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The Ghana Hypertension Screening Initiative (GHSI) is now the Community Hypertension Initiative in Ghana, a program of Blessed Health Foundation LBG.
The People Behind the Initiative

Our Team & Partners

Our Team

Leadership

Mavis Amegah-Dorr, Founder of the Community Hypertension Initiative in Ghana
Founder

Mavis Amegah-Dorr

Founder & Executive Director

Mavis is Ghanaian-born and brings a systems thinking background to global health. The Initiative grew from the loss of her father to a stroke in 2019 and a commitment to building health infrastructure that tracks outcomes, not just events. She leads the Initiative's strategic direction, partnership development, and program design, traveling to Greater Accra to coordinate on-site implementation across the pilot launch and twelve-month follow-up. She is a Master of Public Administration candidate at the Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University.

Clinical Leadership & Advisory

Dr. Joana Amegah

Medical Director
Dr. Amegah serves as the Initiative's Medical Director. She provides clinical oversight for screening protocols, referral pathways, and training standards, brings direct access to Ghana's medical network, and ensures that the Initiative's approach meets appropriate clinical standards for the Ghanaian context.

Ekua Yeboah, MD, MPH

Clinical Advisor
Dr. Yeboah is a Johns Hopkins-trained physician and public health specialist serving as the Initiative's second clinical lens. She reviews screening protocols, BP classification thresholds, and referral pathways to ensure clinical accuracy and alignment with international standards.

Dr. Maame Araba Oduro, MBChB, MPH

Clinical Lead, Maternal Health & Hypertension in Pregnancy
Dr. Oduro guides the Initiative's pregnancy exclusion pathway within the screening protocol. Her expertise in maternal health ensures that women of childbearing age who present with elevated blood pressure receive appropriate clinical direction, communication, and referral.

Research Leadership

Dr. Hubert Amu

Anchor Principal Investigator
Dr. Amu is a Ghanaian population health researcher and Senior Lecturer at the University of Health and Allied Sciences. As Anchor Principal Investigator, he leads the Initiative's research program: the evaluation design for the pilot, the primary outcomes research on the twelve-month follow-up loop, and the publication agenda that turns the Initiative's data into evidence for policy.
Google Scholar →

Cynthia Lamisi Anaba

Co-Principal Investigator
Ms. Anaba is a public health researcher at the University for Development Studies, Tamale, and a Quality Improvement Advisor with the Christian Health Association of Ghana. As Co-Principal Investigator, she co-leads the Initiative's research program, anchoring the northern research perspective and the pathways that link community screening to Ghana's wider health system.

Operations

Leonora Ahorkonu

Community Engagement & Intake Lead
Leonora leads community engagement and intake coordination for the Initiative's screening model, serving as a vital link between screening events and the communities the Initiative serves. She brings hands-on community experience and contributes Ewe language capacity to the team.

Prince Osei Agyemang, PharmD, MPH

Data & Follow-Up Coordinator
Prince manages the Initiative's patient data systems and coordinates the 12-month follow-up cycle, including pharmacy referral pathway development. With training in pharmacy and population health analytics, he ensures that every person screened is tracked, contacted, and connected to care at Days 14, 30, 90, 180, and 365.
Our Partners

Strategic Partnerships

The Initiative leverages partnerships to prevent duplication and build capacity within existing programs.

Akoma+ Foundation

Screening Delivery Partner

Akoma+ Foundation delivers community-based blood pressure screening for the Greater Accra pilot. Akoma+'s clinicians and trained volunteers conduct screening events, while the Initiative provides the standard operating protocol, twelve-month follow-up infrastructure, data platform, and overall coordination.

akomaplushealth.com →

PHAIG (Public Health Alliance International Ghana)

Community Engagement Partner

PHAIG leads community engagement, mobilization, and volunteer coordination for the Greater Accra pilot, building the relationships with community leaders and local stakeholders that anchor each screening event.

phaig.org →

Central University

Academic Partner

Central University, through its Department of Public Health, is the Initiative's institutional and academic home in Greater Accra. The partnership covers coordination support for the Greater Accra pilot, supervised student field placements, and research collaboration drawn from the pilot.

central.edu.gh →

Community Trust

Built On Many Anchors Of Trust

In Ghana, stroke is widely attributed to spiritual forces, and many families respond with prayer rather than medical care. The Initiative works with religious institutions and community leaders because they have long been Ghana's health communities. We do not ask people to choose between faith and care. We build with both.

In Greater Accra, no single institution holds the community's trust. It is carried by faith communities, both Christian and Muslim, by traditional authorities, and by the leaders of the working communities the Initiative serves. The Initiative's model rests on all of them, so that every worker we reach is reached through people they already trust, and so that no one community stands in for the whole.

The Initiative's relationship with the Catholic Archdiocese of Accra and its parish network is the one furthest along. A network of four Catholic health facilities and 62 parishes anchors trust in the communities we serve. Alongside it, the Initiative is working to build trust with the Office of the National Chief Imam and the Muslim community, with traditional authorities, and with the transport unions and market women's leadership who anchor the lorry stations and markets where screening will take place.

This is not a finished list. It is a public commitment to building one with care, and to naming each partner here only once the relationship is real.