Dr. Nasreen Jessani is a senior researcher at the Centre for Evidence Based Health Care at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and Associate faculty at Johns Hopkins School of public Health. Her focus is on the nexus between health policy and systems research; innovations in evidence-informed policy and practice; knowledge translation and brokering, and the relationship between academia and public policy. Nasreen’s research aims to explore innovative means of quantifying and describing the social and political dimensions of research use in health policy – and the subsequent ramifications for health system governance. Current projects include non-communicable disease research, implementation and decision making; assessing reductions in maternal and neonatal mortality in Exemplar countries; strategic engagement and communication for Covid-19 response; capacity building in knowledge translation and EIDM, amongst others.

Nasreen was previously the Head of Strategy for the Africa Evidence Network and a Program Officer at Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC). She currently serves on the advisory board for INASP, UK and AcademyHealth, USA.; the Canadian Association for Global Health, Canada; the Forum for Health Professions Education at the National Academies of Sciences, USA, and the WHO EVIPNet Global Steering Group. She is also on the Steering committee for World Evidence-Based Health Care day, and Associate Editor of Health Research Policy and Systems Journal. Nasreen holds a DrPH (Johns Hopkins University), MSPH (UNC-Chapel Hill), BSc (McGill University).