Dr. Nduku Kilonzo

Dr. Nduku Kilonzo is a globally recognized HIV and health systems leader with 30 years of experience spanning government, the United Nations, multilateral institutions, NGOs, and the private sector. She is Group Director/CEO of Yemaya Health Advisory, an Africa-led consulting firm delivering strategic solutions for sustainable health systems, financing, and delivery. She co-chairs the Global HIV Prevention Coalition. Her thought leadership reshaped HIV prevention. She led development of the Kenya HIV Prevention Revolution Road Map, whose pioneering population-location approach informed financing and delivery by UNAIDS, PEPFAR in 2016, and was quoted in The Lancet and the Financial Times. She stewarded initial sub-national HIV estimates methodology adopted as UNAIDS current global surveillance standard. She has advised the Gates Foundation on HIV prevention investment. Her delivery record is grounded in national-scale results. As CEO of Kenya's National AIDS Control Council (2014–2020), she steered a 51% decline in new HIV infections and a 52% reduction in AIDS-related deaths, while ART coverage grew to 1.2 million people. As CEO of the Kenya Tissue and Transplant Authority, she led reforms that more than doubled national blood testing and banking capacity. During Kenya's COVID-19 response, as Technical Advisor to the Cabinet Secretary of Health, she chaired the national committees that scaled oxygen production tenfold, from 3 to 30 million litres per day. She served as the Executive Director of LVCT Health. She has represented East and Southern Africa on the Global Fund Board, chaired the Great Lakes Initiative on AIDS across seven countries, and served on multiple Lancet Commissions and WHO/UNAIDS advisory panels. Dr. Kilonzo holds a PhD from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, which also awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Science in 2025, and is a Kenyan Elder of the Burning Spear. She has authored over 35 peer-reviewed publications.