Dr Helene-Mari Van Der Westhuizen

Dr Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen trained and worked as a medical doctor in South Africa. She is co-founder and active member of the award-winning TB advocacy group, TB Proof. Based in South Africa, this non-profit organisation is guided by the experiences of people affected by TB and best available scientific evidence in advocating for effective TB policy development and implementation.

Helene-Mari lectures in global health is currently working as social science researcher at Oxford University with a focus on participatory researcher methods for health. Her research on Tuberculosis and COVID-19 prevention have been relied on for national and international policy and she has led evidence syntheses for the World Health Organisation on infection control and a case study on TB diagnostics. She regularly contributes opinion pieces in the media and her research on mask-wearing has been featured by media outlets including BBC breakfast TV, the Washington Post and Nature.