Dr Jane Ndungu

Jane is a public health researcher with experience working in sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology, University of Exeter. Her overarching research focus is on prevention of violence against women and girls (VAWG), where she specialises in VAWG prevention intervention co-development. Her work centres around promoting inclusion of marginalised groups in VAWG research. She is currently working with a group of young, forced migrant women from Durban, South Africa to co-develop an intervention focused on VAWG prevention and poor mental health mitigation in that community. Previous work includes investigating experiences of xenophobia, intimate partner violence and poor mental health amongst forced migrant women in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa; VAWG prevention intervention co-development processes with adolescents; and exploring trauma experience and symptomology across different contexts (such as urban vs rural dwelling) in Kenya. Jane holds a PhD in Psychology from Nelson Mandela University where she is also an honorary researcher and has taught research and trauma courses. She has published in academic journals on the topic of VAWG and trauma. Jane also works closely with the Gender and Health Research Unit at the South African Medical Research Council and is involved in various activities aimed at strengthening VAWG research in low- and middle-income countries.