Dr Fiona Fleming

Dr Fleming is an epidemiologist with a strong background in the control of infectious diseases. With over 16 years’ experience of working in Africa, she has been with SCI since 2005 facilitating the delivery of over 150 million treatments for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths (STH). Prior to her time with SCI, Fiona lived and worked in Uganda for four years managing a Community Resource Programme for Restless Development, which focused on bottom-up sustainable health and agricultural activities in rural populations. She therefore has an acute awareness of the environments and populations in which NTD programmes operate. Subsequently, Fiona worked with the Sabin Institute’s Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative in Minas Gerais, Brazil where she conducted a geospatial survey of STH species and Schistosoma mansoni and a socio-economic survey within a rural population.

As a programme and senior programme manager with SCI, Fiona has assisted Ministries of Health in sub-Saharan Africa (predominantly Uganda, Zambia, Malawi) with their national schistosomiasis and STH, and latterly, integrated NTD control programmes. Fiona is now the lead in directing the design, planning and implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities across all SCI programme areas. This involves the monitoring of programme impact, process, and performance, in addition to economic and social impacts, to ensure that the organisation’s objectives are being achieved. She is additionally involved in multi-disciplinary operational research which focuses on identifying efficiencies, cost-effectiveness, and the accessibility and acceptability of current NTD control programs in Africa. Fiona has been the successful recipient of grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust and Comic Relief.