Nothemba Kula Email & Phone Number

South Africa

South Africa

I provide healthcare management consulting services to Kumba Iron Ore, a division of Anglo American Plc in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kumba Iron Ore is the fourth largest iron-ore producer in the world and the largest in Africa. I lead the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in All Kumba operations and am responsible for ensuring site readiness and preparation, compliance with government legislation and procedures. I engage with senior executive and business management at group level and manage relationships with external stakeholders including government and other private sector companies on behalf of Kumba Iron Ore. I am also responsible for providing support towards Kumba’s post incident medical care (PMIC) program, drafting of standards and operating procedures on PIMC, conducting site level audits and providing quality improvement support towards improved management of post incident and medical care. My broad mandate is to assist the team to optimize the healthcare program for delivery of high quality services to its employees and contractors.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

I served as the Technical Director and Deputy Chief of Party for the USAID funded TB South Africa Project , managed by URC. Within this role, I provided overall technical leadership and direction to allproject elements in coordination with the Chief of Party (COP) to ensure an integrated program implementation strategy. I was also responsible for providing overall technical, strategic and managerial leadership to the TB South Africa project and lead the development of innovative technical strategies for improving impact of USAID TB investments. The role involved coordinating all technical issues with other donors, funders and NDOH as well as the National TB Program and provincial departments of health on the identification of project technical assistance needs to achieve the expected project outputs. I was also involved in the business and organizational management components of theproject and oversaw the annual project planning cycle which formulates comprehensive annual work-plans and budgets in accordance with the USAID annual planning cycle and preparing monthly, quarterly and annual project activity reports. I also oversaw a large national and district level field team ( over 100)and coordinated program implementation at all levels of the project.

Pretoria Area, South Africa

I served as the Team Lead for the Key Populations, Public Private Partnerships and Community Grants Portfolio within the USAID funded TB South Africa Project . I was responsible for providing strategic guidance on development, implementation and monitoring of Public Private Partnerships . Within the small grants portfolio , I spearhead community based interventions in health facilities and communities to prevent TB/MDR TB and to improve access to TB/MDR TB diagnostic and treatment services.I also supported the introduction and scale up of new TB diagnostic technologies and treatment regimens in public and private health sector settings by liaising and engaging the Government of South Africa, the United States Government and other key stakeholders. I was primarily responsible for (i)Determining funding needs and developing grant programs , Overseeing and developing strategies to improve grant management processes, chairing grant award committees , supervising grantees and providing capacity building for grant management .

Johannesburg

I was part of a team of consultants commissioned by the Mine Health and Safety Council to lead the process of development of an integrated HIV/AIDS, TB and Silicosis policy for the mining industry in South Africa. My role included conducting an in-depth analysis of the best practices on integrated management of HIV/TB in the mining industry, developing research tools, conducting key informant interviews with high level managers, both within government and the mining industry; drafting a policy for integrated management of HIV/TB and Silicosis in the mining industry and disseminating findings to key stakeholders in the industry.The key deliverable was the development of norms and standards for the industry and consultation with the key stakeholders on an approach for adoption and implementation of the policy.

Pretoria , South Africa

I supported development of a joint regional work program on TB in the mining sector in Lesotho, Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland by brokering regional partnerships. I was also part of a National technical working group working directly with CEOs of mining companies in South Africa to establish a mining industry led initiative to eliminate TB in the mines. I served within the Secretariat for the harmonization of TB in the mining industry responsible for coordination of regional meetings, facilitating discussions among different SADC countries, writing up reports and disseminating findings and ensuring implementation of resolutions.

Gaborone, Botswana

I assisted the SADC cross-border initiative to conduct an in-depth review of the scope of bilateral agreements on health that SADC member states have entered into to foster regional collaboration. The assignment involved conducting key informant interviews with high-level government officials in Ministries of Health and Ministries of international relations in the 12 SADC countries that are part of the review. I conducted country visits in the selected countries and engaged with high level government officials. My role is was to also highlight constraints that impede access to health services for mobile populations, highlight opportunities and best practices to improve access and recommend a way forward on improving collaboration between SADC member states on health. A report was produced and findings disseminated which informed SADC's approach to cross -border healthcare access in Southern Africa.

I provided technical assistance to the Department of Health and Department of Correctional Services in South Africa on the pharmaceutical management of HIV and TB drugs in correctional services (prison) in all 9 provinces in South Africa, as part of a team of consultants. The assignment involved developing assessing the drug ordering and distribution systems, drug storage and stock management, HIV and TB treatment and care, good pharmacy practices, record keeping and monitoring system as well as follow up care and support provided to inmates in correctional centres. I was also responsible for writing assessment reports, providing feedback to senior government officials to disseminate findings and to make recommendations on areas of improvement. Evaluation of the supply chain for medicines in correctional centres across South Africa. More specifically, the focus was on the evaluation of the compliance with standards treatment protocols and the knowledge and adherence of patients to their treatment in 118 correctional centres across 9 provinces.

Pretoria, South Africa

Within this role I was primarily responsible for facilitating institutional collaborations between the South African government and the UK National Health Service and other international collaborations important for SA's and DFID’s corporate and regional objectives. I supported DFID's engagement with the National Department of Health and the World Health Organization, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and DFID's Private sector group. I also facilitated partner engagement with the Care Quality Commission as part of support toward's South Africa's establishment of the Office of Health standards Compliance. The projects I was involved in included private sector engagement, improving maternal and child health outcomes, addressing the social determinants of health, quality assurance and revitalization of primary healthcare in SA.

I was a technical advisor and consultant, assisting the National Department of Health in South Africa with the development and revision of standards for the assessment of quality service delivery in health establishments. My role was mainly in the • Development and testing of assessment tools for audit results collection, scoring and report writing;• Development of scoring methodology and risk classification matrix for measures of quality;• Input into the development of the Quality Improvements plans within the National Department of Health to support the continuous improvement in healthcare quality of all establishments against the standards. Additionally , I was a reviewer for the ISQUA( International Society for Quality in Healthcare) Journal where I review quality assurance and improvement systems across different country health systems. I was also part of a group of authors who wrote a book on quality management systems in South Africa.

Within this role I was a provincial coordinator for the National Prevention of Mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) evaluation - which was a national study that assessed the effectiveness of the PMTCT program in South Africa. I was also seconded to the National Department of Health to provide technical assistance to senior health management teams. More specifically, I was responsible forProvincial coordination of the national study in the Gauteng and Mpumalanga provinces.Management of a team of nurse fieldworkers to ensure accuracy of data and adherence to study protocols Collection, analysis and reporting, within the PMTCT survey in the provinces under my supervision Quantitative and qualitative survey research including questionnaire design, fieldwork supervision, focus groups, in-depth interviews, analysis of qualitative data, data entry, and analysis, write-up of resultsManaging the implementation of research projectsProject management and leadership, including management of teams within specific projectsRepresenting the Health Systems Research unit in various national committees and working groups including the Development bank of South Africa process to develop the 10 point plan for the SA health sector.

I worked with the HST to explore the effectiveness of community based Antiretroviral therapy (ART) interventions and Identifying examples of best practices in provision of ART within the public sector. I conducted field work in Durban, Pitermaritzburg and Mahabathini to assess nurse-led models of providing ART particularly in rural health care facilities and made recommendations for policy with regards to best practices, effective treatment models and pitfalls to be avoided by community clinics providing ART in South Africa.I gained experience in focus group moderation, interview techniques and project management.

This was my first placement at the Medical Research Council's unit for Bionformatics Capacity Development Unit. I was one of the first interns in the research capacity development program and worked under the mentorship of Professor Winston Hide- a world class computational genomicist who is now based at the Harvard School of Public Health . I conducted pathogen genomics research with a specific focus in understanding the processes and consequences of host pathogen interactions. I worked with The Insitute for Genomics Research (TIGR) in Marryland USA on my Masters thesis which focused on studying Mung Bean Nuclease digestion of the Plasmodium Falciparum Genome. I gained skills in exploration of data mining and data visualization tools ( Blast, ClustAL, EntreZ Gene, GeneBank, PlasmoDb EST etc) as well as Computer programming ( PERL, Python). I also participated in a number of national and international bioinformatics courses and conferences including a Bioinformatics conference where I presented an Abstract in Reston Virginia, USA

Master Of Public Health (Dlshtm), Health Services Management

Msc Bioinformatics, Master Of Science In Bioinformatics

Msc, Master Of Science In Microbiology

Education record