Sylvester is a PhD scholar at the Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW, Sydney. He is also Research and Strategy Project Officer (volunteer) at Australian Red Cross. He has field and research experience in adolescents and young adults sexual behaviour and its psychological and sociocultural determinants. His research and community services are foregrounded on sexual health promotion and risk reduction among young people and evidence-based interventions and policies. Sylvester also conducts research on intimate partner violence, gender-based violence and chemsex. He also has interest and expertise in health programme evaluation, behaviour change and data science. He has worked in UNICEF and MacArthur Foundation funded projects on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/STIs prevention initiatives.
Expert
Sylvester is currently a PhD candidate and a Research Officer at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. He is also a volunteer Research and Strategy Project Officer at Australian Red Cross. His doctoral research is focused on HIV and STIs protective behaviour among young immigrants (culturally and linguistically diverse young people) in a multicultural Australian city. He holds a Masters degree in Health Education with specialty in Health Programme Evaluation and a B.Ed. with honours in Health Education, both from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Sylvester has committed ten years of research and practice to strengthening institutional frameworks, championing social re-engineering and mobilizing community efforts in promoting sexual and reproductive health and well-being of adolescents and young people. He is a volunteer on a wide range of adolescents and youth targeted HIV/STIs prevention interventions in Nigeria and Australia. He has trained and mentored over 300 adolescents as peer educators in HIV/STIs prevention and care in Nigeria. Sylvester has also initiated programmes and collaborated with various stakeholders, including governmental agencies, political leaders, NGOs, religious leaders, leaders of thought and community-based organisations to empower different population groups in preventing STIs, viral hepatitis and HIV, with outstanding results. Sylvester’s interest lies in empowering adolescents and young adults as well as other population groups to protect, promote and maintain their health using cutting-edge research, excellent teaching, and responsive community service with advocacy as tools.
Fields of expertise: Education, Health and wellbeing, Monitoring and evaluation
