Ahmed Ogwell

Last updated
Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma
Ahmed Ogwell Ouma at the World Economic Forum.jpg
Ogwell Ouma speaks at the 2023 World Economic Forum
Born1969 (age 5455)
Alma mater University of Nairobi
Scientific career
Institutions Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention

Ahmed E. Ogwell Ouma (born 1969) is a Kenyan public health specialist and an expert in health policy, health security, global health diplomacy and non-communicable diseases. He is formerly the acting Director and the Deputy Director-General of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. He is currently the Vice President for Global Health Strategy at the United Nations FoundationUN Foundation

Contents

Early life and education

Ahmed Ogwell was born and raised in the seaside city of Mombasa, Kenya. [1] He attended his early schooling in Mombasa and later joined the University Of Nairobi, where he completed a Bachelor's in Dental Surgery and a master's degree in Public Health (MPH). [2] In 2000 he moved to the University of Bergen where he attained a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in International Health.

Career

Ahmed was appointed the Vice President for Global Strategy at the UN Foundation in May 2024 [3] , where he spearheads one of the UN Foundation’s largest portfolios spanning global health policy, advocacy, convening, and grantmaking, in support of the United Nations and its health-related causes.

Ahmed's interest in the health sector started very early in [4] as a result of personal circumstances. While at medical school, he decided to focus on prevention and control of diseases rather than doing clinical work. Having lost both his parents and his sister to cancer, [5] Ogwell has dedicated his early career to the prevention of non-communicable diseases. [6] He started at the Ministry of Health, where he led the work of non-communicable diseases and later moved to set up the Office for International Health Relations. He then moved to the World Health Organization to lead the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. [6] He later moved to the Africa Regional Office of WHO in Brazzaville before moving back to Geneva as a senior advisor to the Assistant Director-General responsible for the Global Coordination Mechanism on non-communicable diseases.

Ogwell was hired as the inaugural deputy director for Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in 2019. [2] He then assumed the role of acting director in 2022 when Dr. John Nkengasong was appointed the US ambassador to PEPFAR. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ogwell was essentially the chief of operations at the Africa CDC and also responsible for liaison with various partnerships. [7] [8]

Ahmed has led the Africa CDC to advocate for the New Public Health Order, [9] which is a vision for Africa to reset its role in global health security. He has been and continues to be a strong voice for Africa to own its challenges and lead in providing of solutions to its problems. Ahmed has led the advocacy for this new way of working under the New Public Health Order, where the continent sets its priorities, invests local resources first, then invites partners to fill the gap required to provide the health solution.

Ogwell has also excellently delivered the first in-person International Conference on Public Health in Africa [10] with great success. It remains the premier public health conference in Africa.


Select publications

Personal life

Ogwell is married with children. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</span> United States government public health agency

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Piot</span> Belgian microbiologist (born 1949)

Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot, is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epidemic Intelligence Service</span> U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program

The Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) is a program of the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The modern EIS is a two-year, hands-on post-doctoral training program in epidemiology, with a focus on field work.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) is a state corporation established through the Science and Technology (Amendment) Act of 1979,, during the tenure of Nicholas Biwott as Minister of State, as the national body responsible for carrying out health research in Kenya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Non-communicable disease</span> Medical conditions that cannot transmit from one individual to another

A non-communicable disease (NCD) is a disease that is not transmissible directly from one person to another. NCDs include Parkinson's disease, autoimmune diseases, strokes, heart diseases, cancers, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and others. NCDs may be chronic or acute. Most are non-infectious, although there are some non-communicable infectious diseases, such as parasitic diseases in which the parasite's life cycle does not include direct host-to-host transmission.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin De Cock</span>

Kevin M. De Cock, M.D., F.R.C.P. (UK), D.T.M. & H., is Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) country mission in Kenya. He has previously served as the team lead for CDC response to Ebola in Liberia, as Director of the CDC Center for Global Health, and as Director of the CDC Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Surveillance, and Epidemiology. Dr. De Cock additionally served as the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Department of HIV/AIDS from 2006 to 2009, overseeing all of WHO's work related to HIV/AIDS focusing on initiatives to assist low- and middle-income countries in scaling up their treatment, prevention, care, and support programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florida Department of Health</span>

The Florida Department of Health is responsible for protecting the public health and safety of the residents and visitors of the state of Florida. It is a cabinet-level agency of the state government, headed by a state surgeon general who reports to the governor. The department has its headquarters in Tallahassee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Schuchat</span> American physician (born 1960)

Anne Schuchat is an American medical doctor. She is a former rear admiral and assistant surgeon general in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She also served as the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In May 2021, Schuchat stepped down from her post.

The International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) is an international umbrella organization of national public health institutes (NPHIs), public health government agencies working to improve national disease prevention and response. IANPHI is made up of 100+ members, located in more than 90 countries. An important goal of IANPHI is to improve health outcomes by strengthening NPHIs or supporting countries in creating new NPHIs.

In the United States, the National Malaria Eradication Program (NMEP) was launched in July 1947. By 1951 this federal program—with state and local participation—had reduced the incidence of malaria in the United States to the point that the program was officially ended.

Prabhat Jha is an Indian-Canadian epidemiologist currently working in the field of global health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matshidiso Moeti</span>

Matshidiso Rebecca Natalie Moeti is a physician, public health specialist and medical administrator from Botswana who has been serving as Regional Director of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), headquartered in Brazzaville, the Republic of the Congo, since 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Voluntary Health Services hospital, Chennai</span> Hospital in Tamil Nadu, India

Voluntary Health Services, popularly known as the VHS Hospital, is a multispecialty tertiary care referral hospital in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, reportedly serving the economically weaker sections of the society. It was founded in 1958 by Krishnaswami Srinivas Sanjivi, an Indian physician, social worker and a winner of Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards and is run by a charitable non governmental organization of the same name. The hospital is situated along Rajiv Gandhi Salai at Taramani, in Chennai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dina Mired</span> Jordanian royal, humanitarian and health activist

Princess Dina Mired is a Jordanian humanitarian and health activist. She is a leading global advocate for cancer control and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). She was the President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) from 2018 to 2020 and was the first Arab Muslim elected to lead in such a prestigious global post. Princess Dina is the former Director-General of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael J. Ryan (doctor)</span> Irish doctor and Chief Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme

Michael Joseph Ryan is an Irish epidemiologist and former trauma surgeon, specialising in infectious disease and public health. He is executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, leading the team responsible for the international containment and treatment of COVID-19. Ryan has held leadership positions and has worked on various outbreak response teams in the field to eradicate the spread of diseases including bacillary dysentery, cholera, Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola, Marburg virus disease, measles, meningitis, relapsing fever, Rift Valley fever, SARS, and Shigellosis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention</span> Public health agency of the African Union

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is a public health agency of the African Union to support the public health initiatives of member states and strengthen the capacity of their health institutions to deal with disease threats. The idea of an African CDC was proposed by the government of Ethiopia in 2013, during a TB/HIV special summit in Abuja, Nigeria. From 2013 to 2016, the modalities and statute of Africa CDC were developed, and the specialized agency was officially launched in January 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Nkengasong</span> Cameroonian-American virologist

John N. Nkengasong is a Cameroonian-American virologist serving as the Global AIDS Coordinator in the Biden administration since 2022 and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy since 2023. He previously worked as the Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention from 2016 to 2022, as well as at the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Nkengasong was appointed the WHO Special Envoy for Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Githinji Gitahi</span> Kenyan medical doctor

Githinji Gitahi is a Kenyan medical doctor who serves as the Global Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa as well a former co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee. In July 2021, he was appointed as a Commissioner in the Africa COVID-19 Commission.

Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM) is a Malawian government agency and research institute, as well as Malawi's national public health institute. It is subordinate to the Ministry of Health. PHIM builds the capacity of the country to effectively attend and deal with public health challenges including emerging communicable and non-communicable diseases.

References