Our Staff - WACI Health

The full-time Staff is in charge of running our affairs.

The Executive Management is in charge of running WACI Health’s affairs. It works in compliance with WACI Health’s charter and with the decisions of the General Assembly and requirements by the Board of Directors. Take a look behind the scenes and get to know the members of our staff here.

Rosemary Mburu

Executive Director

Tabeth Chitimbe

Finance and Administrative Manager,

Joyce Ng’ang’a

Policy Advisor

Nombasa Gxuluwe

Campaigns Manager

Robinson Muigai

ICT Advisor

Sam Makau

Policy & Advocacy Officer

Gloria Mululu

Program Officer

Fitsum Lakew Alemayehu

AU Liaison Manager

Carthi Mannikarottu

CSEM Communications Officer

Rosemary Mburu

Executive Director

Based in Nairobi, Kenya. Ms Mburu is a global health advocate and civil society leader in Africa working to create political will for improved health outcomes in Africa. Her areas of expertise include policy analysis; building political support for health outcomes; influencing decision making processes; mobilizing civil society and community voices for action; and promoting good participatory practice in clinical trials.

Ms Mburu has extensively worked on building and strengthening civil society and community organizing for health Advocacy in Africa. She oversees the Civil Society Platform on Health in Africa (CiSPHA); the Global Fund Advocates Network (GFAN)- Africa hub; and the Africa free of New HIV Infections (AfNHi) Network. She is a member of the Vaccine Advocacy Resource Group (VARG). Mburu is the Southern CSO representative on UHC2030.

Ms Mburu has published several peer-reviewed articles and blogs including on: clinical trial ethics- International Journal of Clinical Practice; investments in HIV Prevention Research- African Journal of Reproductive Health; Biomedical HIV Prevention- BMC Proceedings; and strengthening primary health care- Lancet Global Health blog.

Ms Mburu holds a Masters in Public Health (MPH), Ohio University and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), Frostburg State University.

Tabeth Chitimbe

Finance and Administrative Manager,

Based in Cape Town South Africa. Key responsibilities include developing budgets, and leadership on financial systems, processes and reporting. Tabeth holds comprehensive knowledge of financial, strategic and human resource management, including setting up financial systems and procedures as well as various organizational policies. She holds a Masters Degree in Strategic Management majoring in Finance and a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Banking. Tabeth is a member of Association of Certified Chartered Accountants of London. She is also a member of the Institute of Risk Management South Africa, as an Associate Risk Practitioner.

Joyce Ng’ang’a

Policy Advisor

Based in Nairobi, Kenya. Works closely with WACI Health colleagues by leading advocacy efforts on specific advocacy priorities, representing WACI Health to high profile policymakers, practitioners, think-tanks, academic partners, the media and the public; working closely with ACTION Global Health Partnership advocates to support the development of WACI Health advocacy strategies and activities on ACTION-related priority issues; working closely with partners to develop coordinated advocacy and public campaigns on WACI Health priority themes and countries; manage Policy and Advocacy temporary staff and Interns. Joyce is a Registered Community Health Nurse in Kenya with undergraduate training in Health Systems Management.

Nombasa Gxuluwe

Campaigns Manager

Based in Cape Town, South Africa. Key responsibilities include civil society and community capacity strengthening around key health and development issues including HIV, human rights, GBV, ending violence among women and girls, and health financing. Ms Gxuluwe is a Health and Human Rights activist and has been in the field since 2003. She has extensive experience in campaigning, lobbying and advocacy. She has experience working with diverse group of communities to mention the few traditional leaders, LGBTI community and People Living with HIV/AIDS. Ms Gxuluwe holds a Bachelor of Education honors in Educational Psychology.

Robinson Muigai

ICT Advisor

ICT Advisor, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Leading in strategy development and issues related to internal and external communications engagement. Develop innovative solutions to enhance the WACI Health visibility, online presence. Digital platforms: Such as websites specially created for campaigns. Different accounts on social networks, in some cases specifically for these kinds of launches, and in other cases the brand’s that already-existing account which is used to help amplify the message of advocacy.
Internal communications coordination, capacity building and technical support: Analyse the and the organization communications systems and institute relevant adjustments/changes to strengthen them.

Sam Makau

Policy & Advocacy Officer

Sam Makau is a Policy and Advocacy officer at WACI Health. He has great experience in mobilizing national and regional policy makers across the African continent for TB advocacy.

He is a public relations and communications expert specializing in health communications and advocacy. He is also a member and the chair of the communications subcommittee in the Coalition for health research and Development (CHREAD)

Gloria Mululu

Program Officer

Based in Kenya, Gloria is an experienced Public and Occupational Health advocate with over a decades experience. Her skill sets include and are not limited to , Mobilization ,Content and curriculum development, bespoke training, program development and implementation. Prior to WACI Health, she was involved in high level and civil society advocacy for PHC on the
National platform. An alumni of the University of Nairobi, she is a BA holder (Double major in Psychology and
Communication )and brings to the WACI family, her dedication and zeal to advocate for health
care rights for all.

Fitsum Lakew Alemayehu

AU Liaison Manager

Fitsum is the liaison officer to the African Union Commission (AUC). He represents WACI Health on the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) for health and the African Leaders Meeting (ALM) Declaration advocacy and communication; which are Technical Working Groups (TWG) for health within the African Union.

Fitsum has a rich experience in field research; by which he has led numerous researches, evaluations, need assessments at Regional and National level on Education, Livelihood, Health and Agriculture. Furthermore, he has engaged with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) as a consultant to map and capture of good practices on the school-to-work transition in three (3) AU member states. Additionally, he is a member of the C-20 Health working group and has served a technical youth advisor of the Women and Youth TWG of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2015/16.

Carthi Mannikarottu

CSEM Communications Officer

Carthi Mannikarottu is the Communications Officer for the Civil Society Engagement Mechanism for UHC2030 (CSEM secretariat, which is co-hosted by WACI Health and Management Sciences for Health. She is a global health professional with experience in policy advocacy, communications, and partnerships.

Previously, she managed a global knowledge and learning project for HIV/AIDS at UNICEF. Before that, she worked on development and international expansion with the ACTION Global Health Partnership, and executed communications campaigns at a boutique PR agency focused on health. Carthi holds a Master of Public Health (MPH) with a health policy analysis concentration from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in global health from the University of Pennsylvania.

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