Speaker's Profile

Ismael Kawooya is a Senior Research Scientist and Head of Office at Uganda's Center for Rapid Evidence Synthesis (ACRES). He has seven years of experience engaging with policymakers at Uganda's national and sub-national levels to enhance access to high-quality and synthesised research and data in urgent situations, often within 28 days. He coordinates efforts to ensure the sustainability and scale of the rapid response service, supporting policymakers in health, reproductive health, clean energy, youth employment and climate change to improve equity, health and social outcomes in Uganda and the region.

He has grown to mentor and lead younger researchers at ACRES and in the East African region, set trends in applying methods and newer technologies, such as Artificial intelligence for EIPM, and champion the sustainability of institutions supporting EIPM within the region. Ismael has supported and mentored more than 110 researchers and policymakers in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Cameroon, India, and Malaysia. He is also currently a co-investigator on a regional collaboration to mentor teams in Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Uganda to scale up and/ or establish rapid response units to support EIPM within their contexts.

He has gained international recognition through the Cochrane Child Health Fellowship 2019, Emerging Voices for Global Health (EV4GH) 2022, and International Health Policy (IHP) Resident 2023 at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Antwerp.

Ismael holds a bachelor’s degree in medicine and surgery and Masters in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Makerere University.

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