Our team

Karen Hofman is Research Professor and Founding Director of the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science/ PRICELESS SA at the University of Witwatersrand. A qualified paediatrician, she was on faculty at Johns Hopkins and served as Policy Director at the US NIH Fogarty Center. Since 2009 Karen has led policy research to evaluate interventions both inside the health system and in other sectors that provide the biggest return on investment for health.

She is widely published in global health with more than 190 peer reviewed publications and has received the Wits Vice Chancellor’s Social Impact Research Award in 2020 and the Science-for-Society Gold Medal from the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2022.

Publications | In the media

Expertise

Prof Susan Goldstein is a public health medicine specialist and Managing Director  at the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science-PRICELESS SA. She worked at the Soul City: Institute for Social Justice (SCI) for over 22 years, communicating about Health with both adults and children.  She has a special interest in Health Promotion, focusing on the social, economic, and commercial determinants of health, immunization, and children, as well as the ethics of priority setting. She has published widely in the field of public health. She sits on the International Monitoring Board for Global Polio Eradication as well as on the Board for the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance.

Orcid ID 0000-0002-3424-5319  

Experience

Prof Goldstein worked clinically as a Primary Care doctor for 10 years

She worked at Soul City Institute for 22 years doing research, writing, managing productions, training, development of materials (TV, Radio and Print), social mobilization, and running campaigns.

She has taught at the Wits School of public health for many years and contributed to the development of the Masters in Public Health Social and Behaviour Change Communication stream.

Expertise

Evelyn Thsehla is the research director within PRICELESS SA. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pretoria and an MSc degree in health technology assessment from the University of Glasgow. Prior to joining PRICELESS SA, Evelyn worked for the regulator of medical schemes in South Africa where she was responsible for reviewing and costing of the prescribed minimum benefits using priority-setting principles. In 2018, she worked at Thailand’s Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP) where she gained experience in health technology assessment (HTA) and priority setting. Her research interest include priority setting, HTA and the economic impact of non-communicable diseases. Her PhD focused on the economy-wide impact of diabetes and the sugar-sweetened beverage tax

Micheal is a Researcher at SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science - Priceless SA. Micheal has research interest in Health Economics: healthcare financing; provider-payment mechanisms; economic burden of diseases, cost-effectiveness analysis and fiscal policies for health.

Aarika Sing is the Office Manager within PRICELESS. She provides support to the units operations. An energetic and multi-tasking professional, whose portfolio is to manage the administration of grant applications, event management for both local & international conferences, procurement for the unit, staff contracts, submission of manuscripts, and various other tasks that help to optimize operational efficiency, seamlessly

Project Coordinator /Office administrator, Responsible for Capturing and Processing payments, managing travel arrangements for the team, organize meeting, conferences and events and other administerial duties.

Chris Desmond is an economist specializing in health and social policy research related to human development over the life-course. His work has focused on children affected by HIV, the challenges of conducting economic evaluations of health and social interventions, including those concerned with the care of children and, more recently, the determinants of adolescent wellbeing. Dr Desmond is the co-developer (with Prof. Sudir Anand, Oxford University) of the Cost of Inaction Approach, which Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen has described as a ‘new way of looking at policy analysis’. He has worked with UNICEF, the World Bank, PEPFAR/USAID and numerous foundations. Dr Desmond has conducted research and/or policy development in 10 African countries, including policy work with 5 African governments.  

Winfrida Mdewa is a Certified Projects IN Controlled Environments (Prince 2®) Practitioner with a Masters Degree in Health Economics (MPH) from Wits University, an Honours Degree in Economics and a certificate in project management for non-profit organizations from the University of Zimbabwe.  Her previous engagements have been within the government and NGO sector.

Aviva Tugendhaft is a Senior Researcher at the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science -PRICELESS SA. She is currently busy with her PHD focusing on community-based decision making and priority setting, using a modified Choosing Health Plans Together (CHAT) tool. Aviva has an undergraduate Bachelor of Arts with Law and Political Science and a Masters in Health Sociology from Wits University. Prior to joining PRICELESS SA she worked in the NGO and public sectors where she was involved in programme and policy analysis and development, specifically with regard to HIV/AIDS and community initiatives. She also worked in the private sector where she developed workplace wellness programmers. 

Twitter | Publications | In the media

Ciaran Kohli-Lynch is an honorary lecturer at PRICELESS SA and postdoctoral research fellow at Northwestern University. His research focuses on decision-analytic modelling, cost-effectiveness analysis, and the primary prevention of non-communicable disease.

Dr Sameera Mahomedy (she/her) is a researcher in law and policy at PRICELESS SA. She holds an LLB, an LLM (cum laude) and an LLD from the University of Stellenbosch. Her areas of interest include health promotion and constitutional law. She has lectured advanced Constitutional Law, Legal Philosophy, and advanced Legal Philosophy at Stellenbosch University. She is also a Fellow of the Ubuntu Dialogues, which is hosted by Stellenbosch University and Michigan University.

Kabelo is a public health researcher with 11+ years’ experience in the HIV/AIDS field, with in-depth key populations research and programme expertise. He has exceptional experience in programme initiation, research implementation and data analysis, with publications. He has worked on numerous research projects in 7 of the 9 provinces in South Africa on formative assessments, RDS and other research methodologies.   With his expertise in research, he has overseen numerous research projects from initiation to project closure successfully, managing diverse staffing, research subject demographics and settings.

Dr Liz Thomas is a senior researcher working primarily on Non-Communicable Diseases. She has extensive experience with social determinants of health in urban settings. Liz has contributed to national and district level policy with respect to municipalities' priority setting and budget allocation. Liz has been involved in research across the continent. She joined Priceless after 6 years as Director of the Hunterstoun Centre at the University of Fort Hare.  Prior to this she was based at the Centre for Health Policy at the School of Public Health and was a member of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Urban Health.  

Expertise

Chengetai is a Senior Health Economist at PRICELESS SA, a Division of Wits Health Consortium (Pty) Ltd. His research work broadly focusses on how to reduce diet-related disparities and create a more healthful food system and food environment. These include evaluating the effectiveness of the sugary tax in reducing the demand for and consumption of unhealthy products while promoting the intake of healthier alternatives. His research also includes providing evidence on the need to protecting children from pervasive, persuasive marketing for ultra-processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, which is crucial in preventing obesity. Chengetai is also a Research Collaborator in the Global Burden of Disease Network.

Before joining PRICELESS SA, he worked as a Research Fellow at the WHO FCTC Knowledge Hub on Tobacco Taxation/Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP) based at the University of Cape Town. At the Knowledge Hub/REEP, he worked extensively on tobacco excise tax modelling and developed tobacco tax models for countries such as Sri Lanka, Mongolia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Chengetai has also worked for the World Bank as a Consultant, and as Chief Economist in the Ministry of Economic Empowerment in Zimbabwe.

Darshen Naidoo is a researcher at SAMRC/Wits Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science (Priceless SA). He graduated top of the class with the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) from the IIE Varsity College and holds regional and national titles in moot court competitions. Additionally, he completed Practical Legal Training (PLTs) at the LEAD Johannesburg School for Legal Practice. Currently, Darshen is completing the Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Economic Law at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Celeste Holden is a Researcher at Priceless SA, she recently finished her MPH in Health Economics through the University of Witwatersrand. Prior to this, she obtained an honours degree in Physiotherapy from the University of Cape Town and was practicing as a physiotherapist in both the public and private sectors.  Her interest lies in healthcare equity and measuring health outcomes through standardised measures.

Expertise

Baone Twala is a human rights specialist with ten years of experience working to uphold socio-economic rights using research, advocacy and litigation. Baone holds a BA and LLB (cum laude) and is currently pursuing a Masters in Management (in the field of Governance and Public Policy). She varied expertise in law and policy through  previous experiences. Prior to PRICELESS, Baone worked as a legal researcher at SECTION27 on primarily on law and policy reform of access to medicine and nutrition.

Kennedy Ntikana is the Grant Officer at Priceless SA with over 6 years of accounting experience in non-profit and private sectors. He specializes in grant management, budgeting, compliance, cash flow management and financial reporting. He has a dynamic and compatible personality that allows him to effectively interact with people at all levels. He also possesses excellent management skills and a keen attention to detail.

Nosiphiwo Nzimande (she/her) is a Research Assistant in law and policy at the SAMRC Centre for Health Economics and Decision Science/PRICELESS SA at the University of Witwatersrand. She is an admitted Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, who attained her Bachelor of Laws and Master of Laws degrees from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her interests are in human rights advocacy, constitutional jurisprudence and utilizing litigation as a means of access to justice for the advancement of social justice.