The US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine has appointed Aga Khan University’s Dean Professor Lukoye Atwoli to serve on their Global Health board.
Atwoli will serve on the Board on Global Health for three years, effective immediately.
“It is a great honour to me and to the Aga Khan University family to be nominated to serve with other eminent personalities in the National Academies’ Board on Global Health. I look forward to working with the other members and executing my role to the best of my ability,” he said.
The Board on Global Health at The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine provides expert guidance on U.S. policies and programs in global health, health problems in developing countries, and health issues of mutual concern to the United States and other industrialized and industrializing societies.
The mission of the Board is to provide expert analysis and judgments to the National Academies, the US Government, and to other appropriate audiences, on the meaning to the US of health developments beyond its borders, and areas of U.S. international health investment that are most likely to benefit the health of the U.S. population and promote global well-being, security, and economic development.
Apart from being Dean of the Medical College at AKU, Prof Atwoli also holds visiting and honorary positions at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and the University of Cape Town.
In addition, he leads and participates in mental health research locally and globally.
He is a member of the WHO-World Mental Health Surveys Consortium, which is the leading collaborative project in psychiatric epidemiology globally.
Recently, President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Prof Atwoli as the Chairperson of the board of Kenya’s largest public psychiatric hospital, the Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital.
He is also the secretary-general of the African Association of Psychiatrists (AAP) and President-Elect of the African College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AfCNP).
He has previously served as the global technical director for the citiesRISE initiative, whose goal is to help make five cities mental health-friendly (Nairobi, Chennai, Bogota, as well as Seattle and Sacramento).
The initiative works with young people in these cities to increase connectedness, improving their coping ability by working to build resilience and hopefulness and linking those in need to care.