2026 Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship Awardees
Meet our 2026 Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship Awardees! We extend our sincere thanks to Breakthrough T1D for their invaluable support of this program.
📄 Look for the report icon to read about our Fellows’ research and progress.
Abdoulaye Imorou
Dr. Abdoulaye Imorou is a physician-diabetologist based in Parakou, Benin, and the Founder and Executive Director of ONG Diabète Bénin (ODB), a leading non-communicable disease organization in Benin. He obtained his Doctor of Medicine at the University of Parakou in 2010 and a University Diploma in Diabetology at the University of Montpellier, France, in 2020, complemented by executive training at Harvard and the Geneva Graduate Institute.
With over 15 years of clinical experience, Dr. Imorou founded the first diabetes unit in Northern Benin at the Borgou University Teaching Hospital, caring for over 1,500 patients. Driven by the absence of structured diabetes care outside major cities, he created ODB in 2015 to mobilize funding and implement the WHO-PEN strategy nationwide. ODB has since grown into a decentralized care network integrated across 530 public health facilities in all 10 departments, serving over 50,000 patients, with more than 1,600 health workers trained. ODB now operates the main diabetes care center in Parakou, where Dr. Imorou provides direct clinical care to over 4,000 patients. He is one of the architects of Benin’s PEN-Plus initiative across 34 district hospitals, developing clinical protocols, training curricula, and supervision systems.
A key achievement is a 10-year longitudinal clinical registry of over 50,000 visits and 21,000 paired glycemic records — a substantial diabetes dataset in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa. He has supervised over 30 medical theses on NCD epidemiology and quality of care, and has secured and managed over €1 million in grants from the World Diabetes Foundation.
As a 2026 ISPAD Allan Drash Fellow, Dr. Imorou will undertake his fellowship at Enfance, Adolescence et Diabète, Toulouse University Hospital, France, to acquire specialized competencies in pediatric and adolescent Type 1 diabetes management, structured therapeutic education, and diabetes technology. Upon his return, he plans to establish a dedicated pediatric diabetes track within ODB’s national network and train multidisciplinary teams across the PEN-Plus hospitals, addressing a critical gap in care for children and adolescents living with diabetes in Benin.
Aqeela Ayub
Dr. Aqeela Ayub is a pediatrician, pediatric endocrinologist, medical educator, researcher, and academic leader based in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Pediatrics at Benazir Bhutto Hospital, affiliated with Rawalpindi Medical University (RMU). She is committed to improving pediatric healthcare, postgraduate medical education, and pediatric subspecialty services in Pakistan.
Dr. Ayub completed her MCPS in Paediatrics in 2012 and MD in Paediatric Medicine from King Edward Medical University in 2014. She began her teaching career as Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in 2015 and joined Rawalpindi Medical University in 2020. At RMU, she established an independent Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes outpatient service. Her clinical interests include pediatric diabetes, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, disorders of growth and puberty, thyroid disorders, and neonatal diabetes.
She completed her Master of Health Professions Education (MHPE) in 2025 and has extensive experience in postgraduate medical education, curriculum development, and assessment. She has contributed to the development of structured postgraduate training in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes and is actively involved in competency-based medical education and assessment.
Dr. Ayub’s research interests include pediatric endocrinology and diabetes, neonatology, pediatric critical care, nutrition, and medical education. Her research has included congenital adrenal hyperplasia in resource-limited settings, diabetic ketoacidosis, neonatal hypocalcemia and hypoglycemia, and diabetes-related studies.
She is actively involved in postgraduate mentoring, research methodology, manuscript development, and academic assessment. She has also undertaken training as an MRCPCH Examiner Elect. Through her clinical, academic, and leadership roles, she advocates for strengthening pediatric diabetes services, developing subspecialty training, and promoting evidence-based medical education.
Dr. Ayub is honoured to receive the 2026 ISPAD Allan Drash Fellowship and looks forward to gaining advanced experience in pediatric diabetes care and technology. She aims to translate the knowledge and skills gained through the fellowship into improved diabetes services, education, and training for children and families in Pakistan.
Daniel Malinga
Dr. Daniel Malinga is a Ugandan Medical Doctor and a research Coordinator based in Kampala, Uganda, serving across two of the country’s primary pediatric diabetes centers: Mulago National Referral Hospital and Nsambya Hospital. Since graduating from Makerere University in 2021 and completing his internship in Mulago’s Pediatric Endocrinology Unit, he has dedicated his career to advancing care for children and adolescents living with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) in resource-limited settings.
Dr. Malinga serves as a study coordinator for the NIH-funded Diabetes in African Youth: Improving Glucose Time-in-Range (DAYTime) study, a research programme evaluating continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) among young people with T1D. Through this work, he has gained extensive experience in CGM implementation, interpretation of glucose data, individualized insulin dose adjustment, participant education, and training healthcare workers in diabetes management. His research focus centers on translating advanced diabetes technologies into practical, sustainable interventions for low-resource settings. He also contributes to research assessing diabetes-related complications among young people with T1D.
Working in a resource-limited setting has strengthened his interest in translating evidence-based diabetes therapies and technologies into practical, sustainable approaches that can be implemented in routine care. He is particularly passionate about improving access to high-quality paediatric diabetes care, strengthening healthcare-worker capacity, and empowering children, young people, and their families to safely manage T1D.
As an ISPAD recipient of the 2026 ISPAD Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship, Dr. Malinga is addressing clinical knowledge gaps following Uganda’s 2025 transition to analog basal-bolus insulin regimens. Through the fellowship, he aims to master analog insulin titration, leveraging this expertise to train rural healthcare teams, mentor peer educators, and elevate T1D care across Uganda.
Nagla Adem
Dr. Nagla S. Adem
Pediatric Endocrinology Registrar | National Diabetes and Endocrine Center, Royal Hospital, Oman
Dr. Nagla Nassor Adem, MBBS, MRCPCH, is a dedicated Sudanese-trained pediatrician working in Oman's national pediatric endocrine service. She is a Pediatric Endocrinology Registrar at the National Diabetes and Endocrine Center, Royal Hospital, Muscat, a tertiary referral facility for children with diabetes and other endocrine disorders. She began her medical career in Sudan, completing internship training and General Practice work within the Sudanese Ministry of Health, including service as Focal Point for Quality Assurance at Ahmed Qasim Teaching Pediatric Hospital. This early grounding in a resource-limited setting continues to inform her enduring commitment to delivering accessible, high-quality pediatric care.
Since relocating to Oman and joining the pediatric endocrine team in 2013, she has accumulated experience across multiple pediatrics subspecialties, specifically pediatric endocrinology. In addition, she continued to provide inpatient and outpatient care for children with type 1 diabetes and complex endocrine conditions. Currently, she covers second-on-call registrar duties and replies to both internal and external referrals across different pediatric departments in Oman, guided by other senior pediatric endocrine consultants.
She has led and contributed to a clinical audit and quality improvement project regarding the Center's efficiency, including an ongoing audit that optimizes the management of diabetic ketosis among children in the outpatient clinic, and an earlier audit of clitriomegly in female newborns in the postnatal ward, that shaped local referral guidelines. Her research portfolio includes a published case series on Wolfram syndrome in Oman in the Medical Progress of Science journal, and another research project in progress regarding the epidemiology of a rare endocrine syndrome among the Omani female population. From 2018 to 2025, She has delivered oral and poster presentations at national conferences, presented annually at the ASPED-ISPAD Diabetes Academy and the International Conference of the Oman Pediatrics Association. She is also an active member of the Arab Society for Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (ASPED), the Gulf Association of Endocrinology and Diabetes (GAED), and ISPAD.
Dr. Adem is engaged in providing mentorship, assistance, and support to junior doctors, interns, and senior medical students during pediatric endocrine rotations. Dr. Adem is optimistic that the Allan Drash Fellowship will deepen her expertise in diabetes technologies and complex endocrine care, translating this learning into improved outcomes for children with diabetes at her home center and fostering continued collaboration with the host institution and other ISPAD centers.
Najjingo Elizabeth
Dr. Najjingo Elizabeth is an accomplished Ugandan pediatrician, clinical researcher, and educator with over 13 years of extensive experience at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital and Mbarara University of Science and Technology.
She has also been a member of the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) since April 2025. Dedicated to advancing child health, she has mentored over 1,200 medical students and 70 postgraduate students in pediatric diabetes care and
vaccinology.
Driven by a profound commitment to chronic disease management, Dr. Najjingo established a specialized pediatric diabetes clinic in April 2022, which currently provides comprehensive care to over 70 children.
Her clinical advocacy in diabetes has earned her international recognition, including travel grants to present her work at the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) conferences in Montreal (2025) and Rio de Janeiro (2026).
Furthermore, she was selected as the sole Ugandan participant for the 25th ISPAD Science School for Physicians in Turkey and is a distinguished 2026 recipient of the ISPAD Allan Drash Fellowship.
Through the Allan Drash clinical Fellowship 2026, she wants to improve clinical care and research for children living with diabetes. And ultimately foster research collaborations across the world ; undertaking her fellowship at her first-choice host center, the Pediatric Diabetes Center at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital in New York, USA.
Beyond her clinical endocrinology work, Dr. Najjingo is a dedicated child health advocate through the Uganda Paediatric Association, where she served as ; a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Chair (2024 to 2026), Publicity Secretary (2024 to 2026), and Annual
Scientific Conference Chair in 2026.
She has also contributed to national training initiatives hosted by the association as part of the International Paediatric Association's "Vaccines to Vaccination" workshops. Following specialized vaccinology training through the University of the Witwatersrand and the
University of Oxford ; she was appointed as a core member of Uganda's National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) in May 2026.
Her past research leadership includes coordinating a Phase I/II pediatric HIV clinical trial with Médecins Sans Frontières / Epicentre, and she serves as an Honorary Research Associate at SRF Research and Training Centers ; and a Foundation Fellow for the East Central and
Southern College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Oumer Hassen
Dr. Oumer Hassen is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Haramaya University and a Consultant Pediatrician at Hiwot Fana Comprehensive Specialized Hospital in Harar, in eastern Ethiopia. He completed his specialty training in Pediatrics and Child Health at Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa University, in 2018, and has spent the six years since then working in pediatric care.
Early in his career, he noticed how little support existed for children and teenagers with diabetes in his region, so he dedicated himself to building a pediatric diabetes clinic at Hiwot Fana Hospital. That clinic now follows more than 135 young patients, giving them free insulin, syringes, and their first glucometers. While serving as Head of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, he worked on standardizing care across the department, wrote local protocols for insulin management and patient education, trained nurses and residents, and set up a system for tracking patients over time. The goal throughout has been simple: fewer complications, and families who feel confident managing diabetes at home.
Research is another piece of his work. He has published several peer-reviewed papers in pediatrics and is now finishing an MPH in Epidemiology, which he sees as a way to better track and improve outcomes for children with diabetes in eastern Ethiopia over the long run. Much of his research centers on the everyday challenges families face when resources are limited, and on finding solutions that can actually hold up in that setting.
He's a member of ISPAD and hopes to keep pushing pediatric diabetes care forward in Ethiopia. Through the Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship 2026, he wants to learn how established programs structure their patient and family education, see how multidisciplinary teams work in practice, and pick up skills in quality improvement and data tracking. When he returns home, his plan is to set up a proper patient registry, train local health workers, and grow his clinic into a regional center of excellence, work that could change daily life for hundreds of children living with diabetes in Ethiopia.
Salma Aied
Dr Salma Aied is a paediatrician with a special interest in Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes. She graduated with an MBBS from the University of Khartoum and obtained her Membership of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH) in 2018.
She completed her postgraduate training in Paediatrics in Sudan and subsequently obtained an MD in Paediatrics. She completed her Paediatric Endocrinology fellowship three years ago and has extensive clinical experience in general paediatrics, with particular expertise and
interest in paediatric endocrinology and diabetes.
Dr Aied has worked in teaching hospital environments, where she was actively involved in teaching medical students, paediatric trainees and fellows in general paediatrics and paediatric endocrinology. She has also participated in webinars, teaching activities and professional development programmes, and completed a Diploma in Education in 2026. Her professional interests include the management of children and adolescents with Type 1 diabetes, adrenal disorders and other paediatric endocrine conditions. She has undertaken clinical audits focusing on Type 1 diabetes follow-up and steroid management in children with adrenal crisis, contributing to evidence-based practice, improved documentation and patient safety.
Dr Aied is committed to continuing professional development, evidence-based medicine and high-quality multidisciplinary care, with a particular interest in improving paediatric diabetes and endocrine services.
Temesgen Teferi Libe
Dr. Temesgen Libe is a pediatrician and assistant professor at Haramaya University-affiliated Hospital, where there is currently no pediatric endocrinologist or specialist dedicated to childhood diabetes care.
For more than five years, he has provided care for children and adolescents living with diabetes mellitus in collaboration with pediatricians, pediatric residents, and nurses. Through this experience, he has developed a strong interest in strengthening pediatric and adolescent diabetes care, particularly by establishing structured and sustainable services with clear standard operating procedures for follow-up, inpatient management, and the prevention and management of diabetes-related complications.
As a clinician working at a tertiary hospital serving a catchment population of more than five million people, Temesgen plans to use the ISPAD Allan Drash Fellowship to strengthen his skills in clinical diabetes management, research, and evidence-based pediatric diabetes care. Following the fellowship, he aims to bring this knowledge and experience back to his home institution, support the training and capacity building of local healthcare professionals, and contribute to establishing an organized, high-quality, and sustainable pediatric diabetes care service for children and adolescents in the region.
Uğur Cem Yılmaz
Dr. UÄŸur Cem Yılmaz is a pediatric endocrinologist, diabetes specialist, researcher, and educator at the Department of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Izmir, Türkiye. His clinical and academic interests include type 1 diabetes (T1D), diabetes technologies, screening and follow-up of early-stage T1D, transition from pediatric to adult diabetes care, rare and monogenic diabetes, readiness for disease-modifying therapies, and structured pediatric diabetes care.
His interest in pediatric diabetes began during his pediatrics residency and has remained a central focus of his work. He attended the 2024 ISPAD Science School for Physicians and the 2025 ESPE Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism School, completed a clinical attachment at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, and was selected for the 2026 ESPE Summer School. He is an ISPAD member and was selected as a 2026 ISPAD JENIOUS Ambassador. He has presented at ISPAD Annual Conferences and received both ISPAD and ESPE Travel Grants. He also has an oral presentation at the 2026 ISPAD Annual Conference. A collaboration initiated during the ISPAD Science School later resulted in a peer-reviewed international publication.
Dr. Yılmaz served as coordinator of a national multicenter autoantibody screening study involving children who are first-degree relatives of individuals with T1D in Türkiye. The study evaluated autoantibody prevalence, associated factors, and the psychological impact of screening results on children and parents. His research also includes automated insulin delivery initiated at diagnosis, integration of diabetes technologies into clinical practice, transition outcomes, the genetic basis of familial T1D, and rare and monogenic diabetes. His work has been published in Diabetologia, Diabetes Therapy, Endocrine Connections, the Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism, and the Journal of Clinical Research in Pediatric Endocrinology.
Beyond his clinical and academic work, Dr. Yılmaz is actively involved in diabetes camps and community-based activities for children and families. His long-term goal is to help develop sustainable, structured pediatric diabetes care models in Türkiye spanning screening and early-stage disease management, advanced diabetes technologies, transition care, and readiness for disease-modifying therapies.
Walter Ange Musenge
Dr. Walter Ange Musenge is a Rwandan medical doctor and Clinical Director at Rwanda Diabetes Clinic, where he also practices as a general practitioner with a strong focus on diabetes care. He obtained his MBBS from the University of South China in 2023 and subsequently gained clinical experience working in district hospitals in Rwanda. He has a particular interest in type 1 diabetes in children and adolescents and has participated in educational camps for children living with type 1 diabetes organized by the Rwanda Diabetes Association (RDA). His professional interests include pediatric and adolescent diabetes management, diabetes education, continuous glucose monitoring and diabetes technology, multidisciplinary care, clinical research, and quality improvement. As an ISPAD Allan Drash Fellow at Montreal Children’s Hospital, he aims to gain advanced clinical and research skills and apply this experience through the Rwanda Diabetes Association and Rwanda Diabetes Clinic to strengthen pediatric diabetes care in Rwanda.