Amref Health Africa Chief Executive Officer Dr Githinji Gitahi has been appointed to the Board and Scientific Advisory Committee of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).
CEPI is an innovative global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations launched in Davos in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics.
The Board is the coalition’s primary governing body, providing oversight of the strategy, leadership, performance, and accountability of CEPI.
The CEPI Scientific Advisory Committee serve as an independent group providing key guidance and recommendations on CEPI’s vaccine programmes and broader outbreak response efforts.
Other board members appointed include Dr L. Rizka Andalucia, Mr Cyrus Ardalan, Professor Samba Sow, and Dr Anita Zaidi.
The new Board members will start in their roles in May 2022 and will serve an initial two-year term, with a potential for a five-year extension.
Dr Gitahi is also the Standard Group's director, PMNCH Strategy Advocacy Committee Co-Chair as well as Governing Board Member of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
Dr Gitahi is also the former Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO) initiative for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and a member of the Unilever Sustainability Advisory Council.
He serves on a number of Boards and is a member of the Commission and Taskforce on Africa’s Covid-19 Response.
In 2018, Dr Gitahi was awarded the 2018 ‘Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear’ (MBS) by President Uhuru Kenyatta, in recognition of his outstanding contribution and commitment to health sector.
