CHESA Fellow Spotlight: Godfrey Sama Phillipo

Dr. Godfrey Philipo was drawn to the CHESA fellowship because of his interest in global surgery research, a new field in Tanzania. The CHESA fellowship was an opportunity for mentorship from people with a variety of skills, interests, and specialties. In the first year of his fellowship, Dr. Philipo has focused on lab-based skills training for Tanzanian surgical residents treating cancer patients to address the gap in trained surgical oncologists in Tanzania and improve patient outcomes.

Reflecting on the first year of his fellowship, Dr. Philipo noted that mentorship from UCSF faculty and other CHESA fellows has been the best part. Because global surgery and implementation science are not well-established in Tanzania, meeting experts, seeing what other people are working on, and collaborating with other fellows on projects has been valuable. As he enters the second year of his fellowship, his new skills and knowledge of his research area have added to his goals and hopes for the future of surgical oncology and children surgery in Tanzania.