Utano Public Health Chats

Utano Public Health Chats

A podcast where people get to learn more about public health work in Africa and how to navigate their public health careers. Each episode features an in depth interview with a public health practitioner and/or researcher from an African country and/or working in African countries in public health. Conversation is about how they ended up working in public health, what they do at a high level in their current work, what they love about their field and career path and what words of wisdom they would like to share with the audience.

Episodes

March 27, 2025 43 mins

In this episode we hear from Kristine Yakhama, a certified health and development professional with expertise in public health, particularly in areas such as maternal and child health, infectious disease control, and health systems strengthening.

Kristine Yakhama is the Zonal leader for Kakamega MNCH Alliance and a Volunteer Regional director at  Give them a hand Foundation Kenya. She works with Good health community programs as a ...

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In this we hear from Dr. Achieng' Aling' from Kenya.

Dr. Achieng' Aling' is an OB-GYN, global health expert, and health systems strategist focused on strengthening Africa’s health workforce and sexual and reproductive health. A passionate advocate for menstrual and menopause health, she’s driving policy and innovation to ensure women’s well-being at every stage of life.

In this episode we talked about:

  • Who is Dr. A...
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In this episode we talk with Dr. Nii Lante Heward-Mills from Ghana. Dr. Nii Lante is the Country Director for Viamo in Liberia and Ghana. His background is in Public Health-Health Promotion and has worked extensively with Health Services and Ministries of Health in Ghana and Nigeria.  We discussed: How Nii started out his career training as an Optometrist then how he ended up choosing to specialize in Health Promotion  What motiva...
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"In this episode we talk with Mr. Emmanuel Nsengiyumva from Rwanda. Emmanuel is an experienced leader, and development professional with 10+ years working in the health and social protection sector with INGOs experience supporting governments in a wide spectrum of development issues from systems strengthening to community programming.  We discussed: Emmanuel's introduction and the journey of he started his career in public health W...
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September 13, 2023 59 mins
In this episode we hear from Mrs. Soline Mugeni from Rwanda.  Mrs. Mugeni holds a BSc in Microbiology and an MSc. in Community Health.She has 10+ years experience working in the health sector with INGOs and supporting governments in multiple areas such as community health, human resources for health, health financing, and most recently immunization. She is passionate about serving communities and making an impact.
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Check out our conversation with Dr. Nkechi Olalere , the Special Advisor on Health Economics to the Honorable Minister of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone on her career journey.Dr. Nkechi has over 17 years’ experience in health insurance implementation, spanning private, public and development sectors. She is also passionate about digital health, sustainability of country health systems and strategic purchasing, especially pro...
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In this episode we hear from Dr. Godfrey Musuka, an international Public and Evaluation Consultant, HIV/AIDS M&E and public health expert with over 25 years of experience. We talked about: Who is Dr Musuka? His background and how ended up working in public health. Countries and areas he has worked in Key career experiences that shaped his expertise How many years’ experience does he have in the field? What has changed and what has ...
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Check out our season finale with Dr. Constancia Mavodza , a global and public health (process evaluation) practitioner, with experience in coordination, implementing and evaluating public health projects focusing on HIV/AIDS, SRHR, human resources for health, and AGYW.
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November 18, 2022 50 mins
Who is Chrystal and what does she do?  What led Chrystal to the work she does today? What Chrystal studied at the undergraduate level and how that led her to public health work  Chrystal’s decision to pursue a Master of Public Health degree (MPH) and what she is focusing on in her program as she is pursuing it (Community Health) Why Chrystal chose to do the online option for her MPH degree A day in the life of Chrystal and her role...
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October 28, 2022 49 mins
In this episode our guest is Sandra Isano a Rwandan pharmacist, Lecturer, and Coordinator for Community Based Education in the Department of Community Health, and Social Medicine at the University of Global Health Equity with over 10 years of experience in the field.    We talked about: Sandra’s background and the work she does now and where she works  Where Sandra’s journey in public health started, and what she wanted to be when ...
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October 7, 2022 67 mins
In this episode we chat with Tatenda Diura, a humanitarian worker from Zimbabwe.    We discuss: A brief introduction of her background, her current work and where she is based, and what she specializes in, in her work  What is safeguarding and how long has she been doing this work?  Her background and journey to public health , what she studied, her internship experience in Zimbabwe How she found out about public health and how she...
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In this episode we hear from  Dr. Chido Dziva Chikwari, an Epidemiologist from Zimbabwe about her work and career journey in public health for the past 9 years.  We talked about: Chido’s current roles and how long she has been doing health research work  Chido’s background and career journey and how she ended up doing the work she does now How she ended up doing an Master’s degree in Epidemiology and what influenced her choices  Th...
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September 9, 2022 59 mins
In this episode we hear from Joy Kamunyori, a digital health and project management professional from Kenya about her 14 year career assessing, developing and implementing public health IT systems in sub-Saharan African countries.  We discussed: Joy’s background what she studied and how she ended working in public health  How her passion for education and development and skillset landed her in a public health role that started of ...
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August 19, 2022 54 mins
In this episode we talked with Will Moyo an Bioengineer from Zimbabwe. Will is the Engineering Innovation Design Studio Manager for Rice 360 Institute for Global Health Technologies. We discussed: Will’s background and the kind of work she does now What is Bioengineering and what training she received to get there What motivated her to pursue a career in Bioengineering  Invention education and how its used at the Design studios whe...
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This episode we heard from Dr. Itumeleng Ntatamala, an Occupational Medicine Specialist and Senior Lecturer in the Occupational Medicine Division in the School of Public Health at University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Health Sciences. We talked about:  Dr. Itumeleng’s background and his current roles  What drew him to medicine, public health and then occupational health  How his interests in clinical care influenced his interest to ...
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In this episode with Dorcas Kareithi a clinical trials statistician from Kenya currently based in the UK we discussed: Dorcas’s  background and how her love for Math led her to study Applied Statistics What she calls herself  Dorcas’s love for data, data  puns and t shirts with them All the key steps she took to end up working in health with her skillset Difference between being a researcher and statistician  What influenced her in...
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In this episode we talked with Siyabonga Ndwandwe, a computational health economist from Eswatini currently based in London about his to journey to working in Public health and what it has been like for him. In the episode we discussed: What is computational health economics and what that entails His background and motivation to study health economics and work in public health Using an economic framework, economics principles an...
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In this episode we chat with Nang’andu, a health promotion specialist from Zambia about her 11 year career in public health.   We discussed: How Nana started her career in public health and what motivated her to focus on health in development Secondary prevention in Cervical cancer All things Cervical cancer  What work she currently does and what that looks like on a typical day/week  Monitoring and Evaluation in public health prog...
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In this episode we chat with Temitope Ben-Ajepe, a pharmacist and public health consultant from Nigeria. We discussed:  Her pharmacy background and how she ended up studying pharmacy Her motivations to explore regulatory work and work at a macro level  Details of different internship and placement experiences, what she enjoyed and what she learnt there Overview of Pharmacy training Nigeria and the national requirements for licensin...
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In this episode we talk with Dr. Nikki Kay a specialist Public Health physician currently based at the Duke-NUS Medical School Centre of Regulatory Excellence (CoRE) and SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI) in Singapore.  We discussed: Her 16 year career in public health medicine starting from her background and what motivated her to want to work in public health Her experience taking care of family during the peak o...
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