Our Core Team
Tropical Health delivers its work through a team of experienced core staff and affiliated consultants.
About Us
Tropical Health is a consultancy group specialising in the monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) of health and related programmes. With decades of team experience, Tropical Health tailors its services to the client’s needs and the nature of the programme, conducts deep research and analysis, and delivers a full, unbiased picture of programme successes and challenges, along with actionable recommendations to improve results.
Caroline Vanderick
Co- founder, Managing Director
Caroline has 25 years of health programme management and MERL experience in Africa and Asia. She is responsible for the company’s development and project delivery and also serves as quality assurer or senior consultant on some assignments. Prior to co-founding Tropical Health, she was the Programme Director of a large UK health NGO, responsible for overseeing and developing its Africa programme portfolio. Clients appreciate Caroline for her dynamic and grounded adaptive management style as well as her leadership and partnership facilitation skills. She has lived and worked in Burundi, Tajikistan, Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda and Ethiopia and travelled for short-term assignments in many more countries for a variety of major international donors.
Albert Kilian
Co- founder, Senior Technical Expert
Albert started his public health career in the late 1980s as researcher on onchocerciasis in Liberia. He trained as a paediatrician, then added skills in tropical medicine and medical parasitology, epidemiology, biostatistics, and mathematical modelling of infectious diseases. Since the 1990s his focus was initially on malaria in programme development and implementation at various levels in Uganda, and later shifted to monitoring and evaluation and operations research at the international level. He is an expert in quantitative analysis and evaluation and his strength is his ability to understand the underlying problems and find creative and innovative MERL solutions. After eight years as Tropical Health’s Technical Director, Albert now provides strategic senior technical expertise for our projects.
Hannah Koenker
Technical Director
Hannah has nearly 20 years’ experience in international health. She has a PhD in Epidemiology from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute. Prior to joining Tropical Health, she led two USAID flagship insecticide-treated net (ITN) projects, setting research agendas to inform malaria policy and implementation activities across 15 countries, and leading research on ITN access and use. She brings a pragmatic approach to evaluation of health programmes along with extensive quantitative and qualitative analysis skills. Hannah is appreciated for her problem-solving focus, leadership skills, as well as her ability to foster partnerships. She steers the company in all technical matters and learning, assures the quality of our work and provides senior consultancy services to our clients.
Nicola Moran
Head of Programmes and Operations
Nicky has 18 years of experience managing operations for health programming across Africa and over 30 years managing company operations and organisational development for support services including human resources, finance, administration and procurement. Prior to joining Tropical Health, she was Regional Operations Manager for Africa for a large consultancy company in the health sector and has worked in the INGO sector and for academic institutions. She has lived and worked in Madagascar and Kenya and has travelled extensively delivering high-quality support to projects and institutions across Africa. At Tropical Health, Nicky ensures efficient and compliant corporate and programmes systems and oversees our programmes management and operations.
Luc Boydens
Finance Manager
Luc is an economist with 25 years’ of experience managing, evaluating and supporting social and economic development programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Luc is now responsible for the overall financial and accounts management of Tropical Health. Before taking this role, Luc was the Deputy Managing Director of a large value chain programme in Ethiopia after spending four years in Uganda managing a pilot Results-Based Financing health programme in Northern part of the country, which is highly valuable for his current role within Tropical Health. During his career to date, Luc led several mid- and end-term programme evaluations in various sectors, using OECD development assistance evaluation criteria as framework.
Sally Chandler
Technical Lead
Sally is a skilled manager with 12 years’ experience leading complex programmes within international development and healthcare in Africa, Asia and the UK. Working with a range of diverse stakeholders and donors, she offers advanced skills in the design and implementation of MEL frameworks and strategies for health programmes, with a passion for inclusivity and sustainable programming. Sally provides support to Tropical Health with management coordination and technical support to the delivery of selected projects. Sally’s portfolio includes the Ghana Somubi Dwumadie programme for people with disabilities; the multi-country Gates funded evaluation of health campaign digitization, and the multi-country independent evaluation of the outreach training and supportive supervision approach for malaria care. She previously worked at Sightsavers, where she designed and led the implementation of the MEL framework for the UK Aid Connect funded programme, which focused on economic empowerment of people with disabilities in four countries.
Eleanore Sternberg
Research Manager
Eleanore has a background in infectious disease ecology with a PhD from Emory University. She has spent the past ten years focused on vector-borne diseases, with most of that time devoted to the development and evaluation of new malaria vector control interventions. Prior to joining Tropical Health, Eleanore has managed research projects from the laboratory to a large, cluster randomized controlled trial in Côte d’Ivoire. In addition to Côte d’Ivoire, Eleanore has worked in Ghana, Benin, and Tanzania. She brings strong quantitative skills, extensive project management experience, and an ability to synthesize and communicate complex information. At Tropical Health, Eleanore works closely with the Technical Director to deliver on project implementation and consultancy services.
Nico Upton
Operations and Project Officer
Nico has a humanitarian and NGO background, with four years of experience working in operations and logistics. He is responsible for supporting the management and operational function of Tropical Health, providing effective administrative and logistical support across the project portfolio as well as aiding the organisational management and development processes. Prior to joining Tropical Health, he worked for a homeless charity in Bristol, UK as a project coordinator, facilitating a food insecurity project. After university, he lived in Northern Greece for two years working for an international refugee charity, providing leadership and management to a large multicultural team of staff and volunteers across various programmes in two camps, including aid distribution and psychosocial support.
Elfreda Naa Lomoteley Arthur
Learning Manager - Ghana Somubi Dwumadie
Elfreda holds an MPhil in Information and Knowledge Management and a Certificate in Monitoring and Evaluation. She has 14 years working experience from multiple sectors including water, agriculture and education in developing countries. She joined the Tropical Health team as a Learning Manager on the FCDO-funded mental health and disability Ghana Somubi Dwumadie, where she is responsible for ensuring that structures, systems and processes are in place to facilitate, capture and act on learning across all areas of the Programme for adaptability and evidence-based decision making. Prior to joining Tropical Health, Elfreda worked as the Knowledge Management Specialist on a USAID/Monitoring, Evaluation and Technical Support Services project where she contributed to the knowledge and learning functions of the organisation. She has worked in Ghana and South Africa, and has also remotely managed a team of staff in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Botswana and Tanzania.
Samuel Fant Kombian
Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisor - Ghana Somubi Dwumadie
Samuel holds a Master of Science degree in Project Management. He is a dedicated Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Professional with over 14 years experience. He has a proven track record of improving the output rates of large-scale donor-funded projects and programmes, including those of FCDO, USAID, World Bank, MasterCard Foundation, and the Global Fund, and in a variety of sectors including health, environmental, fisheries, and governance. He has been leading the design and implementation of MEL systems; tracking project progress; project outcome reporting; conducting quantitative and qualitative evaluations; and MEL capacity building.
Samuel joined the Tropical Health Team on the FCDO-funded mental health and disability Ghana Somubi Dwumadie as the Programme MEL Advisor. He is the strategic lead and day-to-day focal point for MEL activities; with responsibility for the MEL system management and oversight. He provides MEL technical backstopping and support to consortium partners and grantees and leads programme learning and adaptation. His remit also includes people management and capacity development and works alongside his Tropical Health Team Members in Accra to support Tropical Health led activities.
Our Partners and Clients
Tropical Health is proud to work with a diverse range of organisations from across the globe.
- Children Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF)
- Ecorys
- Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)
- Itad
- Johns Hopkins University Center for Communications Programs (JHU-CCP)
- Malaria Consortium
- Management Sciences for Health
- Montrose International
- Mott MacDonald
- Oxford Policy Management
- PATH
- Population Services International
- QED Group
- Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Trachoma Initiative Africa
- Results for Development
- Sightsavers International
- Society for Family Health
- The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID/UKAid)
- United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
- United States President’s Malaria Initiative
- World Bank
- World Health Organization
Clients choose to work with us because...
- We offer state of the art technical expertise;
- We bring scientific rigor and objectivity;
- We develop context-specific solutions drawn from international evidence and best practices;
- We have vast experience in programme design and implementation as well as consultancy management;
- We deliver timely and quality outputs against tight deadlines;
- We can work in and adapt to different settings, including poorly resourced environments;
- We are dynamic, responsive to client’s needs and bring a positive, solutions-driven approach to the work we do.
Work with Us
Join us as a MERL consultant for work on projects across several sectors and countries
Partner with Us
Partner with us for quality MERL services for projects funded or executed by your organisation