Data for Health in Africa Meeting
&
5th DS-I Africa Consortium Meeting
23 - 29 August 2025
CEDI Centre, University of Ghana, Accra

Ms Linda Khakali - Participant

UZIMA-DS: UtiliZing health Information for Meaningful impact in East Africa through Data Science (Project Manager/Coordinator)

Linda Norah Khakali is an early-career researcher specializing in mental health and substance use research. She currently serves as a Project Manager at Aga Khan University, where she leads research initiatives focusing on mental health among youth and healthcare workers. With over eight years of experience in research and project management, Linda has played a critical role in stakeholder engagement at global, national, and community levels, ensuring impactful and sustainable research outcomes. She holds a Master of Arts in Sociology (Rural Sociology and Community Development) from the University of Nairobi, where her research explored lay perceptions and the social management of mental illness. Linda has extensive experience in coordinating large-scale research projects, including randomized controlled trials on smoking cessation and studies on climate change and mental health. Her expertise spans qualitative and quantitative research methods, grant writing, study coordination, and community engagement. Linda's research interest is on youth mental health, digital interventions that promote wellbeing and the intersection of climate and mental health. Having worked at community level for several years I am keen to co create interventions with the communities we work with creating sustainable interventions that promote mental wellbeing among youth.