C3 Global Trauma Network: Cape-Colorado-Combat

Nee-Kofi Mould-Millman, MD MSCS, PhD is the Principal Investigator and lead of the C3 Global Trauma Research Network. Dr. Mould-Millman is a federally funded emergency medicine physician-investigator with expertise in global emergency medicine and prehospital care systems. He currently holds the appointment of Professor within the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine, and is a Senior Investigator in Global Health and the Center for Global Health, Colorado School of Public Health.

Following emergency medicine residency training at Emory University School of Medicine, Dr. Mould-Millman completed a dual fellowship program in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and Global Health, also at Emory University.

He actively works in resource-constrained settings in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, where he collaborates closely with Ministries of Health, academic institutions, and government EMS agencies. His work has three focus areas: optimizing performance of out-of-hospital trauma care systems, pragmatic delivery of prehospital education, and improving prehospital trauma outcomes. Within each area, Dr. Mould-Millman applies innovative techniques from the disciplines of Dissemination & Implementation science, and Outcomes & Effectiveness research. His research and programmatic work are complemented by public health advocacy predominantly through his extensive involvement with the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM).

Dr. Mould-Millman has Chaired several multi-national EMS expert panels, organized international EM conferences and meetings, served as an expert EMS consultant, and published several landmark scientific papers of high relevance to prehospital emergency care in sub-Saharan Africa.

Brenda Beaty, MSPH is an Instructor in the Department of General Internal Medicine who works at ACCORDS (Adult & Child Center for Outcomes Research & Delivery Science).

She has over 30 years of experience working in Health Outcomes research, doing statistical programming and modeling. She has worked on pragmatic trials to increase childhood vaccination rates, evaluate therapies for end-of-life cancer patients, and examine costs and utilization for children with complex medical conditions, among others. She has also provided support for studies about Type 2 diabetes, medication adherence, cardiac outcomes, and transplant patients, among many other topics.

She is excited to be providing support to the C3 study as a programmer, data analyst and statistical analyst, as the study of pre-hospital care is near and dear to her heart.

Smitha Bhaumik, MD is an Assistant Professor with the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine.

She attended Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her residency training with the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine.

She previously served as a Vanderbilt-Emory-Cornell-Duke Fogarty scholar, conducting research on tobacco control and cardiovascular health in India under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Huffman.

She completed her research fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Mould-Millman, with a focus on the epidemiology and management of traumatic injuries, including crush syndrome and hemopneumothorax, in South Africa.

She is interested in studying processes of care for the management of emergent cardiovascular and traumatic conditions in low resourced settings. Additional areas of academic interest include diversity, equity and inclusion in EM, substance use disorders, and the impacts of housing instability on health outcomes.

Sophia Centi, MPH, MS, is a Principal Information Sciences Professional with the C3 Lab.

Originally from Maryland, Sophia earned her bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in statistics at Monmouth University in New Jersey. She went on to complete a Master of Public Health with a concentration in biostatistics at the Colorado School of Public Health. Her professional experience includes providing biostatistics and research support to faculty and students at the CU Anschutz College of Nursing. Most recently, she earned a Master of Science in Sustainability, Energy, and Development within the anthropology department at Durham University in the UK.

Sophia is passionate about leveraging data to address challenges related to health and the environment. She is interested in improving healthcare access and outcomes in low-resource settings and is excited to use her quantitative background to dive deeper into the public health challenges being studied in the C3 lab. Additional areas of interest include studying longevity, decarbonization, and ways to promote harmony between human and environmental health.

Julia Dixon, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine and serves as education lead for the Global Emergency Care Initiative (GECI).

She completed a Global Health Fellowship and Masters in Public Health at the University of Colorado in 2018 after completing her residency in Emergency Medicine at Denver Health.

Dr. Dixon has been collaborating with the Western Cape EMS system since 2014 when she began working on research projects as a resident. The pragmatic approach Dissemination and implementation science guides a pragmatic approach to her research and partnerships.

Work in South Africa has included a mixed method assessment of pre-hospital triage in the Western Cape and co-investigator on pilot testing and implementation of a novel on-the-job training (TruShoC) for WCG EMS. She has collaborated with the World Health Organization, the African Federation for Emergency Medicine and various Ministries of Health in sub-Saharan Africa focusing on sustainable and high impact development and training programs with ongoing projects in South Africa and Zambia.

Her academic interests include emergency system development and education and training of both international emergency care providers and US healthcare professionals interested in volunteering or working abroad.

Lani Finck, MPH is a Research Services Principal Professional with the C3 Lab in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Born in Colorado and raised in Senegal, West Africa, she received dual BAs in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs in 2010 and her MPH, with concentrations in Epidemiology and Global Health, from the Colorado School of Public Health in 2021.

She has worked in clinical trial research since 2011, encompassing industry, foundation, and federally funded studies. Lani’s previous work includes expertise in clinical trial implementation in acute and critical care settings and human subject research regulations.

Her current work focuses on database management and data analysis. Through her work with C3, she is pursuing her passions of global health, infectious disease research, and emergency care focused in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Emily Griffiths, BA, is the Program Manager for the C3 Global Trauma Network, which she joined in October 2023.  She has been working in grant management since 2016 overseeing foundation, industry, and federally funded awards for both medical research and public health. 

Emily was previously a Post Award Grant Specialist for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado, primarily managing funding for Cystic Fibrosis, asthma, and sleep studies.  Most recently, she was a Grant Manager for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s COVID Fiscal Task Force, where she managed cooperative agreements from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the state’s COVID response.

Emily is originally from Sandusky, Ohio and obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a concentration in Biopsychology from Boston College.  She is excited to be pursuing her interest in programmatic support of medical research with the C3 lab.

Maria Kohlbrenner, MD is an Instructor and Global Health Fellow at the University of Colorado School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine. She graduated from SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and completed residency training with the Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine. 

Maria began her work with the C3 Lab in 2023, working on health systems cost analyses for the management of traumatic brain injuries. She has also worked with the World Health Organization on various medical education materials and implementation and has ongoing partnerships with the African Federation of Emergency Medicine to assess Emergency Medicine Service systems in Africa.

Maria is currently working towards a Master's in Public Health at the University of Colorado, with a concentration in Epidemiology. She hopes to engage in further epidemiologic investigations of trauma and acute care systems and explore the intersection of palliative care and traumatic injuries.

Christiaan Rees, MD, PhD is a clinical fellow in the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Colorado. 

Originally from Massachusetts, Chris graduated from the MD-PhD program at Dartmouth College in 2020 and then completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2023. He received his PhD in the Quantitative Biomedical Sciences, studying metabolic signatures that predict antimicrobial resistance in pathogenic microorganisms. He has previously been involved in clinical research studies in both Johannesburg, South Africa and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

His academic interests include utilizing machine learning methods to improve intensive care unit (ICU) outcomes and increasing critical care resource availability in underserved and under-resourced clinical practice settings.

Maria Rodriguez, MPH, is a Research Services Senior Professional with the C3 Lab in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Born and raised in Colorado, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of Denver in 2019. Maria then went on to pursue her Masters in Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health and became interested in evidence-based research to identify gaps in health outcomes and health access.

Maria has been at the Anschutz Medical Campus working on research studies for Type 1 Diabetes and Pulmonary Fibrosis. Now, she is eager to dive into more epidemiological studies with the C3 Lab and hopes to work towards achieving health promotion and disease prevention.

Edwige Sewavi, BS is a Medical Student researcher with the C3 Global Trauma Network.  She earned her undergraduate degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and subsequently completed a post-baccalaureate program in Health Sciences at the University of Colorado Denver. 

Before entering medical school, Edwige gained valuable research experience as an assistant in the Colorado Children's Hospital emergency department. She is currently a third-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. 

Her research involves several initiatives, including evaluating the validity of injury times in trauma patients in South Africa obtained by research assistants, assessing the quality of care received by pediatric asthma patients when they first present to adult emergency departments, and investigating anticoagulation management in post-bariatric patients.  Edwige’s career aspirations are focused on specializing in either general surgery or emergency medicine.

Jess Wild, MS, PhD is a Research Associate with the University of Colorado School of Public Health’s Center for Innovative Design and Analysis (CIDA) within the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics.

They received their MS degree in Biostatistics from the University of Michigan in 2020 and their PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Colorado in 2024.

They specialize in statistical methodology work related to clinical trial design and analysis, with a particular focus on using adaptive designs and interim monitoring to increase trial flexibility and efficiency.  Their collaborative research experience has included extensive work with complex EHR data sources and pragmatic clinical trials, primarily in an emergency medicine context.  They are passionate about using their statistical training to collaborate on the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical research studies focused on improving patient care and health equity.

Additional research interests include: SMART trials and dynamic treatment regimes, step-wedge randomization, data visualization, missing data, simulation design, research reproducibility, survival analysis, nonparametric methods, and longitudinal data analysis.

Adane F. Wogu, PhD, MS is a Research Associate at the Center for Innovative Design and Analysis within the Department of Biostatistics and Informatics, at the Colorado School of Public Health. He earned his PhD from Gillings School of Global Public Health, the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.

Adane’s research interests include statistical methods for multiple and correlated outcomes from complex study designs, such as case-cohort and matched case-control designs. Additionally, he harbors an interest in methodologies for competing risks data in clinical research and epidemiologic studies.

In recent times, Adane was a lead biostatistician in the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Core the Colorado mAb Study, a statewide study of the implementation and real-world effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to treat high-risk outpatients with COVID-19.

More recently, he joined a group (from ACR and EULAR) whose collective mission involves exploring approaches for risk stratification in rheumatoid arthritis, as part of a population-based study. He joined the group as a statistician/methodologist.

Mengli Xiao, PhD, MS is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics & Informatics and a faculty member at the Center for Innovative Design & Analysis (CIDA).

Her methodological research interests include meta-analysis, data integration, causal inference, and data heterogeneity and replicability.

She is particularly interested in collaborative research that uses clinical trials and real-world evidence to improve healthcare quality and equity.

Jessica Young, MSPH, is a Research Services Senior Professional with the C3 Lab.

Raised in Columbia, Missouri, Jessica moved to Waco, Texas in 2017 where she received a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Baylor University and worked as an Emergency Medical Technician. She later pursued a Master of Science in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, concentrating in international health and infectious disease epidemiology. 

Jessica has experience evaluating health programs in humanitarian emergency contexts, with a prior focus on food security and infectious disease control and prevention. She is passionate about improving health programs in resource-constrained settings and enjoys using her data management, analysis, and visualization skills. Jessica joined the C3 Global Trauma Network in September 2024. 

The Collaborative for Emergency Care in Africa (CEC Africa) is a premier, non-profit research organization based in Cape Town, South Africa. The organization fills a critical gap in health research in South Africa, and across Africa in general, by facilitating the conduct of international, collaborative, world-class health research within a resource-constrained setting.

CEC Africa brings together scientific innovation in health research with a decades’ worth of professional expertise in clinical medicine, health systems, multidisciplinary and collaborative team science, management, and business administration.

The organization seeks to improve delivery and outcomes of those with emergency medical conditions by creating effective global partnerships that catalyze research, education, and development in the healthcare and educational sector. CEC Africa’s vision is to be a world class leader and a premier partner in emergency care development projects.

Dr. Shaheem de Vries, MBChB, MPhil, MBA
Managing Director, Collaborative for Emergency Care in Africa
Chief Executive Officer, Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town

Dr. de Vries is an Emergency Physician and the current Managing Director of the Collaborative for Emergency Care in Africa, as well as the CEO of Groote Schuur Hospital, a leading tertiary care hospital in South Africa. He has worked in emergency medical services for 20 years, having held the position of CEO of Western Cape Government EMS for 9 of those years. He is a charter member of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine (AFEM) and served as its Chief Executive Officer for 3 years.

Dr. de Vries holds a MBChB (doctor of medicine and surgery) from the University of Cape Town, a Diploma in Primary Emergency Care from the College of Medicine South Africa, a Master’s in Emergency Medicine, and an executive MBA from the University of Cape Town. His MBA thesis explored post-heroic leadership within the Emergency Medical Services.

Dr. de Vries has collaborated with the C3 Lab on multiple projects, spanning over a decade of successful research, and continues to serve as the C3 Network site Principal Investigator for CEC Africa.

Stellenbosch University (SUN) is a public research university amongst South Africa's leading tertiary institutions, recognized internationally as an academic institution of excellence.

The Division of Surgery’s vision is “advancing optimal surgical care in South Africa and beyond” by creating and sustaining a culture of transformative learning, contributing to the discovery, sharing, and translation of knowledge, and benefitting the broader community by means of education, prevention and treatment.

The Division of Emergency Medicine was formed in 2001, and SUN became the first South African university to offer a joint Master of Medicine (MMed) degree in Emergency Medicine, with the first registrars (residents) starting in January 2004. The Division is committed to research and the education and training of specialist registrars who are supported by a formal academic program, a mentoring program, an ongoing evaluation system, and final examination preparation support.

Dr. Hendrick J. Lategan, MBChB, MMed, FCEM (SA)
Operational Head, Tygerberg Academic Hospital Trauma Unit

Dr. Hendrick J. Lategan, MBChB MMed FCEM (SA) is the C3 Network’s site Principal Investigator for Stellenbosch University and is an emergency physician and Operational Head of the Trauma Unit at Tygerberg Hospital, a level 1Trauma Center in the Western Cape of South Africa.

Dr. Lategan is a former pre-hospital EMT-A and previously served in the then South African Defence Force (SADF) in the early 1990’s. His interests include Tactical Emergency Medicine (TEMS) and Prolonged Field Care (PFC). He is a trauma and resuscitative leader in South Africa, and the co-principal investigator of several U.S. DOD funded research studies in South Africa in the C3 Global Trauma Network.

He has championed the use of whole blood and freeze-dried plasma as core components of hemostatic resuscitation within the Western Cape trauma system. He contributes clinical and operational expertise in resource limited trauma resuscitation.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is a public research university established in 1829. UCT is jointly the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant university in Sub-Saharan Africa, alongside Stellenbosch University, and both received full university status on the same day in 1918.

UCT encompasses six separate campuses and boasts 57 departments across six faculties, offering bachelor’s degrees to doctoral degrees in a wide range of specialties. It is committed to high levels of research, innovation, and specifically to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The Division of Emergency Medicine is housed within the Department of Surgery, and the two Divisions of Emergency Medicine at UCT and Stellenbosch have worked closely together under the banner of Emergency Medicine Cape Town (EMCT) to become the first South African institutions to offer a specialist exit degree in Emergency Medicine.

Willem Stassen, BTEMC, MPhil EM, PGDip Appl Ethics, PhD EM

Associate Professor Stassen is the C3 Network’s site Principal Investigator for the University of Cape Town and is a faculty member in the Division of Emergency Medicine, within the Department of Family, Community and Emergency Care. Stassen works as the PhD program coordinator and associate professor of emergency medicine.

He is an experienced prehospital and emergency care researcher, and he has over 10 years’ experience in teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate level locally and internationally. He also has an interest in applied and research ethics.

Stassen has over 80 peer-reviewed research publications on various clinical, educational, and health-system related topics within out-of-hospital emergency care. Stassen has also been awarded several competitive and collaborative research grants.

LTC Steven G Schauer, DO, MS is an emergency medicine and critical care physician with the U.S. Army. He has multiple combat deployments with both conventional and conventional operations forces.

He has a particular interest in scientific studies that advance airway management, resuscitation of patients in shock, and optimizing care delivered during the Rol 1 phase of care. 

He is an Associate Professor of Military and Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He is a key US military intramural investigator and partner with the C3 Global Trauma Network.

LCDR Ian F. Eisenhauer, MD is an emergency medicine physician for the U.S. Navy. During his residency training at Denver Health Residency in Emergency Medicine, he partnered with C3 leading a study of head injured patients with exposure to prolonged care in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Prior to residency training, Ian completed medical school at University of Colorado, SOM, completed an intern year in Internal Medicine, and trained and served as an Undersea and Hyperbarics Medical Officer for the US Navy, including deploying to the Indo-Pacific. His research has been mostly focused on understanding factors associated with traumatic injury severity such as with trauma with subsequent exposure and in isolated head injury. He is interested in continued study on contributors to morbidity and mortality in prolonged care settings and pursuit of study of novel interventions for resuscitation.

His work with C3 will continue as he transitions to a role as residency faculty at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth and a member of the 2nd Medical Battalion at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

The Western Cape Government Department of Health and Wellness Emergency Medical Service (WCG EMS), formerly known as METRO EMS, is one of South Africa’s premier and largest EMS agencies. Founded in 2000, WCG EMS currently employs approximately 2,200 staff, divided into 1900 operational staff (basic, intermediate, and advanced life support) and 300 administrative staff.

The EMS system also provides specialized functions, including Wilderness Search and Rescue, Urban Search and Rescue, Aeromedical Services, Disaster Medicine and Mass Casualty Management, EMS Communications, and EMS Special Events Management.

WCG EMS delivers world-class emergency and trauma care services to over 100,000 trauma patients each year in a resource-limited system, including prolonged durations of transport. The organization’s infrastructure, operational footprint, and patient caseload makes WCG EMS an unsurpassed system within which to conduct trauma-related prehospital investigations.

Mr. Craig Wylie, BTEMC, MPHIL EM 
Director of EMS, Western Cape Government Department of Health and Wellness

Mr. Wylie is the Director of the EMS organization. He has nearly 20 years of clinical, management, and leadership experience in emergency care in South Africa. He serves as the C3 Network site Principal Investigator for Western Cape Government Emergency Medical Services on research studies. He aspires to continue conducting prehospital research to improve clinical care, which is vital to the organization and critical to patients. Craig has special training in Emergency Medical Care, Healthcare Leadership, and Clinical Research, and has coordinated clinical research studies focusing on emergency medical care.