Ima Chinedozi, MPH, MD, PhD
GAPP Executive Director
[email protected]
Dr. Ima Chinedozi is a cardiac anesthesiologist and surgical critical care physician who divides her work between the operating room and global health research. She directs the Global Alliance of Perioperative Professionals (GAPP), a multinational program focused on strengthening surgical, anesthesia, and critical care delivery in low-resource settings.
Much of her research starts from a simple observation: safe surgery depends on things that are easy to take for granted, like a steady oxygen supply and reliable electricity. When those fail, patients pay the price. Through the Africa Infrastructure Relief and Support (AIRS) initiative, she studies how unstable oxygen and power systems affect health outcomes across West Africa, and what it takes to fix them. Her work in The Gambia and Liberia has produced evidence on the clinical cost of oxygen scarcity.
She believes the most durable investment in global health is education. Dr. Chinedozi founded the GAPP Scholars Program to bring medical students, residents, and fellows into active projects, weekly lab meetings, and writing that leads to publication. That commitment runs both ways: the teaching programs she established in The Gambia and Liberia have trained more than 600 local clinicians, with Hopkins trainees working alongside West African colleagues as partners rather than guests.
A former National Institutes of Health grant recipient and the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Dr. Chinedozi stays active in the global surgery community through the G4 Alliance and the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.
Nivedita Kumar
Nivedita Kumar is a Research Coordinator with the Johns Hopkins Global Alliance of Perioperative Professionals (GAPP), where she supports global health research and health systems strengthening initiatives across West Africa. She first joined GAPP as an undergraduate studying Molecular and Cellular Biology at Johns Hopkins University and continued working with the organization while earning her MPH in Global Health at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her work includes project design, grant writing, program evaluation, implementation research, and publication efforts focused on improving access to reliable oxygen and perioperative care in partnership with local healthcare teams and Ministries of Health. Her broader interests include global surgery, implementation science, and sustainable health systems strengthening.
Building off Legacy
Dr. John B. Sampson served an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He served as the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Global Alliance of Perioperative Professionals (GAPP) until 2026 in which he transitioned to working at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The motto of JHU-GAPP is “Closing the gap on healthcare disparities”. The focus of JHU-GAPP is meaningful and sustainable health system strengthening for low resources health systems that care for vulnerable populations.
A critical care specialist, neuroanesthesiologist and obstetric anesthesiologist, Dr. Sampson is dedicated to promoting excellence in patient care in anesthesiology and critical care medicine. Dr. Sampson also is committed to improving perioperative care and raising awareness of health care problems in Africa among medical partners.
Dr. Sampson also worked as a faculty appointment in the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and the Johns Hopkins Center of Africana Studies.
Dr. Sampson has taught and practiced medicine in numerous countries outside of the United States and has been instrumental in leading and organizing numerous American volunteers in Africa who have touched the lives of Africans in need of medical care. In addition to medical publications Dr. Sampson’s international work has been covered by the Washington Post, National Public Radio and national television broadcasts in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Eritrea and Sierra Leone. Dr. Sampson is the medical advisor for the Ghana based Diaspora Africa Forum (An Africa Union recognized non-profit) and has been given Ghana citizenship by President Nana Akufo-Addo (2019). Through Dr. Sampson’s work with the Center of Africana Studies, and the Diaspora Africa Forum, Dr Sampson is connecting to the Africa Union’s vision for the newly designated 6th Region of Africa.
Dr. Sampson earned his undergraduate degree at Jackson State University, his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School. He completed anesthesiology residency at Howard University Hospital. He also completed a critical care medicine fellowship at the Mayo Clinic prior to his first job as one of the founding critical care specialists at Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace, Maryland.