Miriam Khamadi Were
Vice Chair, The Champions of AIDS-Free Generation (Kenya)
Miriam Khamadi Were qualified as a Medical Doctor from Kenya’s University of Nairobi in 1973. Prior to that she obtained a Bachelor’s degree from William Pen College in Iowa in 1964 with a Composite Major in Natural Sciences (Biology, Chemistry and Physics). From 1965-66, she studied for a graduate Diploma in Education at Makerere University in Uganda that qualified her to teach Biology, Chemistry, and Physical Education in high school. After teaching high school for two years, she enrolled for the five-year study of Medicine in 1968, after the Faculty of Medicine was established the University of Nairobi in 1967. She graduated as a Medical Doctor in 1973 and worked as a Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health in Kenya. As a qualified teacher, she was recruited by the University of Nairobi to teach public and community health in the Faculty of Medicine as her area of interest in health was people’s participation in their own health care and development. While a staff member of the University of Nairobi, in 1975 she was sponsored to study public health at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. She graduated with a Masters of Public Health (MPH) in 1976 and enrolled for Doctor of Public Health (Dr PH) studies. On returning to Kenya in 1976, she continued with teaching duties while carrying out doctoral research on people’s participation in their own health care. She successfully defended the thesis in 1980 and was awarded a Doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1981.
Dr. Miriam K. Were became Head of the Department of Community Health at the University of Nairobi in 1982. In 1985, she was recruited by UNICEF during the tragic Ethiopian famine (from 1983) as Head of Health and Nutrition at UNICEF Ethiopia, with particular focus on the needs of mothers and children. She subsequently was Representative and Chief of Mission for the World Health Organisation in Ethiopia (1990-1993). From mid-1993 to 2000, she was Director of the UN Population Fund Country Support Team (UNFPA/CST) for East, Central, and Anglophone West Africa and retired in 2000 at the age of 60 years.
Positions Were has held post-retirement include Chair of Kenya’s National AIDS Control Council, Chair of the African Medical and Research Foundation Board (AMREF), Member of the Board of the Health Workforce Alliance, Member of the UN Secretary General’s Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) for Women’s and Children’s Health, and Chancellor of Moi University in Kenya. Currently she is a Member of The Champions of AIDS-Free Generation alongside many former African Heads of State. She is also the co-Founder of UZIMA Foundation Africa, which focuses on youth empowerment.
Among the outstanding international honours awarded to Were are the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize, The Queen Elizabeth II Gold Medal for Public Health in the Commonwealth, and Women Leading Change by the Global YWCA (Young Women Christian Association). She holds honorary degrees from Moi University, Ochanomizu University, and DePaul University. She has also received Kenya’s National Honours of Elder of the Burning Spear for outstanding contribution to the nation and the Shujaa Award for bringing international prestige in Public Health to Kenya. She has been Kenya’s Community Health Strategy Goodwill Ambassador since 2011.