Ruwa Mahdi, MA, MSc

Bio

Ruwa Mahdi is an Ecosystems Manager (UK & International) at the Wellcome Trust, health-research foundation that supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. Based within the Equity Department, she works on major international programs and research ecosystem investments across Africa, South & Southeast Asia, and the UK. Prior to this, Ruwa worked within Wellcome's Community Engagement team – seeking to ensure communities most affected are centered through early engagement for decision-making around research priorities, supporting collective knowledge and open knowledge exchange, strengthening context specific intervention design, and ensuring meaningful impact for the communities research must serve.

Her interests lie at the intersection of politics, equitable knowledge production, and participatory methods.

Before joining Wellcome, Ruwa held roles in public affairs & health policy consulting, international development & global health research, and implementation science. She holds a BA (Hons) in Economics & Development Studies (SOAS, University of London), MA in International Development (Sciences Po), MSc in Political Economy of Emerging Markets (King’s College London), and a PGCert in Qualitative Research Methods (University of Oxford).