Leadership

Meet Our Director General

Leadership Profile

Every study we run is designed to answer a question a policymaker or clinician is actually asking. That is what implementation science means to us — research that does not stop at publication, but follows through to practice.

Echezona Ezeanolue Director, IVAN Research Institute

Career Highlights

25+ NIH / HRSA-Funded Research Projects Served as Principal Investigator across studies including the Baby Shower Trial and related PMTCT research.
6,000+ Pregnant Women Enrolled Recruited across 40 sites in the Baby Shower cluster-randomised trial testing congregation-based HIV testing.
80 Congregations Reached Baby Shower events scaled across 80 sites in Benue State following the initial trial.
Honors & Awards
  • Nevada Public Health Leader of the Year (2007)
  • Nevada Health Care Hero (2008)
  • Outstanding Research Mentor (2009)
  • AAP Local Hero (2010)
National Committee Service
  • Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), 2015–2019
  • American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Pediatric AIDS, 2015–2019
  • NIH Study Section Reviewer, 2015–2018
  • Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Advisory Panel, 2012–2015

Innovations & Research Contributions

1

Baby Shower Congregational Framework

Faith-based PMTCT engagement model

A congregation-delivered intervention combining prayer, group health education, a safe-delivery 'mama pack,' and on-site HIV testing with same-day ART linkage for pregnant women.

Validated in a cluster-randomised trial across 40 sites and over 6,000 women, published in The Lancet Global Health; later scaled to 80 sites in Benue State.
2

Nigeria Implementation Science Alliance (NISA)

National implementation-science network

Founded to connect researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across Nigeria, coordinating a nationwide consortium and an annual conference bridging research and practice.

Running continuously since 2015, now a fixture on Nigeria's implementation science calendar.
3

CTAIR — Center for Translation and Implementation Research

Founding Director, established 2018

A transdisciplinary hub for research, training, and research administration, coordinating the ICON-3 Practice-Based Research Network across academic, secondary health, and community sites.

Network spans 12 tertiary academic centers, 12 secondary health facilities, and 12 community centers across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones.