BIOGRAPHIES FOR THE MENTORING
COMMITTEE MEMBERS.
Chudy
Nduaka
DVM, MS, PhD, DABT.
Chudy Nduaka
is the president and founder of The Africa Education Initiative. He
is a veterinarian and works as a clinician with a global
pharmaceutical company in Connecticut . He obtained his Veterinary
Degree in 1991 from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. In 1993
he obtained a Masters Degree in Animal Science from Tuskegee
University, Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S.A. Chudy then proceeded to work
on a Graduate Degree in Pharmacology at Howard University,
Washington D.C., U.S.A.
Chudy is also an adjunct assistant professor of Pharmacology
at Howard University Washington DC. He currently mentors graduate
and undergraduate students across Africa and the United States. He
has a number of scientific publications and has published his first
novel, The Vapor of Life. He and his wife Adanne live in
Connecticut, USA with their children Michael and Michelle.
Dr. José
Manautou
Dr. José E. Manautou is Professor of Toxicology in the Department of
Pharmaceutical Sciences at the School of Pharmacy of the University
of Connecticut and the Director of the Center for Biochemical
Toxicology. His research emphasizes mechanisms of toxicant
action/interaction.
His
laboratory studies the role of multidrug resistance proteins in the
hepatobiliary disposition of toxicants and the changes in expression of
transport proteins in response to chemical liver injury. His group
also investigates the biochemical and genetic determinants associated with
the hepatoprotective actions of peroxisome proliferators and other chemicals
that prevent drug liver injury.
He has published numerous seminal articles on
these research areas in both toxicology and liver-related journals.
Dr. Manautou has been an active member of the Society of Toxicology
(SOT). In 2003, he was elected Councilor of the SOT and has
also served in key committees and task forces for the society.
Dr. Manautou was the recipient of the 2006 SOT Achievement Award and
the 2008 AstraZeneca Traveling Lectureship Award.
Dr. Manautou
has served as member of the National Research Council Committee
Assessing the Human Health Risks of Trichloroethylene and is
currently Associate Editor for the journal Toxicology and Applied
Pharmacology. He is also on the editorial board of six
other journals.
He served as member of the National Institutes
of Health Xenobiotic and Nutrient Disposition and Action (XNDA)
Study Section and as external reviewer of grants for the European
Commission. Dr. Manautou is a member of the NIH College of CSR
Reviewers and the NIEHS Board of Scientific Counselors.
Dr. Manautou
received his B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Puerto Rico,
Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from Purdue University and
postdoctoral training in biochemical toxicology at the University of
Connecticut. He also conducted sabbatical research at the Amsterdam
Liver Center of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Debo Oduloju, DVM, PGCE, MIfL
Dr. Debo Oduloju, obtained his Veterinary Degree
from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello Univeristy,Nigeria in
1994.
and then a Postgraduate Ceritificate in Science
Education from Gloucestershire University in the United Kingdom.
He is currently enrolled in graduate school at
Oxford University to obtain a Masters in Pharmacology.
He has worked as a Veterinary adviser to the
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA) and for a
Multinational Bank in the United Kingdom.
>He has also taught Veterinary Sciences and
Biological sciences extensively at various educational institutions in the
United Kingdom.
Debo is currently a Lecturer in Veterinary health
and Animal welfare in the United Kingdom and a founder and director of a
Science & Mathematics Education Consultancy in the UK. Debo is committed to
educating the next generation of Scientists, technologists and
engineers worldwide.
He is a Member of the British Veterinary
Association(BVA), member of the Institute for Learning,(MIfL) UK, member of
the RSPCA,England.
Debo resides in Birmingham, England with his
family.
Gardner DesRoberts
Gardner is an elementary school administrator and
adjunct professor for a private university in Southern California. Gardner
has a B.S. in Cartography, a M.S. in Special Education, and maintains
credentials in educational leadership, multiple subjects, and special
education. Teacher education and critical pedagogy are the foci of
Gardner's collegiate teaching. He is married to his wife Aria, and they
have three sons and two daughters.
Dr. Julius Atashili
Julius is an assistant lecturer/researcher with
the University of Buea in Cameroon (West Africa). His career began as a
medical doctor in 2002 after he graduated from the medical school in Yaounde,
Cameroon. He practiced as a general practitioner in the University teaching
hospital in Yaounde and concurrently worked as a researcher assistant with
the medical school. In this capacity he assisted in implementing studies on
the epidemiology of HIV, STIs and malaria in Cameroon. He then pursued his
career by gaining formal training in epidemiology at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. There he spent six years initially obtaining
an MPH and then a PhD in epidemiology with a minor in biostatistics. His
dissertation focused on the prevalence and severity of cervical precancerous
lesions in women initiating antiretroviral therapy in Cameroon and the
potential impact of different screening strategies on mortality in these
women.
In the past couple of years Julius has been
involved in multiple clinical studies in Cameroon. The two major ones being
an NIH-funded study to adapt the diagnoses and treatment of major depression
in HIV-positive patients in Cameroon; and a study to assess mother to child
transmission of HIV in a region in Cameroon and assemble a cohort of
mother-infant pairs that could be participants in clinical trials of the
efficacy of antiretroviral drugs in pediatric patients. He recently
completed a WHO/TDR R&D career development fellowship with the Malaria
development team at Pfizer in Connecticut (USA).
Julius is currently based in Buea, Cameroon were
he enjoys and gets inspiration from the picturesque view of Mount Cameroon
and the nearby Limbe beach on the Atlantic ocean. He enjoys playing computer
games and tennis in his free time.
Drew Lawhorne, DDS.
Dr. Lawhorne is a general dentist in New London,
Connecticut. He did his undergraduate and dental school in Virginia,
at Washington & Lee University and Virginia Commonwealth University School
of Dentistry, respectively. He also completed a hospital-based general
dentistry residency at the Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, NJ
Chikelue I. Oragwu. MBBS
Chikelue is a graduate of Medicine and Surgery from the Nnamdi
Azikiwe University, Awka, SouthEast Nigeria in 2007. He is a member of the
ZETA-12 Independent Research Ethics Committee (ZIREC), the Association for
Good Clinical Practice in Nigeria (AGCPN) and currently a graduate student
at the University of Louisville, KY.
He is also the contact person for the Nigeria
online page of the World Library of Toxicology, and a registered Cochrane
Author. Chikelue served as the first secretary of the NRCSQA, and is has
been the President of the ZETA 12 Research Group based in Nigeria since
2007. He has received numerous trainings and certificates/certifications on
risk assessment and quality assurance, human subject protection, and
computational models in toxic hazard assessment.
Chikelue has a passion for research, mentorship,
regulations and quality matters and is committed to the pursuance of
standards that affect human health and research.
Chikelue currently functions as the administrator
with the Africa Education Initiative and Co-Editor of the Africa Education
Initiative Newsletter. He plays basketball, loves to explore nature, travel,
take photographs and watch movies.