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Current Staff

Jan Flowers, MS is DIGI’s Director and Faculty Lead as well as a Clinical Faculty member and Research Scientist in the University of Washington School of Nursing. Her area of focus is on innovative strategies and technologies for healthcare systems strengthening in resource constrained settings through appropriate electronic collection and use of quality health data for evidence-based decision making. She has led informatics organizations and teams for over 20 years, focused on technology policy and law, health information systems evaluation and maturity modeling, open source communities of practice building, health technology engineering and implementation, patient centered technologies and mHealth, and standards-based interoperability for improved care at the point of service, surveillance, and program monitoring. Ms. Flowers serves on the board of directors for both OpenMRS and OpenELIS Foundations, and the founder of the OpenHIE Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) Community of Practice, which develops and shares common standards and best practices amongst the open-source LIS community. She holds an MS in Health Law & Policy from the University of California San Francisco jointly with UC Hastings Law School, and a BS in Psychology from the UW. Back to our full team

Jen Antilla, MPH, is Senior Informatics Instructional Designer for DIGI dedicated to ensuring that people have access to the information, knowledge, and tools they need to make informed decisions about their health and quality of life. Throughout her career, Ms. Antilla encourages collaboration among government officials, informatics technical experts, clinical experts, and open source communities to craft workforce and capacity development strategies and programs that respond to local needs and achieve strategic goals. Since 2010, she has designed and developed training programs on digital health systems for health leaders, clinicians, laboratory professionals, epidemiologists, information technology professionals, and open source developers. Ms. Antilla also led successful efforts to streamline information system development, implementation, capacity building, and transition activities into a strategy for strengthening laboratory information system implementation. In addition, Ms Antilla guided virtual teams in Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire to advance information system software development, implementation, and training activities, resulting in successful information system deployment in over 50 laboratories in Cote d’Ivoire and 340 health care facilities in Kenya. She holds an MPH from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of Carolina-Chapel Hill and a BA in Sociology from Whitman College. Back to our full team

Beth Dunbar, PhD, MPH, MSc is the Interim Deputy Director and a Senior Digital Health Specialist for DIGI. She is a health tech design researcher and epidemiologist with 15+ years of experience optimizing domestic and global health technologies. Prior to joining DIGI, Beth spent six years leading Monitoring, Evaluation, Informatics & Research teams for Partners In Health in remote Liberia and rural Malawi, where her work spanned health information systems (EHRs, DHIS2), clinical areas (MCH, NCD, HIV), and technical work with Ministries of Health from local to national levels. She also spent time with the CDC and CSTE working on domestic informatics projects. She earned her PhD and MSc in Human Centered Design & Engineering from UW and holds an MPH from Johns Hopkins University. Back to our full team

Ian Bacher, PhD, MA, is a seasoned Engineering Lead and Technical Architect with a focus on healthcare interoperability, particularly in OpenMRS and FHIR development. Currently serving as an Engineering Lead & Technical Architect at the University of Washington’s Digital Initiatives Group (DIGI), Ian has significantly contributed to the OpenMRS O3 UI and enhanced the global impact of OpenMRS by fostering collaboration and delivering key features across major releases. Previously, Ian led the development of OpenMRS’s FHIR capabilities at Brown University and worked as a Data Engineer and Data Scientist, utilizing machine learning to process large-scale healthcare data. With over a decade of experience in software development, including roles in information security and software architecture, Ian has been pivotal in developing secure, scalable healthcare applications and managing complex data systems. He holds a PhD in Philosophy of Religion from the University of Nottingham and has extensive experience leading teams in software development, interoperability, and API design. Back to our full team

Yao He, PhD, MPH is a Health Information Systems Evaluation Specialist for DIGI. Her research focuses on evaluating the impact and process of digital health project implementation using routinely collected data. Dr. He’s recent projects include evaluating the effectiveness and identifying the facilitators and barriers of OpenELIS project implementation in Côte d’Ivoire; establishing a monitoring and evaluation (M&E) framework for digital health for pandemic preparedness and response; compiling functional requirements for laboratory information management systems as part of the Digital Systems Assessment Tool (DSAT); and drafting data privacy and confidentiality guidance for integrating data systems. Prior to joining DIGI, Yao worked as research assistant at Health Alliance International on routine M&E of a PEPFAR project in Côte d’Ivoire and as teaching assistant at the University of Washington for graduate and undergraduate level global health courses. She also worked as project manager and M&E lead of maternal and newborn health projects in rural China at Save the Children. Dr. He received her PhD in Global Health Implementation Science from the UW and her MPH in Health Policy and Management from Columbia University. Back to our full team

Casey Iiams-Hauser, MIA is a Senior Digital Health Specialist with DIGI and is the product owner for the OpenELIS Global Lab Information System (LIS) project and a co-lead for the OpenHIE LIS community of practice. He has spent his career working in resource-limited settings architecting standards-based health information systems and providing technical assistance to Ministries of Health and local partners. He specializes in helping transition laboratory systems from paper based, or bespoke one-off systems into interconnected national lab information networks, with connections to dashboards for turning data into timely information, and results reporting to EMR systems, epidemic monitoring and patient tracing systems, and other platforms. Mr. Iiams-Hauser has served as lead architect for national LIS deployments for Côte d’Ivoire and Mauritius, working closely with local partners and ministries to build robust deployments with appropriate technological solutions and a well-trained workforce to build sustainable informatics systems implemented at scale. He holds his Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. Back to our full team

Reagan Patrick Makoba, MB ChB, UACE, UCE, is a skilled Full-Stack Software Developer with a background in medicine and extensive experience in software development, particularly in the healthcare sector. He is currently working as a HIS Software Engineer with the University of Washington’s Digital Initiatives Group at I-TECH (DIGI), contributing to the development and enhancement of systems like OpenCR, OpenMRS, and FHIR. Previously, Dr. Makoba has held roles as a Lead Implementation Manager and Software Developer at Mekom Solutions, where he led the implementation of healthcare systems across various countries. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Makerere University and is a registered Medical Officer with the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council. Back to our full team

Piotr Mankowski, BSc, PhD candidate, is the Lead Architect and Interoperability Expert for the DIGI team. He has over 10 years of experience developing healthcare systems, standards-based interoperability, and working with clinical data. He is currently pursuing a PhD in biomedical informatics with a focus on innovative methods for designing, implementing, and validating health system architectures to enable secure, scalable, and performant sharing of data between various components of a health system network. Since 2019, Piotr has supported work on interoperability for health systems in Haiti and has contributed to the development of standards-based solutions for providing continuity of care, patient identity services, and lab order communication between electronic medical record and lab information systems. Piotr actively collaborates with the OpenMRS, OpenELIS, OpenHIE, and IHE communities, and is currently working with these communities on modern, standard-driven approaches for quality and conformance testing of FHIR specifications and implementation guides. He earned his BSc from McGill University in Montreal, where he double majored in Computer Science and Biology. Back to our full team

Brynn McKinney is the DIGI Administrator who manages the operational and financial health of DIGI. Serving as the primary point of contact for business development, contract administration, budget management, financial reporting, recruiting and logistics. Brynn stays ahead of policy changes within the University and ensures compliance with Washington State laws. She has 15 years of experience in organizational capacity development within the public sector and has previously worked for King County Treasury, The Montana Department of Justice – Office of Consumer Protection, The Montana Department of Revenue, and the University of Montana. Back to top

Anne Njoroge, MD, PhD, is a public health specialist with extensive experience in health system strengthening in digital health across Africa. She is passionate about harnessing the potential for human-centered information systems to drive innovation and advance health through cutting-edge programs, implementation research and organizational strategy. As a Project Director at I-TECH Kenya, she led the implementation and evaluation of several digital health initiatives, including the rollout and evaluation of an electronic vaccine registry and a national DHIS-based surgical site infection surveillance system. She also played a pivotal role in the U.S. CDC’s Global Public Health Data Innovation (GPHDI) Project, designing and implementing strategies for data systems optimization to enhance public health surveillance and pandemic preparedness. Beyond implementation, Anne is deeply committed to capacity development for health information systems (HIS). As part of DIGI, she spearheads the instructional design of an applied public health informatics fellowship for Africa CDC and supports integration of informatics training into the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) curriculum, fostering a skilled workforce in public health informatics. Anne holds a medical degree from the University of Nairobi, Kenya, an MPH in Epidemiology and PhD in Implementation Science (Global Health) from the University of Washington in Seattle, US. Back to our full team

Sonora Stampfly, MPH, is a Senior Program Manager with the I-TECH center and oversees the CDC funded Technical Assistance Platform (TAP) portfolio as a PATH consortium member. Ms. Stampfly oversees budget management and reporting for this award, including budget development across projects, assuring compliance with funder requirements and coordination with subrecipients on spending and forecasted costs. Previously, Sonora coordinated NIH funded research training grants on HIV, HPV, and NCDs with partners in Kenya and Nepal. She also supported global health leadership training programs within the Department of Global Health at UW. She received her MPH from UW. Back to our full team

Moses Mutesasira, BS, is a Senior Full Stack Software Developer with extensive expertise in healthcare software development and interoperability. He currently works with the University of Washington’s Digital Initiatives Group (DIGI) as a Senior HIS Software Engineer, where he focuses on healthcare interoperability between systems like OpenMRS, OpenELIS, and OpenHIM, and develops QA frameworks and EMR reports. Moses has also led projects involving OpenMRS, FHIR, and AI integrations for radiology modules at AMIYUL LLC and contributed to the development of advanced analytics for OpenMRS. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and Management from Kyambogo University and has experience leading training on OpenMRS interoperability. Back to our full team

Herbert Yiga, BS, is a Full Stack Software Developer specializing in Health Information Exchange (HIE) systems and healthcare interoperability. Currently working with the University of Washington’s Digital Initiatives Group (DIGI) as a HIS Software Engineer, he develops and maintains HIE systems for multiple countries, including Zimbabwe, Haiti, and Côte d’Ivoire, while ensuring system performance, security, and data exchange compliance. Herbert has contributed significantly to OpenMRS, creating machine learning modules and leading upgrades, and has developed various systems for clients, including university and public health applications. He holds a BA in Information Technology and Computing from Kyambogo University and has a strong record in software development, including systems for voting, student verification, and clinic data management. Back to our full team