Dr. Rose N Wafula is a specialist who is passionate about population health especially women, young people and children. She is the former Head of National AIDS and STI Control Program (NASCOP) and lead of GBV prevention and response component in the World Bank funded Covid-19 Health emergency response project (CHERP). Other positions held are Gender Based Violence GBV prevention and response and Sexual and Reproductive Health SRH lead at the MOH. In UNICEF she served as First Decade Technical advisor.
She holds a bachelors’ degree in medicine and surgery from Moi University – Kenya and Masters of International Public Health from the University of Queensland, Australia. She has 20 years’ experience in developing (formulation, designs, and planning), implementing, monitoring of public health programs. She is reliable, decisive, adapts boldly to circumstances while mobilizing people for results through persuasion. Her strength are leadership and coordination, people management, development of strategies, advocacy, communication, partnership building, resource mobilization and accountability and lastly strategic information use.
Her career began at Embu Provincial Hospital before joining MOH headquarters. Her previous work includes impeccable progress in elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV (eMTCT), country 95-95-95 UNAIDS targets and Beyond Zero initiative. She has worked in UNICEF and great history of collaborating with WHO, UNFPA, and UNAIDS PEPFAR, USAID, CDC, UNITAID, Global Fund, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and World Bank among others. She enjoys networking with broader MOH institutions, other sectors of Government, Counties, partners, Civil Society organizations (CSOs) and communities including affected communities to deliver population health. Currently Dr. Rose is in charge of healthy aging and a fellow at the prestigious Africa’s Kofi Annan Leadership program under the Africa CDC. She is a member of the National Council of administration of Justice (NCAJ) committee on review of laws and policies on sexual and Gender Based Violence. She believes in emerging Africa leadership and enjoys mentoring young women and men into public health leadership as a hobby.