Monica Magadi

Biography

Monica Magadi joined Keele University in October 2022 to take up the position of Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health within the School of Medicine. She moved to Keele from the University of Hull, where she was Professor of Social Research and Population Health since 2012. She was previously a Reader/senior lecturer in Social Research Methods at City University London (2007-2012); a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP), Loughborough University (2004-2007); a Senior Research Fellow at the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI), University of Southampton (2002-2004); a postdoctoral Research Fellow with the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) of the Population Council (1999-2002); and a Lecturer of Demography and Statistics at the Population Studies and Research Institute (PSRI) of the University of Nairobi (1993-2002).

Her academic background is in Social Statistics and Demography, having done her PhD in Social Statistics (University of Southampton, 1999), MSc in Demography (University of Nairobi, 1989) and BEd in Mathematics and Statistics (Kenyatta University, 1987).

Monica is originally from Kenya, and first came to the UK in 1996-1999 for her PhD studies at the Department of Social Statistics, University of Southampton, returning to the same department in 2002 to take up the position of Senior Research Fellow, working on a DFID-funded "Opportunities and Choices" reproductive health research programme in low and middle-income countries.

Research and scholarship

My research centers around epidemiological applications in the area of global health, with research interest focusing mainly on maternal/child health, adolescent sexual/reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. My methodological research expertise is largely in statistical modelling (including multilevel modelling) of the determinants of population health outcomes. This often involves the analysis of large-scale complex/hierarchical health/demographic data, including linked survey-administrative datasets.

Besides statistical modelling, my methodological research expertise includes research design, especially surveys and evaluation/intervention research. Although I am inclined towards quantitative research given my mathematics/statistics academic background, I also have experience/expertise in qualitative and mixed-methods research. A key feature of my research is interdisciplinarity, spanning health and social science disciplines. My research draws largely on the UN sustainable development health goals, focusing on the health and well-being of women and children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Teaching

My teaching experience over the last 25+ years in UK universities and internationally has focused mainly on research methods (statistical data analysis and research design modules) and Demography at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as supervision of research students.

Further information

• A member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR) - Research Projects Review Panel (RP2) – Ongoing, since 2017. Nominated Chair from September 2021
• A member of UK National Statistician’s Data Ethics Advisory Committee (NSDEC) – since October 2021
• A member of the Editorial Board for: Journal of Biosocial Science (since 2019) and Social Sciences (since 2020), including Editor for a Topical Collection on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health: Global Perspectives

Supervision

I have supervised eight PhD students to completion and been an external examiner for 13 PhDs in the UK (University of Southampton, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and University of Warwick) and globally, including University of Bergen (Norway); Andhra University (India); and Universities of Pretoria, North-West and Fort Hare in South Africa.

Collaborations and grants awards

My research has been supported through diverse sources of funding, including:

• The UK Medical Research Council (for HIV/AIDS research in sub-Saharan Africa)
• The World Health Organization (for research on adolescent safe motherhood in Kenya)
• UNICEF (for a study on maternal mortality in Kenya)
• USAID (for a study on the link between HIIV/AIDS epidemic and fertility patterns in Kenya), among others.

More recently, I have been involved (as Principal or co-Investigator) in various QR-Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) pump priming projects on HIV/AIDS in eastern and southern Africa and on adolescent health in Kenya, Malawi and Nigeria. These have facilitated the establishment of strong interdisciplinary networks with key partners in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Kenya.