Committee Members

Tim Hughes, Chair

Dr Tim Hughes gained both his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and his PhD in immunology from Cardiff University. He currently holds a position of senior research fellow within the Division of Infection and Immunity at the School of Medicine.

His research focuses on understanding the complex roles played by the immune system in human diseases such as dementia and cardiovascular disease.
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For the past seven years he has served on the Cardiff University, School of Medicine Research Ethics Committee reviewing research projects undertaken within the University which involve the participation of humans. More latterly he has chaired this committee.

Bushra Khair, Committee Member

Following completion of her BSc Human Nutrition and MSc in Cancer and Molecular Pathology, Bushra began her career in Research Integrity (RI) in 2019 and has since developed experience working in scholarly publishing and in the Higher Education sector.
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Her experience in RI encompasses review of research papers to ensure expected standards of RI are upheld which includes research ethics; investigation of publication ethics and potential misconduct; as well as training colleagues in different environments on key areas of RI.
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In addition to Bushra’s current role in RI at a University, she also holds voluntary roles with the UK Research Integrity Office, and is an Ethics Committee Member at a Health Research Authority Ethics Committee.

Gemma Walker, Data Lead

Gemma is Data Lead and has over 10 years research experience, has performed roles in Research Governance for Sponsor organisations and has also worked with Clinical Research Organisations, Healthcare and the Policing sector in Senior Data Protection and Information Governance roles.
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She is widely published and experienced with peer review procedures in a variety of research areas, has led on grant funding proposals and obtained funding and research data access procedures. She has also worked in quality improvement and general compliance roles demonstrating broad knowledge of standards and legal adherence.

Ijeoma Ajibade, Participant Advocate

Ijeoma is a community activist, a public/charitable sector professional and a Church of England priest working at Southwark Cathedral and St Philips, Earls Court in London.Ijeoma has combined church ministry with various roles in the UK public sector. She began her career in local government, working in a number of different areas including audit and special investigations, and housing advice. She also spent twelve years working for the London Assembly on Assembly Scrutiny and working for two previous Mayors of London (Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson) on economics and business policy.

Ijeoma has spent many years as a community activist working on human rights, health promotion, and HIV awareness and prevention. She has served on the boards of a number of organisations including NAZ Project London, the Marylebone Project, African Health Policy Network, the Kaleidoscope Trust, the Bisi Alimi Foundation and the Merchant Navy Welfare Board. She is currently a trustee for Positive East, an HIV Charity in London and she is also an independent ethics advisor for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
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In her spare time Ije enjoys music, theatre, reading, swimming and experimenting with cooking and baking. To the delight of her friends, she keeps a blog of both her successful and unsuccessful cooking exploits.

Iveta Garaiova, Submissions & Quality Manager

Iveta Garaiova, PhD, obtained her doctorate in Biochemistry from Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.
She worked as a research scientist at the Institute of Medical Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Clinical Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine before moving to the UK.

In 2003, she joined Cultech Ltd, focusing on probiotics and fish oils and their role in supporting health and well-being.
Iveta is the author or co-author of numerous peer-reviewed publications and provides scientific support for Pro-Ven Biotics, UK. She is also a lay member of the local research ethics committee, WALES REC6.

Mercedes Rumi, Medical & Research Expert

Mercedes is a medical doctor from the University of Buenos Aires and holds an MSc in International Health from the University of Oxford, both with merit. She has worked on health projects in Argentina, Vietnam, Kenya, and Colombia, with experience in areas such as maternal and child health research and infectious disease prevention.

She previously worked at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in the Science and Knowledge for Impact unit, at the University of Oxford’s The Global Health Network as a Programme Manager, and currently at the World Health Organization as Training and Research Specialist. In these roles, she helps strengthen research capacity in low- and middle-income countries by coordinating funding opportunities and building partnerships with over 10 ministries of health, hospitals, and universities.
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Mercedes also led the Artificial Intelligence in Health project, designed and delivered training sessions for over 10,000 health professionals on topics like Zika, Dengue, and COVID-19, and helped develop e-learning courses and toolkits to support local research efforts. Mercedes is passionate about improving health access and reducing inequalities through research capacity building. She brings this commitment to her work with the Ethiclear team.

Muchi Kanengoni, Research & Trials Governance

Muchi is passionate about protection of research participants and prides himself as an accomplished professional in the field of health research ethics and research governance. Muchi has considerable experience spanning from 2011 where he has held multiple roles in Research Ethics, Compliance and Governance both in both LMICs and HICs. These experiences include serving as a Compliance Officer to the National Ethics Committee of the Medical Research Council of Zimbabwe and Regulatory Officer at a Clinical Trial Research Centre at the University of Zimbabwe. Additional UK based experiences have been in Research Governance within the NHS. These experiences have amplified his understanding of global health research and how ethics should be at the cornerstone of research.
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Muchi holds a Bachelor of Social Science in Psychology, a Master of Science in Counselling Psychology and a Master of Social Science in Health Research Ethics. His vision is to meaningfully embed ethics in research from idea conception, implementation and post completion in order to increase the value and integrity of research.

Ryan Walker, Committee Member

Ryan is a registered pharmacist and an Assistant Professor in Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Birmingham, where he chairs the School of Pharmacy Research Ethics Committee. He has clinical experience as a hospital pharmacist, and significant research experience investigating methods of knowledge exchange and research systems strengthening in low resource settings. His specific areas of research expertise include medicines safety (pharmacovigilance), antimicrobial resistance, health equity and mixed-methods research.

In addition to his professional role, Ryan also serves on the Executive Committee of the UK and Ireland Chapter of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance.