Dr. Cecilliah Gakii Mbaka is a medical doctor and global health leader with over a decade of experience advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights, humanitarian health systems, and gender-responsive programming across East Africa. She has held senior advisory and leadership roles in international humanitarian and development organizations, providing strategic guidance on SRHR integration in emergencies, health systems strengthening, and emergency preparedness. Her work spans stakeholder engagement, frontline health worker capacity building, digital health innovation, and coordination within health platforms, consistently focused on creating context-specific tools that improve care for women and girls in fragile settings.
She also leads women-centered health coaching initiatives grounded in evidence-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine, bridging public health expertise with direct community impact.
Dr. Gakii holds an MBChB, an MPH with a focus on health systems strengthening, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Infectious Diseases, integrating clinical medicine, epidemiology, and systems leadership across humanitarian and public health contexts.
She believes women’s leadership reshapes health priorities by centering dignity, community voice, and equity, ensuring health systems truly respond to the realities of women and girls.
Fun fact: Dr. Gakii lifts heavy weights with joy and discipline, and tends a growing collection of succulents, both daily reminders that strength and resilience are built one rep, one root, at a time.