Deon Minnies is a public health management consultant, advisor and trainer in planning, advocacy, and leadership and management for the development of health services for people with disabilities. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Public Health from the University of Cape Town. He is the Director of the Community Eye Health Institute in the Division of Ophthalmology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (UCT-CEHI), where he is (amongst others) responsible for the organisation and teaching of the Postgraduate Diploma and Master of Public Health in Community Eye Health, as well as the portfolio of the "Strengthening Public Health Services" courses. He has conducted many health programme development consultancies in Africa and Asia, including training teams to conduct Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) surveys, performing health programme planning, evaluations and service mapping, and manages several NGO-funded capacity development projects in health care, including the Diabetic Retinopathy project, the Simulation Ophthalmic Surgery Training (SOS) Programme and the exciting Childhood Blindness Registry pilot project.
Abraham Opare, OD, MPH, currently works as a Project Manager on a diabetic retinopathy project in Khayelitsha. The project is a collaborative initiative between the Community Eye Health Institute at the University of Cape Town, ORBIS International, the World Diabetes Foundation, and the Western Cape Government (Health). Abraham has a strong interest in teaching, project management, and research. He is a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and a faculty member at the Community Eye Health Institute at the University of Cape Town. Abraham practiced as an Optometrist in Ghana for 3 years before he moved to South Africa for his Master of Public Health degree (specializing in Community Eye Health) at UCT. Abraham has four peer-reviewed publications including in PLOS Global Public Health. He also serves on the World Health Organization’s advisory committee for competency-based education.
Will Dean is the Clinical Director of the Department of Ophthalmology, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and a Consultant Ophthalmologist with special interest in high-volume and complex cataract, and glaucoma. Academic appointments include Assistant Clinical Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; and Associate Professor, University of Cape Town. Will has been awarded a PhD from the London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine, with a thesis in simulated ophthalmic surgical education. He conducting the two first RCTs in intense simulation-based ophthalmic surgical education, based at the University of Cape Town for trainees from all over Southern Africa. Over the past 5 years he have attracted education and research grants totalling more than £1,7 million.
Robert Geneau holds a PhD in Public Health and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of community eye health. He is the Executive Director of the Kilimanjaro Centre for Community Ophthalmology and he also serves as a Honorary Associate Professor with the Division of ophthalmology at the University of Cape Town. Dr. Geneau also worked extensively in the field of health promotion and non-communicable disease prevention for different agencies in Canada and abroad.
Chervon van der Ross is the Administrative Officer responsible for administrative functions of the Division of Ophthalmology including UCT-CEHI. She is also responsible for coordinating the Simulation Ophthalmic Surgical Training project.
Professor Nagib du Toit is the professor and head of the Division of Ophthalmology at University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital. The Community Eye Health Institute is a unit of the Division of Ophthalmology.