Dr. Cheikh Mbacké Faye is a Researcher-Statistician and Public Health Specialist. He is currently the Director of the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) Regional Office in West Africa based in Dakar, Senegal. He also leads the Countdown 2030 Initiative for APHRC, a multi-institution collaborative that calls for the accountability of governments and development partners, identifies knowledge gaps, and proposes new actions for universal coverage of women's, children's, and adolescents' health. Dr. Faye completed his doctoral research in public health from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, presenting in-depth work on the determinants of stunting and child linear growth among children under five living in Nairobi’s informal settlements. He holds a Master’s degree in Statistics from the Houari Boumediene University of Sciences and Technology (Algiers, Algeria). Cheikh's experience includes research on reproductive health, local development, and poverty, and he is passionate about data discoverability and open research. He led the development of the APHRC Microdata Portal, an Open Data platform where high quality research data on health, population, education, and urbanization are made publicly and freely available to the research community.