SIHI Caribbean at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus

The Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) Caribbean Hub was launched in 2026. We are based at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. We hope to promote and foster social innovation in health by working with teams from different disciplines and sectors across the Caribbean to develop and implement locally driven community engaged solutions to improve health outcomes in the region.

Our Focus

The SIHI Caribbean Hub is based at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at UWI St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Our focus is to achieve health equity through community engagement.

I. Identify and conduct research on social innovations in health
II. Connect individuals and organisations interested in social innovation
III. Share good practice initiatives

OUR ACTIVITIES

Connect

Build and maintain a SIHI–UNC Directory.
Host quarterly network forums (speakers, lightning talks, matchmaking).

ABOUT US

Steering Committee

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Cédric Contaret, MPH, PhD, is a public health researcher and Responsible for Research and Innovation units at the University Hospital of Martinique (CHU de Martinique), France. He leads the DOSCCAR project (Development of Scientific Cooperation in the Caribbean) , a regional initiative aimed at strengthening clinical research capacity and scientific collaboration across the Caribbean. His work focuses on health systems research, clinical research structuring, bibliometric analysis, and regional capacity building. He is actively involved in developing collaborative research networks and promoting sustainable scientific cooperation aligned with Caribbean public health priorities.

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Dwayvania “Dee” Miller is a second-year Preventive Medicine resident and has completed her Infectious Disease fellowship and Masters of Public Health at the University of North Carolina. Her interests include preventive medicine in HIV care and global health. She is currently a Gilling’s Global Health Humanitarian Intern for 2025-2026, and her plans include clinical infectious disease practice both locally and globally, improving sustainable preventive healthcare access by partnering with local community members and organizations.

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Dr. Everold Hosein (PhD), Senior Communication Advisor-Consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), and Communication Consultant for UNICEF/UNFPA/UNWOMEN/UNDP/UNEP, is an international communication specialist (born in Trinidad and Tobago) with 50 years of experience in communication training, and strategic communication planning. He has worked in 160 countries. He is a Distinguished Scholar at City University of New York/School of Public Health (CUNY/SPH). He has been an Adjunct Professor/Coordinator, WHO-New York University Summer Institute on Integrated Marketing Communication for Behavioral Impact in Health/Social Development. He is the founder of COMBI – Communication for Behavioral Impact, adopted at WHO since 2000. Formerly, he was Senior Counselor for Social Development(COMBI) at Burson- Marsteller Public Relations/New York. Prior to that he served as Director of Programme Support (Public Relations, IEC and Fundraising) at International Planned Parenthood Federation, New York. He was the Director of the University of the West Indies Institute of Mass Communication/Jamaica, now CARIMAC. He received his Ph.D. in Communication and Business Administration from the University of Michigan in 1973.

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Loren De Freitas is a Lecturer in Public Health at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus. She is a medical doctor with research interests in health services, urgent and emergency care, climate change and health and sustainable healthcare. She is an associate member of the EarthMedic/EarthNurse Foundation for Planetary Health. Her work integrates clinical practice and research focusing on health services, climate and health, sustainable healthcare and strengthening the Caribbean research culture.

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Moji Anderson is an anthropologist, qualitative health researcher and senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. She conducts research and publishes in the areas of health, particularly chronic illnesses such as HIV, diabetes and sickle cell disease, sexualities, and identities in Jamaica and the Caribbean diaspora. She is co-founder of Beyond Homophobia, the biennial UWI conference, and co-editor with Dr Erin MacLeod of Beyond Homophobia: Centring LGBTQ Experiences in the Anglophone Caribbean(2020, UWI Press).

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Sixteen (16) years of experience working at the Department of Environmental Health of the Graduate School of Public Health, University of Puerto Rico Medical Science Campus and as an Associate Investigator at the Cancer Biology Division and Environmental Translational Cancer Program at the University of Puerto Rico-Comprehensive Cancer Center. I was one of the scientists responsible for supervising the implementation and compliance of Act No. 33-2019: Climate Change Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience in Puerto Rico (PR). I co-authored the US Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) for the Caribbean Region (PR and US Virgin Islands). In addition, I was the Chapter Lead of the Fifth National Climate Assessment of 2023 (NCA5) for the US Caribbean for the US Global Change Research Program. I served as Supervisor at the US Forest Service-Office of Sustainability and Climate. As an investigator, I served as Principal Investigator on several NASA research projects utilizing new technologies, integrating observing satellites, in situ, and modeling weather information, and public health data. Currently, I am leading the Caribbean Collaborative Action Network-A NOAA RISA Team and one of the multiple PIs for the CDC-Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE)-PR and on the multiple PIs in the Caribbean Cancer Research Center on Environmental and Natural Hazards (CARIB-CARES).

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Shalini Pooransingh is a public health physician, senior lecturer and Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians UK. She has over twenty years’ experience working in the UK, in the WHO Regions of South-East Asia and the Western Pacific and currently in academia. She is Head of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care and Director (Ag) of the Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development at UWI St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. Her experience and interests include communicable disease epidemiology, alert and response to acute public health threats, health service planning and evaluation and equitable access to quality healthcare.

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Vijay Kumar Chattu is a Community Health Physician and International Relations Specialist with over 25 years of teaching and research experience in Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and the Americas. He is a Senior Research Scientist at ReSTORE Lab, University of Toronto, and an Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health, University of Alberta. As an Associate Research Fellow at United Nations University-CRIS, Belgium, he works in the areas of climate change-migration-health nexus. His areas of expertise include regional health governance, global health security, regional health diplomacy, regional health partnerships, planetary health, and policymaking for the prevention of NCDs, to name a few. He is based at Tennessee State University, where he teaches public health courses to undergraduate and graduate students.

Advisory panel

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Dr. Dhanoo is currently the President of the Diabetes Association of Trinidad and Tobago, serving his 3rd term of office and serving the DATT in various roles for the past eight years. He is also a Director of the Trinidad and Tobago NCD Alliance (TTNCDA) and serves on the Ministry of Health’s Food Advisory Committee. He is also the incoming chairperson of the North-American and Caribbean Region of the International Diabetes Federation.
Dr. Dhanoo holds a PhD from the UWI St. Augustine in clinical biochemistry. He is a lecturer of Biology at the Bermuda College. Dr. Dhanoo is also a National Award recipient, winning the Chaconia Medal in Silver for his work in healthcare and volunteerism.

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Co-founder of La Romain Migrant Support (LARMS), Trinidad and Tobago in 2019 after a 16 year career as a secondary school teacher of English, Spanish, French, Sociology. Co-authored a series of Spanish texts (Que Hay) for secondary school students and also taught English as a Second Language for over 25 years. Still engaged as coordinator of LARMS focusing primarily on the education of migrant children who thus far have no access to formal schooling in the public education system.

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Cheryle is the Acting Director of the St. Augustine Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The University of the West Indies. She writes proposals for grant funding and guides teams toward successful project execution; supports the IP commercialization process and collaboratively bridges the Academic-Industry gap. She has worked with the UNDP as the Regional Programme Analyst. She is PMP certified and a member of the PMI, UIIN, AUTM and the Canadian Evaluation Society. She has a Master’s of Science Degree in Environmental Management and an MBA with specialization in Innovation and Entrepreneurship and is fluent in Spanish.