Dr. Nanyonga graces our list of 100+ outstanding women nurses and midwives with a decades-long history of much-deserved distinctions for her work caring for children and championing nursing in her home country of Uganda and beyond. Her work to end child sacrifices in Uganda (an effort to earn blessings from ancestors) has helped to alter the way the practice has manifested in her native country.
“She is what I can refer to as a nurse with a difference who has risen through the different levels: the lowest, as a Nursing Aid, to a PhD nurse, to being a Vice-Chancellor. She is an inspiration and has touched the lives of many.”
Dr. Nanyonga is not just a subject matter expert at strengthening health systems in lower and middle-income countries, implementation science research, community health care and higher education leadership; she is an engaging and inspirational speaker and advocate, bringing her expertise and her experience to the masses.
It wasn’t an easy route for Dr. Nanyonga, and her work today is evidence of her fierce commitment to paying it forward: though she says she didn’t have examples, encouragement, or confidence, she says, she paved her way to leadership roles and now, she mentors young women in the nursing profession. Dr. Nanyonga’s success is a critical example that lights the way for millions of women in the global health workforce.
*Dr. Rose Clarke Nanyonga not pictured. PHOTO CREDIT: ICM, Tanzania Midwives Association