World
Description of Work:
Professor Miriam Were is the chairperson of the National Aids Control Council in Kenya. Under her stewardship, the Council, in collaboration with other stakeholders, has begun to produce positive results in Kenya with infection rates declining. She is also the chair of the international board of directors of the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), winners of the 2005 Gates Award for Global Health, and sits on the board of trustees of UZIMA Foundation, a charitable trust registered in Kenya and focusing on youth empowerment in the context of gender parity. Prof. Were started as a teacher in 1965 and later became a medical officer, lecturer, chief health and nutrition adviser, representative and chief of mission to the World Health Organization. She has won numerous awards for outstanding contributions to the health sector, including the Elder of the Order of the Burning Spear for her distinguished service rendered to the nation of Kenya in December 2005. Throughout her career, she has published technical papers, reports and books as well as one biography and four novels. (http://globalhealth.org)
Dr. Were received her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) from University of Nairobi in 1973, a Masters of Public Health from John Hopkins University in 1976 and a Doctorate in Public Health, Health Planning and Management, EPID from Johns Hopkins in 1981.