About Saleha
We live in a world where brilliant scientific breakthroughs and comprehensive health policies are constantly being generated, yet they often stall before they ever change a life on the ground. I’ve found that the missing link isn’t always needing more data; it’s knowledge translation. It is the ability to take complex epidemiology, intricate tech governance, and dense legislative frameworks, and translate them into practical, equitable toolkits that communities and governments can actually use. That is exactly the space I step into.
As a public health specialist and medical biochemist who has spent years navigating the complex health policy architectures of South Africa and East Africa, I build the bridges that allow public health innovations to cross over into real-world, systemic change.
My work spans research, policy, and advisory roles across some of the most pressing questions in global health. As a consultant at the University of Cape Town, I supported a Gates Foundation-funded multi-country project examining the equity, ethics, and governance of digital health tools, investigating both the direct impact of these technologies on healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries, and how social and gender norms shape rural women’s access to digital health interventions in India.
Alongside this, I contributed to WHO global health surveillance through structured data synthesis and the development of knowledge translation materials for academic, policy, and advocacy audiences. Through my work with the Coalition for Global Health Innovation, I engage across policy, academia, and implementation spaces to strengthen health systems and promote equitable access to healthcare solutions. And through the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance, I have translated complex legislative content on the Liquor Bill Amendment into accessible tools for policymakers and communities, because evidence that cannot be understood cannot drive change.
Earlier work has taken me across sectors and institutions: supporting UNHCR media advocacy and drafting strategic messaging for a high-level regional health summit in the Middle East; contributing to provincial health systems projects, including hospital infrastructure and service delivery assessments, at the Western Cape Department of Health; and executing complex molecular research protocols on over 800 human blood samples as a Research Technologist at the South African Medical Research Council. I have also co-authored work on maternal mental health legislation with the Perinatal Mental Health Project, and have contributed to STI surveillance work in collaboration with the World Health Organization.
One of my deepest commitments is to the decolonisation of science and medicine. Not as an abstraction, but as a practical reckoning with whose knowledge counts, whose bodies are centred in research, and whose voices shape policy. For four years, I lectured more than 1500 students at the University of the Western Cape on writing, ethics, and decoloniality, building curricula that asked students to interrogate their own positionality and the assumptions embedded in how science is produced and taught. This work continues with a book chapter on decolonising the medical curriculum, due for publication later this year, which is an extension of the argument that who teaches medicine, and how, is itself a public health intervention.
I started PhDecoded because I kept noticing the same gap: the research existed, but the people it was meant to serve could not access it. It wasn’t because they were not interested, but because the way we communicate health information has not kept up with the way people actually consume it. PhDecoded is my attempt to close that gap, making peer-reviewed research and health policy accessible to the audiences who need it most. In a similar spirit, I co-founded Asambe, a podcast built around careers and the parts of professional navigation that no one talks about. We aim to help listeners, whether just starting or mid-career, understand the full landscape of what is possible and what it actually takes to get there.
My commitment to equity has never been confined to a job description. I have been part of Uhuru Walk for years, an annual walkathon and treasure hunt that raises funds to educate young people from underprivileged backgrounds. In 2024, I managed the volunteer team for the first-ever World Congress of Epidemiology to be held on the African continent, coordinating international speakers, on-site logistics, and digital engagement tools across a complex, high-stakes conference environment. Earlier, I served as Head Prefect and Secretary General and President of my school’s debating society. In retrospect, these roles were early rehearsals for the work I do now: synthesising complex information, making a case, and bringing people together around a shared problem. I also started futsal at my school, which may say less about public health and more about a persistent tendency to identify a gap and do something about it.
Partners I’ve Worked With
- Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
- Coalition for Global Health Innovation
- Health Justice Initiative
- Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance
- The World Bank
- University of Cape Town
- University of the Western Cape
- UNICEF
- UNHCR
- World Health Organization
Projects I’ve Worked On
- Digital health governance & gender norms
- STI surveillance
- Alcohol policy & the Liquor Bill Amendment
- Health rights & litigation
- NCD advocacy & UNHCR media campaigns
- Maternal mental health
- Decentralisation & drug stockouts
- Social determinants of health & student stress
- Provincial health systems & infrastructure
- World Congress of Epidemiology 2024
- Decolonising the medical curriculum
Why Partner With Me?
My approach combines rigorous analytical training with extensive field, governance, and communication experience, from laboratory-based research through to policy design, stakeholder engagement, and public-facing science communication. What that means for you is that I can move across the different phases of a project without losing coherence, whether that is the research design, the policy brief, or the materials that go out to communities.
Whether you are looking to design actionable policy briefs, produce research outputs, map digital health governance models, or build field-ready toolkits that bridge the gap between regional strategy and local district execution, I deliver the technical accuracy and narrative clarity required to make it happen.