Training program

Trainee spotlight: Bavon Mupenda, Fogarty Bioethics scholar

Prior to joining this project, Bavon Mupenda

was a Lecturer at the Free University of Great Lakes Countries in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, where he taught a course in social ethics and research methodology.  He holds a Bachelors degree in Sociology and Anthropology, and a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Lubumbashi, Zaire.  He also holds a Higher Diploma in Community Health and Development and a Masters degree in Community Health and Development from the Tropical Institute of Community Health and Development (TICH) in Kenya. 

Mr. Mupenda was a 2003 Fogarty Bioethics trainee at John Hopkins University, where he followed a program in research ethics under the guidance of Nancy Kass. Part of his practicum for JHU was the establishment of IRBs at TICH in Kenya and at the Free University of the Great Lakes Countries in Goma. In 2006-2007, he followed a customized program of public health research and bioethics at University of North-Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Bavon is currently towards a PhD for the Kinshasa School of Public Health on the topic of 'positive prevention', i.e. HIV prevention challenges and strategies among adolescents in Kinshasa who are already HIV positive. Part of the dissertation will be devoted to the ethical issues surrounding HIV prevention with this particular population.