Tulloch-Reid is an Epidemiologist and Clinically Trained Endocrinologist. He was Director of the Epidemiology Research Unit (ERU) of CAIHR prior to being appointed Institute Director in 2020.  Professor Tulloch-Reid has served as coordinator of the MSc & PhD Epidemiology as well as the recently developed Post Graduate Diploma in Health Research and Epidemiology Programmes.  An investigator on the Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Surveys, the 1986 birth cohort,  the Spanish Town Study and the Global Diet and Physical Activity Network (GDAR), his current NIH grants are focused on improving our understanding of cardiovascular disease and cancer by (i) building capacity through a regional centre of research excellence,  (ii) developing a cohort based on the most recent Jamaica Health and Lifestyle Study (the LIFE Project) and (iii0 the Implementation of Evidence Based Approaches to Hypertension Care in Jamaica and Columbia (The CATCH Study). His research interests include the identification of risk factors for chronic diseases throughout the life course and improving approaches for the prevention & treatment of these disorders.