Professional Experience:
Joseph Mugasa boasts over 18 years of public health experience, specializing in infectious diseases, particularly malaria. His expertise spans case management and malaria in pregnancy at both facility and community levels. Mugasa's career includes extensive laboratory research and implementing global malaria projects, emphasizing control and prevention strategies. He has accumulated significant experience with international organizations, honing his skills in strategic visioning, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting.
Most recently, Mugasa served as the Chief of Party for the PMI Impact Malaria project with PSI in Sierra Leone. In this role, he provided strategic leadership and oversight for Case Management and Malaria in Pregnancy (MiP) at the facility and community levels. Mugasa excels in management, supervision, and leadership, overseeing junior technical, administrative, and finance staff to ensure successful project activity management and achieving performance indicators and targets. His leadership ensured that project objectives were met effectively and efficiently, contributing to the initiativinitiative'ssuccess.
Mugasa has fostered strong working relationships with PMI/USAID implementing partners, mission staff, government agencies, and District Health Management Teams (DHMTs). His ability to collaborate and build partnerships has been instrumental in advancing public health goals. He actively contributes to various technical advisory groups, including Malaria Case Management, Malaria in Pregnancy Task Force, Community Health Worker, and Integrated Malaria Vector Control. His involvement includes developing policies, guidance manuals, and program monitoring and evaluation tools. Mugasa was crucial in developing and piloting the Malaria Service Data Quality Improvement (MSDQI) and the Outreach Training and Supportive Supervision (OTSS) checklists for supportive supervision at health delivery points.
Mugasa represents his program and institution to PMI/USAID implementing partners, government officials, and international forums. He holds a PhD from the Swiss Tropical Institute at the University of Basel, Switzerland, an MSc in Molecular Biology from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and a BSc in Animal Science from the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania. His professional experience spans Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Scotland, UK. Mugasa and the Ifakara Health Institute lab team have also provided technical assistance for drug efficacy studies across several African countries.
Throughout his career, Mugasa has demonstrated a commitment to improving public health outcomes through strategic leadership, innovative solutions, and effective project management. His contributions to malaria prevention and control have had a significant impact on the communities he has served, and his expertise continues to drive progress in public health initiatives worldwide.