Dr. Osita Okonkwo is Nutrition International’s Country Director for Nigeria. In this role he leads stakeholder engagement and partnership management, provides strategic leadership and oversees planning and program development for Nutrition International in Nigeria.
Dr. Osita is a medical doctor, public health specialist and epidemiologist with more than 18 years of project leadership experience in humanitarian emergencies, public health management, and disease prevention and control spanning across Nigeria, the Unites States, South Sudan and Sierra Leone. He is a medical graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife Nigeria and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Manchester Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom. Additionally, he has a postgraduate fellowship in Public Health Policy and Management from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Prior to joining Nutrition International, Dr. Osita served as the Health Advisor for the Nigerian Red Cross Society where he led resources mobilization efforts and initiated mass campaigns against outbreak of childhood malnutrition and associated illnesses in northern Nigeria. He has also led a UNICEF team in COVID-19 preparedness and response interventions in Bauchi, Nigeria. Over the span of his career, Dr. Osita has applied his leadership and technical expertise, and project management skills at various levels to strengthen health systems, build workforce capacities, and advance health policy reforms and stakeholders collaborations across the continent in the areas of AIDS, WASH, SHRH, family planning, malaria, maternal newborn and child health and nutrition.
Dr. Osita is a recipient of both the prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship and the United Nation’s International Peace Federation’s Ambassador for Peace Awards. A recipient of the Institute for International Education Alumni Impact Award and several scholarly Travel Grants. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health UK.