Our Senior Management Team

Acting Executive Director and Head, Professional Development & Training

Pauline Ngimwa

Pauline Ngimwa is a Kenyan national with extensive work experience in the African Higher Education sector. An experienced practitioner and scholar in higher education and educational technology, she has led multi-national education and capacity strengthening projects in African Higher Education sector. Currently, she is the Acting Executive Director and Programme Manager for the Professional Development and Training Programme, responsible for strategic management of the organisation, conceptualizing and guiding the development and delivery of experiential professional training programmes to early and mid-career researchers, academics and policy actors in Africa. Before joining PASGR, Pauline led the implementation of the digital library and Open, Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) programmes at the African Virtual University. Her research interests include design and use of digital educational resources including Open Educational Resources (OERs) in African Higher Education. She has published in this area and peered reviewed for international journals. She is also a member of the Network of OERs and Multimodal Self-Directed Learning in Southern Africa (NOMSA) advisory board. She holds a PhD and Masters of Research in Educational Technology from the Open University of UK; and a BSc. and a Masters in Information Science from Moi University, Kenya, and is a fellow with the African Science Leadership Program. 

Head, Finance & Administration

Constance Mwahunga

Constance is the Head, Finance and Administration. She provides strategic oversight and operational leadership to PASGR’s financial and administration functions. 

Constance is an accomplished Finance and Accounting professional with over 15 years’ experience in finance, accounting and grant management in the not-for-profit sector having held various key and strategic positions in her expansive career. She is currently a PhD Finance thesis student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. She holds an MBA in Finance and Bcom in Accounting both from Kenyatta University. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and CPAK and a member of ICPAK, AWAK and ACFE (Kenya Chapter).   

Programme Manager, Research

Martin Atela

Dr Martin Atela, PASGR’s Manager of Research and Policy, is a research scientist specialising in knowledge translation and evidence uptake. He has designed, implemented, and published research in public health, primary care, health systems and policy, accountability and empowerment, social policy and development, and mixed methods approaches to complex research. Martin provides intellectual, strategic, and operational leadership to ensure PASGR’s research contributes to strengthening African social science research and supports regional policy and governance needs. He leads over 14 diverse teams of senior, middle-level and young African researchers delivering contextual and demand-driven research across Africa.  

Martin is passionate about African-led evidence-informed decision making and practice. Since 2017, he has been at the forefront of PASGR’s innovative evidence-to-policy programme – Utafiti Sera, providing thought-leadership and working with partners to transform the programme from an idea to a thriving globally recognised African-led evidence-informed decision-making approach. He has led the design and constitution of several active communities of practice, working to enhance evidence uptake and use in over 10 African countries. He is also the current Uptake Director for African Cities Research Consortium, project Director/PI for a Mastercard Foundation-PASGR research and uptake project on Youth Aspirations and Resilience in seven African countries, and Accountability for Water Consortium programme lead.  

Dr Atela also supports several capacity building initiatives in the continent. In this respect, he has supervised and mentored over 20 graduate students in universities across the continent, led graduate curriculum development/review in several universities and supervised research work for senior military staff at the Kenya National Defence College, Karen. He is serving in several international high-level technical working groups viz. steering committee – Action for Empowerment and Accountability international research programme; DFID/UNICEF Independent Expert Group (IEG) on Maternal and Neonatal Health, Kenya; Kenya National HIV/AIDS Research Priorities Technical Working Group;  East African Community, HIV/AIDS Research and Knowledge Research Priorities Technical Working Group; and is a Beacon Scholarship Home Mentor.   

Martin earned his PhD in Public Health and Primary Care from the University of Cambridge, UK. Additionally, he holds an MSc Multiple Degree in International Health from the Universities of Copenhagen, Denmark, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Queen Margaret Edinburgh, UK, an MPhil in International Relations (Health Security) from the University of Cambridge, UK and an Advanced Diploma in Health and Human Rights from the University of Geneva, Switzerland. He has specialist training in Survey methods from the LSE, UK, Systematic reviews and meta-analysis from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is currently completing Executive Leadership training at Harvard Kennedy School. He holds several international prestigious awards, including the Gates Cambridge, The European Commission Fellowship, and the Shell Centenary Leadership Award.  

Country experience: Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Hong Kong, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, UK, Zambia.