Cai Heath

Cai joined the Ethox Centre in January 2017 as the Research Manager for the Resilience, Empowerment and Advocacy in Women’s and Children’s Health Research (REACH) Project. REACH is a Wellcome Trust-funded study investigating gaps in research ethics guidance for those working with vulnerable populations and improving support for responsible research with women, children and families. Cai coordinates the study across the three sites in Kenya, South Africa and Thailand, working with the research team to design, plan and implement the study. Cai is also a DPhil student, investigating how government actors in low- and middle-income countries can equitably engage with and coproduce global health research. His supervisors are Dr Maru Mormina and Professor Sassy Molyneux.

Joining Ethox from Imperial College London’s Partnership for Child Development, Cai spent over five years working on capacity building programmes and operational research for governments in a range of African and Asian countries to support evidence-based school-based health programmes. He holds an undergraduate master’s degree in Physics and a postgraduate master's degree in International Development, specialising in sustainable aid management; both from the University of Birmingham.

Cai has worked, volunteered and researched extensively in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, India, Nepal and Kenya over the past 15 years and engaged in shorter projects in Ethiopia, Myanmar and Uganda. He has worked as a research project coordinator at Oxford University's Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and is the chair of the trustee board for InterVol, a community volunteering charity that operates in the UK and overseas.