Professor Philip Baba Adongo is Professor of Health Behavior in the Department of Social and Behavioral Science, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Ghana, where he teaches Applied Medical Anthropology, Research Methodology, and Social Science Theories in Public Health at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He also holds an Adjunct Senior Lecturer position in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York and a Research Professor position at the College of Global Public Health, New York University, New York.  He was a visiting Erasmus Mundus Scholar in the Department of International Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, from 2004 to 2006.

Professor Adongo is a Medical Anthropologist with a PhD in Epidemiology and Population Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Capacity building in the areas of health behavior has been his academic and research focus in the last two decades. He has supervised and mentored to completion 13 PhDs, 48 MPhil/MPH/MSc students from Ghana, Africa, Europe and North America, working closely with them to advance knowledge in Public Health.

He has strong expertise in qualitative research, and over the years his research spans the domains of health behavior and knowledge translation, health system research, implementation research, infectious disease, reproductive health, and maternal and child health. He has worked extensively in designing, implementing and evaluating social aspects of health programs in Africa.

Prior to joining the University of Ghana, Professor Adongo worked as Program Officer with UNICEF where he led a project on Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Infants (IPTi) for malaria. He was also a Senior Research Fellow for a period of 18 years at the Navrongo Health Research Centre where he designed and implemented the social and behavioral component of the Navrongo Community Health Project (CHFP). The CHFP provided the health service delivery model for rural communities in Ghana. The pronounced impact of the CHFP led to its adoption as a cornerstone of Ghana’s national primary health care policy- the Community Health Planning Services (CHPS).

Professor Adongo has also been involved in planning and implementing several of the malaria research activities, which had an impact on health policy throughout malaria endemic Africa. These include the impact of Permethrin Impregnated Bednets on child mortality, Malaria Case Management and the Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in Infants (IPTi) using Sulphadoxime-Pyremethamine (SP). The IPTi-SP project was implemented in Ghana, Malawi, Benin, and Madagascar. His international work also involved investigation of the impact of cross border migration on HIV/AIDs among the bordering countries of Ghana, Togo, and Burkina Faso. His reproductive health research has focused on constraints to the introduction of family planning services in a rural traditional societal setting of northern Ghana. This work has addressed several gender topics in reproductive health. He initiated studies to investigate the social and behavioral aspect of the Ebola Virus disease in Ghana during the outbreak of the disease in West Africa in 2015.

He has consulted for several international and national institutions and organizations including UNICEF Ghana, University of Tulane Centre for Global Health, West African Buruli Ulcer Group, Ministry of Health-Ghana and Population Council-Ghana, Accra. Nationally he has served on several committees: chairperson- committee to review the National Health Promotion Policy; chairperson for the accreditation of programmes in academic institutions for the National Accreditation Board. Internationally, he was elected recently as the President of the Association of Schools of Public Health in Africa (ASPHA) and the Vice President of the World Federation of Academics in Global Health (WFAGH). He serves as a reviewer of grant proposals for Canadian Institute of Health Research/Grand Challenges Canada and International Research Development Research Centre (IDRC).

He also serves as editorial board member of several international reputable peered reviewed journals. He led the Ghana Essential Health Intervention Program (GEHIP), a collaborative project between the School of Public Health, the Ghana Health Service and the Mailman School of Public Health. and the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania.