PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS
Li-Wei Chao
Principal Investigator
Li-Wei Chao, PI of the MSE Project, is a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Porto Business School (Portugal) and a Senior Fellow in the Population Studies Center and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) at the University of Pennsylvania (USA). He formerly was an appointed expert in Health Economics at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia and of Healthcare Systems at the University of Pennsylvania (USA), a Visiting Professor of Medicine at the University of Cape Town (South Africa), and an Honorary Research Associate at the Human Sciences Research Council (South Africa). Using his medical background and economics training, his current research focuses on topics related to health and economics. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of a project funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health that examines entrepreneurship in townships in South Africa, the effect of poor health and HIV/AIDS on entrepreneurial entry, exit, and success, and the extent to which HIV-related stigma differentially harms specific business sectors. He is also the PI of a project that uses behavioral and experimental economics techniques to examine risk taking propensity and unhealthy activities, and is a co-PI of another project that utilizes neuroimaging methods (fMRI) to examine the neural mechanisms of intergenerational sacrifice, where a daughter makes decisions to take pain on behalf of her mother or a stranger. Dr. Chao received his M.D. from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and his Ph.D. in Managerial Economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Karl Peltzer
Principal Investigator
Karl Peltzer, PI on the MSE Project, is Research Director in the HIV/AIDS, STI and TB (HAST) unit at the Human Sciences Research Council, South Africa, an Extraordinary Professor in Psychology at Free State University, and a Research Associate at the University of Limpopo. He has worked extensively in public health subject areas including alcohol, tobacco, cancer, tuberculosis, and HIV control; nutrition, physical activity, hypertension, mental health, injury and violence prevention, and health promotion. His current research interests include psychology applied to health, health promotion, chronic diseases of life style, substance use, communicable diseases including HIV, injuries, cultural health practices, and programme evaluation in low and middle income countries including Africa. Karl has published extensively on health behaviour and health interventions (18 books and 460 articles). His latest book is Peltzer, K. & Pengid, S. (2011) Health Behaviour Interventions in Developing Countries, New York: Nova Publishers.
RESEARCHERS
Jere Behrman
Researcher
Jere Behrman, Researcher on the MSE Project, is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Economics in the Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and a Research Associate at Penn’s Population Studies Center. He serves as the Economics/Social Science member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) National Advisory Council. He is a leading international researcher in empirical microeconomics, with emphasis on developing economies. His research interests include empirical microeconomics, labor economics, human resources (early childhood development, education, health, nutrition), project evaluation, economic demography, incentive systems and household behaviors. The unifying dimension of much of this research is to improve empirical knowledge of the determinants of and the impacts of human resources given unobserved factors such as innate health and ability, the functioning of various institutions such as households and imperfect markets, and information imperfections.
Peter Fleming
Researcher
Peter Fleming is a Researcher on the MSE Project based in the United States. Pete helped extensively with the logistics of the first wave of the study, guiding the team on many issues related to project administration and organization including budgeting, fieldwork implementation, and the use of technology to collect different kinds of data. Pete is currently a Market Researcher at Facebook. Previously, he founded and led IKI, a contract research organization, with offices in the USA and Malawi. Pete is completing his MBA degree from Babson College, and he has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from the University of Rochester.
Joana Gomes da Costa
Researcher
Joana Gomes da Costa has been a Researcher on the MSE Project since 2017. Joana’s part of the project entails analyzing data collected in South Africa to examine the health and psychology of the entrepreneur and entrepreneurial activity. Joana has an undergraduate degree in Pharmacy from the School of Health Sciences of the Polytechnic of Porto, a Master’s degree in Health Care Economics and Management from the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Porto, and she is currently a PhD Student at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Porto. Joana’s research focuses on Health Economics, specifically on Pharmaceutical Economics by exploring prescription, consumption and expenditure patterns exhibited in the diffusion and use of innovative pharmaceuticals in Portugal.
Ana Rita Farias
Researcher
Ana Rita Farias is a Researcher on the MSE Project. Ana is a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Porto and Invited Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa. She has a PhD in Social Psychology from ISCTE-IUL, Portugal and Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Rita’s research focuses on social cognition, specifically on exploring how information is spread and processed across different sensory modalities and how multisensory integration takes place and interferes with human behavior and decision-making. More recently, she is exploring the interrelationships between psychological research and behavioural economics in promoting public policy. Rita has held research positions at Wisconsin University (USA), the William James Center for Research (ISPA – Portugal), and at Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics (Portugal). During this time, she has lead experiments using different measure sources (e,g, mousetracking, eyetracking, physiologic measures such as EMG and fMRI techniques) in a multimodal context environment (e.g. complex visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile priming). Her research has been published in international peer-reviewed journals and presented globally. She has worked in several national and international research projects.
Erika Laranjeira
Researcher
Erika Laranjeira is a Researcher working on the MSE Project in Portugal, and has helped with questionnaire piloting and fieldworker training. Erika is completing her PhD in Economics from the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto.
Rui Leite
Researcher
Rui Leite has been a Researcher on the MSE Project since 2009. Rui is the chief technology officer for the MSE project. He spearheads the use of the most advanced data collection technology for field research. He also directs the programming of software for data collection. He has been involved in all stages of research from questionnaire development, piloting the questionnaire, to econometric analysis and the writing of scientific manuscripts. Rui is currently completing his PhD in Economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto. He has both BA and MA degrees in Economics from the University of Porto.
Jeffery Patterson
Researcher
Jeffery Patterson is a Researcher working on the MSE Project in Portugal. Jeff has experience with population studies and has studied South Africa during the course of his Masters at the University of Delaware. This is his first project with the team, as his past experience is from the financial sector in the United States. Jeff is very interested in learning more about the study and enjoys working with such a diverse and hard-working team.
Shandir Ramlagan
Researcher
Shandir Ramlagan, Researcher and Project Director at HSRC on the MSE Project, is a Research Specialist in the HIV/AIDS, STIs and TB research (HAST) unit at HSRC. He obtained his masters degree in development studies from the University of Natal. Before joining the HSRC, Shandir worked as a researcher at Development Research Africa, where he was involved in questionnaire and methodology development, field management, as well as contributing to research output. Mr. Ramlagan has experience in social science research, especially in the areas of qualitative research design and methodology, planning and management of surveys, and design of research instruments. His project experience includes work for organizations such as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, CDC, NIH, the World Bank, Population Council, and various governmental departments. His publication record spans progress reports, co-authored chapters, literature reviews, co-authored peer-reviewed journal articles, conceptual and epidemiological models, and design questionnaires.
Nuno Sousa Pereira
Researcher
Nuno Sousa Pereira, Researcher on the MSE Project, is a Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Director of the Centre for Finance and Economics, both at the University of Porto, in Portugal. His research focuses on the health care industry and spans topics such as pharmaceuticals, vaccine-supply, and health and entrepreneurship.
Nuno holds BA and MA degrees in Economics from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto and a PhD in Managerial Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Amongst other functions, Nuno has worked as Director-General in the Finance Ministry of Portugal, as member of the Board of Directors representing Portugal for the European Investment Bank and, as head of the Portuguese Delegation of the Economic Policy Committees of the European Union and of the OECD, and as Dean of Porto Business School.
Helena Szrek
Researcher
Helena Szrek, Researcher on the MSE Project, is an Associate Professor at Porto Business School and at the Centre for Finance and Economics at the University of Porto, in Portugal.Helena received a BA from Oxford University in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and a Ph.D. in Managerial Economics from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She specializes in judgment and decision making with two different focuses, (i) analyzing the choice processes of consumers (especially health care consumers) and (ii) the link between health and entrepreneurship.
She has been working in South Africa since 2002 when she joined Li-Wei Chao on a project in Durban that was the precedent of the current project.
She enjoys every trip she makes to Pretoria, where she has a chance to meet with the team. Learning about some different African customs and about some of the many different cultures has been extremely interesting to her. She is very grateful to everyone in the MSE family for their hard work and proud of what the team has achieved!
FIELD SUPERVISORS
Vernon Kekana
Field Supervisor
Vernon Kekana has been working for the HSRC since 2008; he joined the MSE Project during its first phase in 2009, and he later returned to the project in 2013 for its third and final phase.
Vernon is a Field Supervisor for the MSE project at the HSRC in Pretoria, South Africa. He specializes in identifying households in the enumeration areas and allocating coversheets to the data collectors, verifying that interviewed participants are the right people to be interviewed.
He checks and sees to it that interviews are conducted in a correct manner; he is responsible for paying participants who have won money from the activities that take place in the conducted interviews in the field.
Given Kgafela
Field Supervisor
Given Kgafela started working as a Field Researcher on the MSE Project at the HSRC in 2009. He is now working as a Field Supervisor on this study about health and small businesses in Pretoria.
He enjoys working in field and working along with Dr Li-Wei Chao, Helena Szrek, Rui Leite, and Shandir Ramlagan.
Bongani Ngwenya
Field Supervisor
Bongani Ngwenya is employed as Head Supervisor at the HSRC on the MSE Project, that researches the relationship between business ownership and health.
He started working on the project in 2009, working as a team supervisor leading a team of four fieldworkers. He was later promoted to lead supervisors, taking the role of a super supervisor. The team was later joined by a group of professional nurses who were also under his supervision.
The project is mainly conducted in the township areas of Tshwane in South Africa, mostly around the African communities. It is in this position that Bongani began to understand in detail the research aims of the study and the goals the study has to contribute to society. In particular, he enjoyed learning about why the research had participants make choices regarding money (to eventually earn some much needed cash).
He would very much like to express his appreciation and gratitude to everyone in the MSE project, especially the team from overseas, Dr Li-Wei Chao, Prof Helena Szrek, and Mr Shandir Ramlagan.
He likes to thank the opportunity given to him, God bless!!
FIELD RESEARCHERS
Gertrude K. Makomane
Field Researcher
Gertrude Makomane is a Field Researcher for the MSE Project at the HSRC in South Africa. She completed a diploma in clothing production and a certificate in pre-nursing. She is currently enrolled in a diploma program on logistic management at the University of Johannesburg.
Gertrude has 6 years of experience working at the HSRC doing, among other things, data capturing and field research. She joined the MSE project in 2009. She enjoys working as a team member, and she is a hard worker. Gertrude is from Limpopo (Burgersfort) in South Africa.
Josephine B. Mantsho
Field Researcher
Josephine Mantsho is a Field Researcher for the MSE Project at the HSRC in South Africa. She completed a national Diploma in Psychology.
She has volunteered in home based care, dealing with children who are affected by and/or infected with HIV/AIDS. She facilitated support groups for child headed families, for grannies, and for people who are HIV positive.
She joined the HSRC in October 2012.
She loves South Africa and its diverse cultures.
Mmule P. Mataboge
Field Researcher
Mmule Mataboge is a 31 year old mother of one and a Field Researcher for the MSE Project at the HSRC in South Africa. She completed a national Diploma in B-Tech in 2005. She worked as an internal communications officer for the government for a while.
She joined HSRC in 2012, where she worked as a Field Researcher for the SABSM Project. She subsequently joined the MSE team as a Field Researcher. She works well with all the team members, and she has a good sense of humour.
She loves and is fascinated by the “French” language. Merci beaucoup!
Vongani Ali Mdaka
Field Researcher
Vongani Ali Mdaka was born and grew up in the Tiyani (Magoro) Limpopo province in South Africa. He completed matric at Akani high school in 2003. Vongani completed a Bachelor of Administration from the University of Limpopo (Turf loop campus) in 2008. He also worked as a Librarian and as an Administrative Clerk for Magistrate Hlanganani, where he acquired additional practical skills and expertise.
Vongani joined the HSRC in 2009 when he started working as Field Researcher on the MSE Project, an HSRC collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania. He enjoys working with people from different cultures. He is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Law LLB with the University of South Africa (UNISA).
Sipho S. Mhlabane
Field Researcher
Sipho Mhlabane is a Field Researcher who joined the MSE family during the second phase. He enjoys collecting data, meeting different people, and he appreciates the opportunity given to him to be a member of the MSE family.
Sipho studied electrical engineering (N3) at Atteridgeville Technical College, and he participated in a learnership programme at the City Council of Pretoria.
Fhatuwani P. Mulangeni
Field Researcher
Fhatuwani Mulangeni is a BCOM Economic degree graduate. She started working for the HSRC in 2009 as a data collector, and is now a Field Researcher for the MSE Project.
She enjoys her job as she interacts with different people of different cultures every day.
She goes out with friends for mountain hiking on a monthly basis!!
Micah E. Nangambe
Field Researcher
Micah Nangambe is a Field Researcher on the MSE Project. He completed his Diploma in Marketing Management in 2005. He also attended a leadership course in 2005 with Professor Thakathi.
Micah conducts interviews in different households in designated areas sampled around Tshwane. He joined the MSE in 2009 and worked on the project in the first, second, and third phases. Throughout the study, he interviewed more than 200 people, male and female, young and old, from different cultural backgrounds.
He also enjoys interacting and engaging with the MSE family members from South Africa, Portugal, and the USA. He says they are all very loving and special people.
Micah enjoys going places, seeing new faces on a regular basis, and learning about people’s different perceptions and ways of doing things in life!
That is his MSE motto: Going places, seeing faces!
Patronella Ragedi
Field Researcher
Patronella Ragedi worked as a Field Researcher on the MSE Project for the first two stages of fieldwork (2009-2011). She interviewed many respondents during this time, provided feedback to the researchers, and she also contributed to the training of new fieldworkers. She is now working in the HR department of HSRC.
Nomthi Kutlwano Segale
Field Researcher
Nomthi Segale is a Field Researcher on the MSE Project at HSRC, in South Africa. She is currently working on a study with the University of Pennsylvania in the United States about health and small businesses around Pretoria. She studied Architecture and has now developed a love for research. She started working for HSRC in 2009 and enjoys working in field, meeting all the different people she does every day. She also derives a lot of pleasure from working with the South African and Portuguese MSE Teams.
Lerato M. Twala
Field Researcher
Lerato Twala is a Field Researcher on the MSE Project at the HSRC. She specializes in interviewing people in field for research that studies small businesses and health.
She has been working for the HSRC in South Africa and the University of Pennsylvania in the USA since 2009. Lerato enjoys learning about different cultures and about the different types of people in her country.
FIELD RESEARCHERS AND FIELD NURSES
Mina Sebokeng Makgetloa
Field Researcher and Field Nurse
Mina Makgetloa is a Field Researcher on the MSE Project at the HSRC in Pretoria. She joined the MSE team in 2011. She enjoys meeting different people in the field, and she is grateful to be working with the MSE team.
Daniel M. Mpowana
Field Researcher and Field Nurse
Daniel Mpowana is a Field Researcher on the MSE Project at the HSRC in Pretoria. He started working on the MSE project in 2011 as a Field Nurse, before he transitioned to a Field Researcher. He enjoys conducting interviews.
He is very grateful to everyone in the MSE family for the hard work they are doing and for the support they gave him while he was training to become a fieldworker that conducts full interviews on his own.
FIELD NURSES
Martha Kedibone Dhlewayo
Field Nurse
Martha Dhlewayo worked as a Field Nurse for the MSE Project for the first part of the second stage of fieldwork (2011). She collected biomarkers from respondents, which included various health measurements including height, weight, waist, grip strength, implementing an eye-exam, and taking drops of blood from respondents (5 dry blood spots).
Charmaine Hlangwane
Field Nurse
Charmaine Hlangwane worked as a Field Nurse for the MSE Project for the full second stage of fieldwork (2011-2012). She collected biomarkers from respondents, which included various health measurements including height, weight, waist, grip strength, implementing an eye-exam, and taking drops of blood from respondents (5 dry blood spots).
Debra Mosidi Molepo
Field Nurse
Debra Molepo worked as a Field Nurse for the MSE Project for the full second stage of fieldwork (2011-2012). She collected biomarkers from respondents, which included various health measurements including height, weight, waist, grip strength, implementing an eye-exam, and taking drops of blood from respondents (5 dry blood spots).
Delina Nkoana
Field Nurse
Delina Nkoana worked as a Field Nurse for the MSE Project for the full second stage of fieldwork (2011-2012). She collected biomarkers from respondents, which included various health measurements including height, weight, waist, grip strength, implementing an eye-exam, and taking drops of blood from respondents (5 dry blood spots).lood spots).
Irene Ramodisha
Field Nurse
Irene Ramodisha worked as a Field Nurse for the MSE Project for the full second stage of fieldwork (2011-2012). She collected biomarkers from respondents, which included various health measurements including height, weight, waist, grip strength, implementing an eye-exam, and taking drops of blood from respondents (5 dry blood spots).
OFFICE WORKERS
Fikile R. Maseko
Office Worker
Fikile Maseko is the Administrator for the MSE Project at HSRC. She holds a diploma in Information Technology, has certificates in Information literacy, and is a certified Linux administrator. She is currently enrolled in a certificate course on office administration.
Fikile joined the MSE project in 2011; she is responsible for running the administration of the project. Her duties include preparing equipment to be used by the fieldworkers and preparing transportation arrangments for the whole team. On a monthly basis, she prepares salary documents for the team and makes sure that everyone is paid. On a daily basis, she downloads data that has been collected by the team in the field which she sends to the MSE team based in Portugal.
The MSE family has a tradition of celebrating everyone’s birthday so Fikile makes sure that each team member’s birthday is celebrated with cakes and birthday goodies!! Fikile is grateful to have been given the opportunity to join and work with the MSE family and for meeting everyone on the MSE team.
Charles Kgaladi
Office Worker
Charles has assisted Fikile with administrative work for the MSE Project.
