Leadership and Global Health Impact

This week, the Conversations in Health: Global to Local class had the pleasure of hearing from John Nkengasong, Ph.D., a former Global AIDS coordinator at the U.S. Department of State and former director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He has made a powerful impact on fighting infectious diseases in numerous countries around the world. 

Nkengasong was the first in his family to pursue higher education, guided by the strong encouragement and support of his parents. After finishing university, he met Professor Victor Anomah Ngu, who inspired him to pursue biology and biotechnology instead of entomology. That advice changed his life and set him on a path towards a career in public health.

Nkengasong went on to complete an internship at the University of Yaoundé, in which he worked on hepatitis B and helped start a vaccination program in Cameroon. That experience later led him to move to Belgium to study HIV. He worked meticulously for long days, seven days a week, to culture, sequence, and extract HIV DNA with crude technology. His hard work and dedication eventually earned him the position of the virology lab in Belgium, all while balancing his responsibilities as a husband and father. He was a pioneer at every job he acquired, showing incredible dedication and commitment.

Later, Nkengasong joined the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, working in Côte d’Ivoire to bring antiretroviral drugs for HIV to Africa. At that time, treatments were extremely expensive, which made them inaccessible for many people and led to the deaths of millions across the continent. Nkengasong explained that the world did not learn enough from these experiences, since similar inequalities happened again during the COVID-19 pandemic, where wealthier countries received a majority of doses. He believes that Africa must become self-sufficient in producing its own vaccines and treatments to better protect its people in the future. 

Nkengasong also played a vital role in expanding the Atlanta CDC’s virology laboratory branch, helping it grow into one of the largest and well-funded branches in the world. He later became the founding director of the Africa CDC, which he built from the ground up. Through his leadership, he secured $1.5 billion from the Mastercard Foundation to support Africa’s public health efforts.

When COVID-19 hit, Nkengasong led the Africa CDC in coordinating a response across the continent. Working with African leaders, he helped raise over $200 million USD in additional funding and expanded the organization to more than 300 employees. His efforts strengthened Africa’s ability to respond to future pandemics and created new opportunities for collaboration between nations. Dr. Nkengasong later returned to the United States to lead the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a major program designed to fight HIV/AIDS. He hopes that with new technological advancements like mRNA vaccines, we can possibly end HIV in the near future. His story is one of perseverance, passion, and commitment to building a healthier and more equal future for everyone. 

Isabella Interlicchio (M’26) is a graduate student studying physiology and biophysics at Georgetown University.