The ROOTS Network coordinators comprise members of the Health Systems Collaborative team at the University of Oxford, UK, and the Health Systems Ethics Department at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya.

Interdisciplinary Researcher
Sassy Molyneux

Sassy Molyneux is an interdisciplinary researcher, with a background in human geography, behavioural research and organisational studies.  She moved back to the UK from Kenya in 2020 after 27 years of working for the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), and remains a member of the Health Systems and Research Ethics Department in KWTRP.

Her research has focused on two overlapping areas in LMICs: health systems studies (governance, financing, and responsiveness to patients and publics) and empirical ethics, including the everyday ethics of frontline health provision and of conducting studies in low-resource settings. Much of her current work focuses on frontline staff in health and research systems. Sassy is interested in better understanding vulnerability, agency and researchers’ responsibilities, in gender dynamics and institutional functioning, and in implementation research. She is part of several international networks, including the Global Health Bioethics Network, the Ethics Thematic Working Group in Health Systems Global, and – until recently – RINGS, a partnership to foster gender and ethics analysis in health systems research and practice. Sassy was awarded an NIHR grant to lead the ROOTS Program, an initiative focused on exploring the nature of moral distress in under-researched settings.

Postdoctoral Research Scientist
Yingxi Zhao

Yingxi Zhao is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Health Systems Collaborative group. He is currently supporting the ROOTS network in developing a measurement tool for assessing moral distress among frontline research and healthcare staff. His research focuses on health systems and human resources for health, particularly healthcare workers’ experiences, using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. His current work includes a major study on the role of physician associates in UK NHS hospitals. He is also developing research on the experiences of internationally recruited doctors and nurses in the UK, and on employee voice in healthcare systems. Yingxi is a core member of the ROOTS Network.

Postdoctoral Researcher
Stephanie Nzekwu

Stephanie Nzekwu is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. Originally from Nigeria, she earned her undergraduate degree in Sociology (BSc) before relocating to the UK to pursue a master’s degree in International Human Resource Management at the University of Manchester and a PhD in Business and Management at the University of Warwick. Prior to her academic career, Stephanie gained valuable industry experience in the banking sector and worked as an HR generalist in a telecommunications organization.

Her research focuses on professions, professional identity, values, and organization studies. She examines expectation violations and moral challenges faced by novice frontline professionals, with a particular emphasis on healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As part of Oxford’s Health Systems Collaborative (HSC), Stephanie investigates moral distress among frontline research staff working in ethically complex environments and serves as the coordinator of the ROOTS network.

Postdoctoral Researcher
Kate McNeil

Kate McNeil is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, where she works with the Health Systems Collaborative and the Pandemic Sciences Institute. Her current research explores how health organisations can support the wellbeing of frontline healthcare staff during and in their preparation for health emergencies, including pandemics and outbreaks of priority pathogens.

Kate is originally from Newfoundland, Canada, where she once worked in a historic lighthouse. Prior to embarking on an academic career, Kate also worked as a political staffer in Canada and in knowledge translation and communications for the science-policy interface at the University of Cambridge. She moved to the UK in 2018.

Kate holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies (Cantab), an MSc in Health and International Development, and a BA (Hons) in Politics and History (minor). Her research interests include disaster and health crisis response, the science-policy interface, the management of uncertainty, and resilience in systems. She has conducted teaching on topics including public policy, international organisations, and the social and ethical context of health and illness.

Postdoctoral Researcher
Alex Hinga

Alex is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya. Born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, Alex completed undergraduate studies in biomedical sciences before working as a medical microbiologist and undertaking a research internship in Nairobi. He then moved to the United Kingdom to pursue an MSc in Public Health. In 2015, he returned to Kenya to begin a PhD studentship at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, where his research focused on investigating the emotional and moral experiences of research fieldworkers who collect cause of death data in Africa. In his current role, Alex applies empirical bioethics methods to examine ethical issues in health-related research and practice. His research interests include ethics of pandemic preparedness and response, trauma-informed verbal autopsy practice, clinical trial ethics, and the moral experiences of frontline staff.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dorothy Oluoch

Dorothy Oluoch is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Nairobi. Born and raised in Kenya, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Nairobi, an MSc in Medical Anthropology from Brunel University in the UK, and a PhD in Public Health from the Open University, UK. Her research interests span patient and staff experiences of illness and healthcare, Experience-Based Co-Design, maternal, newborn and child health, research ethics, and the evaluation of health systems interventions.

Her current work focuses on understanding staff and families’ experiences of maternal and newborn care, including care for small and sick newborns in Kenya, with the aim of informing quality improvement strategies. She is particularly interested in the vulnerabilities faced by families of small and sick newborns, as well as the ethical and practical dilemmas encountered by front-line researchers conducting embedded health systems research in hospital and community settings.

THE ROOTS NETWORK MEMBERS

The  ROOTs Network also brings together colleagues and collaborators working in diverse resource-constrained contexts, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand and UK to feed ideas and advice into the broader project. All network members have an interest in and direct responsibility for supervision and support of frontline research staff; most are frontline staff themselves. Where relevant to their own institutions and work, they support with the co-design, iterative implementation and evaluation of emerging practical guidance.