Bio

Sassy is a Professor in Global Health at the University of Oxford, and a senior researcher at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya. She is a multidisciplinary researcher with a background in human geography and behavioural studies. Her current main research areas span health policy and systems research (system governance, financing, and responsiveness to patients and publics) and empirical ethics, including the everyday ethics of frontline health provision and of conducting studies in low income settings. Sassy sits in leadership positions in several international networks, including the Resilience Network, the Ethics Thematic Working Group in Health Systems Global, and – until recently – RINGS, a partnership to foster gender and ethics analysis in health systems research and practice. Sassy lived in Kenya for 28 years, returning to the UK in 2020.

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Current Work

Cross-cutting areas of interest include a) producing new thinking, evidence and recommendations around vulnerability and agency among research participants and communities, and researchers responsibilities in these contexts; and b) initiatives aimed at strengthening accountability processes in biomedical research and health delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. She also supports strategic planning around ethical issues that emerge during research across the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust programme in Kenya, and contributes to social science, health systems research and research ethics training at the centre and internationally. Sassy has collaborators all over the world, including those that are part of the following networks she play a central role in: • the GLOBAL HEALTH BIOETHICS NETWORK (GHBN) (community engagement/ethics research in UK, Kenya, Vietnam, Thailand, Malawi and South Africa) • the EVERYDAY HEALTH SYSTEMS RESILIENCE NETWORK (EHSR) (research in Kenya and South Africa) • the ETHICS AND JUSTICE thematic working group of Health Systems Global. • REBUILD for RESILIENCE (R4R; health systems research in Sierra Leone, Myanmar, Nepal, and Lebanon); • Recovery International with COVID-19 treatment trials recruiting in Vietnam, Indonesia, Nepal, Ghana, South Africa and India • African Population Cohorts Consortium (APCC), bringing together scientists from 51 African countries Sassy also serves in the following committee roles • Co-chair – WHO/TDR Research for Implementation Scientific Working Group • Co-chair - Independent Advisory Group - Hospital management in Malawi (NIHR health systems management) • Co-chair - Ethics thematic working group for Health Systems Global • Member – Interview committee for early career research awards, Wellcome Trust. • Member – WHO/TDR Intervention and Implementation Research Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee • Member - SARETI (South African Research Ethics Training Institute) International Advisory Board • Member – Consortium Advisory Group - ReBUILD for Resilience (DfID funded health systems consortium) • Member – Independent Advisory Committee – Rebuild for Resilience (R4R; FCDO funded health systems research consortium) • Member – Steering committee - REDRESS: Reducing the Burden of Severe Stigmatising Skin Diseases (NIHR)

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Recent publications

Creating different global health futures: mapping the health research ecosystem and taking decolonial action.
Tagoe, N., Abimbola, S., Bilardi, D., Kamuya, D., Gilson, L., Muraya, K., Molyneux, S., Atuire, C.
BMC Health Serv Res, (2025). 25:565

Catastrophic expenditure associated with childhood hospitalisation for acute illness in Kenya and Uganda: a cross-sectional study.
Jemutai, J., Njuguna, R. G., Laurence, Y. V., Murunga, S., Ogwang, C., Mwaringa, S., Mwalekwa, L., Timbwa, M., Paasi, G., Olupot-Olupot, P., Juma, M., Thitiri, J., Ngao, N., Singa, B., Mukisa, J., Mupere, E., Lancioni, C., Sukhtankar, P., Tickell, K. D., Fakhar Uddin, M., Molyneux, S., Walson, J. L., Vassall, A., Berkley, J.
BMJ Public Health, (2025). 3:e001173

After neonatal care, what next? A qualitative study of mothers' post-discharge experiences after premature birth in Kenya.
Maluni, J., Oluoch, D., Molyneux, S., Boga, M., Jones, C., Murila, F., English, M., Ziebland, S., Hinton, L.
Int J Equity Health, (2025). 24:17

Understanding health system responsiveness to public feedback at the sub-national level: Insights from Kilifi County, Kenya.
Kagwanja, N., Gilson, L., Tsofa, B., Olivier, J., Leli, H., Molyneux, S.
PLOS Glob Public Health, (2024). 4:e0002814

Power and positionality in the practice of health system responsiveness at sub-national level: insights from the Kenyan coast.
Kagwanja, N., Molyneux, S., Whyle, E., Tsofa, B., Leli, H., Gilson, L.
Int J Equity Health, (2024). 23:177