AGPAHI appoints Dr. Sekela David Mwakyusa as New Executive Director

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation is happy to announce the appointment of Dr. Sekela David Mwakyusa as the new Executive Director of the Ariel Glaser Pediatric AIDS Healthcare Initiative (AGPAHI).

AGPAHI is one of three independent national civil society organizations (CSO) that EGPAF supported in 2011 as part of PEPFAR’s Track 1.0 antiretroviral therapy (ART) program to rapidly scale up HIV care and treatment in low resource countries. All participating CSO are national organizations governed by autonomous boards and affiliated to EGPAF with shared missions, logos, and brands. As part of this model, AGPAHI has seen great growth and is recognized as a leading HIV organizations in Tanzania with funding from CDC, USAID and UNFPA.

Since 2011, AGPAHI works with and through the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to strengthen the programmatic, operational, and administrative capacity of regional, district and site health workers and managers. Through technical assistance and sub-grants, AGPAHI strengthens HIV, TB and RCH clinical services and linkages, laboratories, supply chain management, data collection and use, financial management, and human resources at lower levels.

In the last four years AGPAHI has achieved great results in HIV prevention, care and treatment, reproductive health, and TB service delivery. Between October 2011 and September 2015, AGPAHI reached over 748,711 pregnant women with services and tested 447,414 for HIV. Of HIV positive women, 80 percent received ARVs, along with 61 percent of infants. As of September 2015, AGPAHI supports 47,292 patients in HIV care and 42,885 patients on treatment, including 2,990 children between 0-14, at 336 sites.

Dr. Mwakyusa is coming to AGPAHI at an exciting time and will build on the strong foundation laid by the former Executive Director Laurean Rugambwa Bwanakunu to lead AGPAHI into a new phase of leadership and program management.

Dr. Mwakyusa has more than 10 years of work experience in HIV/AIDs and project and health systems management in Tanzania. For the last 6 years, Dr. Mwakyusa was the Maryland Global Initiatives Tanzania Country Director and before being elevated to Country Director she worked with the University of Maryland, Baltimore School of Medicine as the Country Program Manager and Medical Director for the AIDSRELIEF project. Previously she worked with Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiatives and was seconded to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (NACP) as the Pediatric HIV Advisor. Outside of work, she is an advocate for the health and wellbeing of children and the current President of Pediatric Association of Tanzania (PAT) and board member of Maryland Global Initiatives Tanzania.

In addition to her excellent experience, Dr. Mwakyusa is a Medical Doctor graduate from Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, holds a Masters in Medicine – Pediatrics and Child Health from the same University.

We are excited to have Dr. Mwakyusa onboard to guide AGPAHI in this next phase as we work towards achieving our shared mission to end pediatric HIV/AIDS.