Dr Sharifa Abdulla is a Malawian scholar and participatory arts for development practitioner holding a senior lecturer position with the School of Arts, Communication and Design, University of Malawi.

She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Glasgow (Public Health engagement through Community Arts). Sharifa’s work focuses on the design and development of arts-based methodologies that  work with indigenous knowledge systems and integrate communities as vital agents of change. Her work on decolonizing methodologies focuses on conducting ethical research with indigenous and less privileged communities. She is an expert facilitator around participatory practices and approaches to community engagement. 

• Design, development, leadership and implementation of participatory health related programs for over 16 years, including co-founding the Art and Global Health Center Africa (Artglo). She is also a founding member of the Malawi Medical Humanities Network. 
• Design, development, and delivery of  training packages on participatory ethical community engagements and Community Centred Approaches to  health promotion and Development. 
• Design and develop Social Behaviour Change Programs for health promotion