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Home > Our people > Leadership > Regional leaders
Monique Wasunna

Dr Monique Wasunna

DNDi Africa Ambassador

  • Dr Monique Wasunna
  • @MoniqueWasunna

Dr Wasunna joined DNDi in 2003 and is currently DNDi Africa Ambassador. In this role, Dr Wasunna engages African policy leaders and other stakeholders and supports their ambitions to advance universal health coverage, access to treatment, and disease elimination though R&D collaborations that deliver new treatments for the most neglected patients.   

Previously, she supervised and led DNDi’s activities in eastern Africa for twenty years, from 2003 to 2023. She is a founding member and former Chair of the Leishmaniasis East Africa Platform (LEAP), promoting clinical research for leishmaniasis and capacity building in the region.

Dr Wasunna is a physician and an infectious disease and tropical medicine specialist. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Nairobi. Her postgraduate training in medicine was sponsored by WHO-TDR at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, where she obtained an MSc and a PhD in medicine and a diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians of London. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Fellow East, Central and Sothern Africa College of Physicians, member of the Kenya Medical Association and Kenya Association of Physicians.

Dr Wasunna was the Chief Research Officer and Assistant Director of Research at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). She has served as the Director, Centre for Clinical Research, KEMRI, and subsequently served as the Acting Director KEMRI. She was a member of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO, Kenya National Bioethics Committee, the Kenyatta National Hospital and University of Nairobi Scientific and Research Ethics committee, and currently a member of the Expert Committee of Clinical Trials of the Pharmacy and Poisons Board, Kenya.

Dr Wasunna is a recipient of the Distinguished Neglected Tropical Diseases Researcher Award, from the ministry of health, Kenya, a Long term Collaboration and Partnership with KEMRI Award, a Mycetoma Ambassador Award, and a National Order of Merit “Officier de l’ordre national du mérite”, from the Government of France for her contribution to research, dedication and service to the neglected communities. She was short listed for the Lifetime Achievement Award 2023 as part of Recognizing Excellence Around Champions of Health (REACH) Awards.

Dr Wasunna’s research interests are primarily focused on neglected diseases such as leishmaniasis and mycetoma with special focus on clinical trials in visceral leishmaniasis, malaria, and HIV. She has been a principal investigator in many clinical trials that have attracted funding from WHO and other international organizations. She is well published in peer reviewed journals.

Featured news & publications

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  • Africa’s greatest health challenges won’t be solved without female scientists
  • Disease-specific differences in pharmacokinetics of paromomycin and miltefosine between post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis and visceral leishmaniasis patients in Eastern Africa
  • Celebrating 20 Years of LEAP: Innovation and Impact
  • Leishmania blood parasite dynamics during and after treatment of visceral leishmaniasis in Eastern Africa: A pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic model
  • La pionera en la lucha contra las enfermedades desatendidas que anima a las niñas a seguir su ejemplo: ‘Vuestros sueños son válidos’
  • The Agenda Podcast
  • Safety and efficacy of paromomycin/ miltefosine/ liposomal amphotericin B combinations for the treatment of post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis in Sudan: A phase II, open label, randomized, parallel arm study
  • A drug development model for the diseases the world forgot
  • DNDi welcomes Prof. Samuel Kariuki as the new Eastern Africa Director
  • East Africa has made great strides in combatting neglected diseases

Featured events

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  • Scaling impact: Climate & health solutions that drive change
  • ASTMH 2024
  • World Health Summit 2024
  • Geneva Health Forum
  • CPHIA 2023

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