CHARITY CHENGE, M.B.B.S, MPH, MSc, DrPH

Dr Charity is a seasoned Public Health Specialist and Health Systems Strategist with primary training as a physician, and advanced training in public health, health policy, health planning and public health leadership. She is the 2023 recipient of the Arthur B. Holzworth award in Public Health Leadership conferred by the Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
She has amassed twenty-five years of progressive public health experience, including leadership roles, spanning international, national, and sub-national positions across a range of Strategic planning, Policy development, Disease Control, Maternal & Child Health; HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment; Adolescent Health and Health Systems Strengthening (HSS) Programs. She has worked at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), at Catholic Relief Services (CRS) an International Development & Relief Agency; at the Geneva headquarters of the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and currently at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation where she leads complex health portfolios (with a combined value of $141.6M+) through all stages of the funding cycle: concept design, proposal coordination, grant negotiation, implementation oversight, performance management, fiduciary and reputational risk management. She deploys consensus building skills in multistakeholder engagements that are a necessity in global public health.

Two of Charity’s proud achievements include co-leading Nigeria’s successful roll out of the Early Infant Diagnosis (EID) of HIV using dried blood spots (DBS), an innovative and transformative initiative, resulting in an award by the US Department of State in Nigeria, in recognition of her role; Second is leading the Gates Foundation’s catalytic support to seven Nigerian states to install and adopt the Group Antenatal (G ANC) model which has recorded 1,028,766 pregnant enrolees across 81,473 cohorts formed between Jan 2021 and Feb 2023. The government of Malawi is now learning from the G ANC adoption in Nigeria to inform their own adoption.

Charity has built and managed multi-culturally diverse teams in fast paced settings to deliver complex and ambitious strategic mandates. She has successfully managed teams that were diverse across social norms, ethnicities, race, academic backgrounds, religious affiliations, and technical expertise. She has received structured training in culturally sensitive team building, and in applying cultural competencies in public health practice and leadership.
She is a life-long learner and learns from everyone and from every situation. She leads with empathy, with a transformational mindset, and with authenticity. She is undeterred by ambiguity, and intentional about transforming initial ambiguity into functional form. She is an incurable optimist in her public health practice and leadership, and her approach to life.

Her personal philanthropy includes board service on three non-profit boards. She founded The Next Hundred Initiative and co-founded Women in Public Health Leadership, Africa (WIPHLA), and the Centre for Health Systems Support.

Charity completed her medical training at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos. She holds a master’s in public health (MPH) from the same institution and holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), both of the University of London. She is certified in entrepreneurial management and completed her doctoral studies (DrPH in Public Health Leadership) at the Gilling’s School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. USA.

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