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.

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 provider payment reforms, several of which she led, successfully, in the private health insurance space. She recently served as the Executive Director of Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC) and the chair of Africa Union’s Tracker sub-committee tasked with developing indicators and measures of progress for ‘More Health for the Money’. She is the chair of the Rapid Cycle Monitoring sub-group of Global Financing Facility’s Results Advisory Group.

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 inKey career experiences that shaped his expertiseHow many years’ experience does he have in the field?What has changed and what has stayed the same?What does Dr. Musuka call himself?How did Dr Musuka end up studying Veterinary medicine? And how did he end up pivoting into public health more specifically?A run through of Dr. Musuka’s key career experiences, where they led him, and what he worked onDoes he find that all his experiences and trainings have connected or intersected over time?Was One Health a thing back in the day?What was his approach for the different opportunities in his career? Did he plan it out?The importance of being open and being willing to try new projects and challenges (even if you fail!)What is Dr. Musuka working on now? -Highlights of current and recently completed projectsWorking with different stakeholders at different levels as your career growsWhat working with and in different countries looks like and key things to keep in mind to ensure successDifferent key people Dr. Musuka has worked with that have been influential and key in his growth and developmentAlways reach out and ask questions so you can listen and learnThe importance of relationships and having people who can hold you accountableDifferent people can help you in your career and that includes your family and your childrenAnother BRTI guest on the show! Making the connectionHow many degrees does Dr Musuka have?The importance of continual learning and what that looks like for Dr MusukaPublic health can have people from different areas and backgrounds in training and still eg Accountants and EconomistsHow does Dr Musuka define Public Health?Public health as a broad, inclusive and evolving fieldKey challenges and issues that Dr Musuka has seen in the field with all his experiencesWords of wisdom to young people out there regarding career success

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.

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 degreeA day in the life of Chrystal and her roles Dzidzo safepad initiative: what its about, what motivated it and what work goes into it Where funding and support for Dzidzo Safepad comes from Global Changemakers and their support for Dzidzo safepad-https://www.global-changemakers.net/ How long does each pad last?How they target and decide which schools to work with What Chrystal enjoys and loves about working on Dzidzo Safepad Chrystal’s role as a Her Voice ambassador through the Global FundHow Chrystal defines public health for herself Importance of equity and inclusivity in public health work and interventionsWord to the wise- advice for young people and people looking to enter the field Resources and links: *https://twitter.com/dzidzo_safepad  *https://www.instagram.com/dzidzo_safepad/  * The ecocash number for Dzidzo Safepad donations is +263 772935923

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 she was youngerHow working as a community pharmacist got her interested in patients beyond the treatment and medication they were coming to seek Her work as a fellow with Global Health Corps Rwanda’s High School pathway and where people choose to specialize Which one’s are the community pharmacies?How and why pharmacies serve as a first line of care and health service delivery How capacity building at pharmacies can be an additional solution in provided primary careHow pharmacy, GHC fellowship and now her current work as a lecturer doing community community research all inspire and motivate her interestsWhat her current work at UGHE looks like and includes Teaching, research and community service Highlights of some of Sandra’s research projects and outcomes from them Sandra’s PhD project, and what motivated her to study for a PhD a focus on teen mothers at refugee camps in Rwanda, and what questions and information she will be looking into Sandra’s favorite thing about working in public health How Sandra defines public health Sandra’s least favorite thing about working in public health Words of advice to those starting out in the public health field and their careersLove as a public health intervention and the social ecological model! https://ghcorps.org/ -Global Health Corps websitehttps://ughe.org/ -University of Global Health Equity websitehttps://ur.ac.rw/- University of Rwanda website

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 ZimbabweHow she found out about public health and how she ended up doing her Masters degree in public health What influenced her career decisions at every juncture in her journeyHow she used resources available to her to search for jobsHow she navigated the catch 22 of jobs requiring experience and experience being gotten through jobs and got her first job after her Master’s degreeHow she has leveraged changing organizations and roles to grow in her careerThe principle of do not harm and how it is the cornerstone of safeguarding work in humanitarian settingsExamples of the kind of work she does in safeguardingBehavior Change Communication and how her sociology degree is now relevant in her work What a survivor centered approach in humanitarian work is and what that looks likeThe importance of understanding context in populations that we serve in public health How heavy humanitarian work can be at times What Tatenda’s likes the most about the work that she does What measures are in place in the humanitarian field to ensure that humanitarian workers maintain their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing Burnout in humanitarian work The risk of being desensitized doing the work and the importance of rest and unplugging between projects and assignmentsThe importance of empathy and mot sympathy while doing work What keeps Tatenda going in the field, even with high turnover ratesWhat does public health mean for TatendaVulnerable populations that Tatenda works with and how that is definedWords of wisdom How Tatenda has used LinkedIn to grow in her career

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 nowHow she ended up doing an Master’s degree in Epidemiology and what influenced her choices The importance of career guidance and the right vocabulary in career decision making What is an epidemiologist and what do they do?- With examples The things she likes about working in Epidemiology and research How she has used her skills to pivot to different program areas over the years Her research project on increasing access and uptake of HIV testing for children in Zimbabwe that she conducted as part of her PhD How the findings from her research work became relevant when COVID-19 broke out  in 2019 How we are going to make a movie on Chido’s Doctoral research What are Chido’s top favorite reasons she likes about working in public health research The value and importance of having a good community of people to work with What public health means to Chido For the good of everybodyWhat good for everyone includes and entails from access, universal health coverage, priority populations, COVID-19 global response The importance of meeting people where they are in public health interventions eg. COVID-19 vaccines and prevention Chido’s advice to young people and all people of all ages on career paths What Chido knows now about the field of public health that wishes she had known or understood earlierPublic Health is a lot of work?Where is the money in Public health? Is there money in public health work?Career advice and tips are relevant throughout the lifecourse Things change, career pivots happen, life happensCheck out  https://www.thruzim.org/  for all the research work

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 her careerHow she became interested in Computers  and eventually chose to study computer science What she likes and drew her to coding and computer science How mentorship played a significant role in her career and choices at many junctures Her experience pursuing graduate studies in Computer Science What her work looks like now, in scale and range and the kinds of problems she supports solving How she considers herself an interpreter in her work in digital health and what that looks like How her roles have changed as her career has progressed in the field The relationship between Public health, education and development How Digital Health as a field  and use of technology for health started, emerged and has now expanded to be integral in public health systems Challenges and key considerations for countries as they transition to having fully digital health information systems and how Joy has come across and been part of these conversationsWhat are Joy’s favorite things about doing her work What public health means to Joy Joy’s advice to a younger self Top 3 skills she recommends to work on in the field

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 nowWhat is Bioengineering and what training she received to get thereWhat motivated her to pursue a career in Bioengineering Invention education and how its used at the Design studios where she works What are Design Studios and training offered there What Will does on a day to day basis in her role The different kind of funders who support their work The need for support and investment in inventions, innovation and education for long term success “Funding people to fail”Challenges associated with innovation and global health technologies in an African context What is Will's favorite part of the work that she does The value of impactful work and seeing effort come to fruitionWhat public health means to Will Everything is Public Health!Is Will Shuri from Black Panther??? The importance of medical devices and access in public health The Importance of investing in education for health so as to improve  health outcomes The need to train engineers and technical workforce practically so they know how to work with biomedical equipment in the real world Other African countries where the model of design studios are currently being implementedWho makes a good Biomedical engineer?What it takes and good skills to have in the field The different kind of stakeholders Will and her students get to work with Regulation and standardization for medical device design and invention in African countriesChallenges and frustrations from working in education and invention and innovative work in the global health technologies spaceHow their program was able to generate income for themselves by being innovative at the beginning of the pandemic What does Will know now, that she wishes she knew earlierWords of Wisdom Resource plugs Tips of reaching out and getting opportunities in the field

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 do public health work Defining occupational health and occupation medicine and how they sit under public health The aim of occupational health What occupational health looks like and the different types of workers and professionals who work in it Examples of the types of work dealt with in occupational health How he splits his time between clinical work, public health work, research and teaching The wide range of patients and medical issues that they see and the different work industries they work with in occupational medicineWhere Dr. Itumeleng finds the most joy and fulfillment in his work The need for more people to be interested and work in Occupational health, in South Africa and beyond COVID and its impact on occupational health Different types of trainings that people can undergo to gain skills in and pivot to start working in occupational health Why there is not as many people going into the field and being aware that the field of occupational health exists as a career path in public health Challenges in limited opportunities for training in South Africa and in the region How he defines public health and what public health means to him Advice for anyone looking to go into medicine and/or public health Following  your passion and taking it one step at a timeAdvice for those that might be interested specifically in pivoting into occupational health Skills that he has found the most useful Attending short courses in what you are interested Reading more about occupational health  eg :International Labor Organization ILO https://www.ilo.org/global/lang--en/index.htm Health & Safety Executive(HSE)  https://www.hse.gov.uk/ National Institute of Occupational Health SA (NIOH) https://www.nioh.ac.za/# and local National Occupational health bodies  Areas that connect to occupational health eg psychology or social work or physiotherapy Can reach out about programs to him on Linked in or via email at for questions about the field and programs

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 StatisticsWhat she calls herself Dorcas’s love for data, data  puns and t shirts with themAll the key steps she took to end up working in health with her skillsetDifference between being a researcher and statistician What influenced her interest in health from family to books she read growing up How she ended up working in health after her Bachelor's degree  and key steps she took to lead herself thereMentorship and the role it has played in her careerDifferent types of mentorsHighlights from her current and previous workWhat is her favorite thing about her work and working in public health What she likes the least about working in public health Ethics in public health researchInequalities in healthcare accessThe importance of government buy in and will to bridge research findings to policy and implementation Importance of documenting failures in research Her top 3 software recommendationsWords of wisdom especially to people looking to have careers in statistics  Her resource plugs: Young African Statisticians (YASA): https://twitter.com/africanyasWords that count:  https://twitter.com/wordsafricaRLadies Nairobi: https://twitter.com/rladiesnairobi

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 and tools, to understand health care system and answer and solve health related problems What type of health data is there, the different sources, who collects it and why?Privacy , security and the need for regulation of using health data in the world of Big DataStakeholders in public health and how they are involved in the workThe kinds of questions being answered in the field of health economics and in Siya’s work What a typical day, or typical week looks like in his current role Highlights of different roles and projects that Siya has done in the different roles and countries he has worked inWhat public health means to Siyabonga and how he defines itThe Public Health Elephant!What he likes about Health Systems Research Siya’s favorite things about working in public health A little bit of ethics and philosophy of economics in health systems using COVID as an exampleChallenges that come with working with data  depending on the contextThe difference between learning how to work and learning the work Word to the wise

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 developmentSecondary prevention in Cervical cancerAll things Cervical cancer What work she currently does and what that looks like on a typical day/week Monitoring and Evaluation in public health programs It's not just M&ENana’s multi year experience and the different amazing work and areas she has worked inDigitalization of M&E and how Nana has taken it in stride What digital applications and platforms Nana uses in her work How her role requires her to be flexible, adaptable and translate between different kinds of experts How she has continued to learn new skills and dedicated time to that to keep up to date with the workThe importance of prioritizing the population as a receiver of information and evidence generated in public health work Data for decision making - Decisions in health begin at the individual’s health Beyond data collection and M&E in public health work Data as an empowerment tool for peopleNana’s definition of public health and what it means and looks like for her There is so much work to do! Frustrations and challenges working in public health What is Nana’s favourite thing about working in public health What keeps Nana working in public health? Public Health saves lives Skills that Nana has found useful in public healthTop things that Nana recommends investing in while working in public health The value of relationships in public health work What she does when she feels demotivated in her work or in a slump The value of humanities and social sciences in public health with examples from a reproductive health program that Nana worked in The value of innovation in public health Who are we doing public health work for?Public health interventions need to be inclusive and not discriminatory Tips and words of wisdom to young peopleChallenges in career guidance and learning how to explore Visible women Zambia and mentorship for young women and girls

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 pharmacyHer 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 thereOverview of Pharmacy training Nigeria and the national requirements for licensing The different types of pharmacy practice and the different levels How her many internship experiences influenced and motivated her to want “more”What more looks like for Temitope in public healthSome research projects she has worked onThe value of data in health care workResearch and ability to generate evidence that makes an impact in The power of trying out different things in your career and being open to different experiencesImportance of mentors and aligning with mentors that focus on what you are interested inSkills and training that she has found valuable in her current work form Pharmacy school and beyond

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 healthHer experience taking care of family during the peak of the AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe and similarities of the HIV pandemic with COVID for health care workersThe decision to pursue medicine and what she enjoys about being at the frontlines of patient careWhat she studied for her undergraduate and her many interests and work experiences as a public health swiss army knife!Working at the frontlines of COVID in Singapore in 2020Taking breaks in your career and learning to avoid burnout-Take care of you!What public health means to herThe particular value of patient care experience in public health Skills that she has that she found useful in her clinical-public health rolesHow she navigates working with different stakeholders at different levels in her work and maximizes her experience and knowledge for the benefit of communities and peopleNikki the public health shapeshifter? Public Health CIA or FBI? Let's find out!Word to the wise: Knowing that you have what it takes for roles- believe in yourself!You don't have to be perfect for an opportunity so do not talk yourself out of itDon't skimp on Quant skills!-Do a little bit more math than you are comfortable with. It will come in handyWork on your writing skills Qualitative methodology is key Soft skills- get to know to people in the field- stay connectedTo those especially looking to pivot- say hi to people and Network

In this episode we talk with Mandi Tembo, a Menstrual health enthusiast and  PhD research fellow with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine about her journey and career in public health.  We discussed: Mandi's introduction to and start of her public health work How she started her PhD and the opportunities that led her to that pointThe decision to get a PhD and timing for it Working back in your home country and at the community level How do you describe yourself? What do you day you do?What does Public health mean to her?How does she define public health for herself?What Mandi likes and loves about working in public health Feminist leadership in public health Public health as activism Challenges that come with working in public health Funding, research barriers and Global North-Global South equity in global health Public Health is hard work! Leadership in public health Website to check out : https://www.thruzim.org/

This episode covers the goal, vision and background of Utano Public Health Chats and gives an overview of what the episodes will be looking at and covering.