Dr. Kechi Achebe is a public health physician, a scientist, and is a globally recognized expert in the health field and the field of international development. She has over 25 years of technical, programmatic, and leadership experience in global health and international development. Her involvement includes working globally to improve the quality of services addressing maternal, newborn, and child health; infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria; health systems strengthening; reproductive health and family planning; food and nutrition; and vulnerable children and families across all populations and age ranges. Her work has also focused on inclusion and promoting global health equity efforts. She has worked to advance global health equity and health priorities around the world – advising community-based organizations, grassroots leaders around the world, and much more.
Dr Achebe is currently the Director in the Office of Global Health and HIV at the U.S. Peace Corps. She joined the United States Government’s agency, Peace Corps as the Director of the office of Global Health and HIV (OGHH) in December of 2020. In this role, she supports policy directions in global health issues – supporting the United States Government and the White House’s National Security Council on their agenda to end the pandemics – COVID 19, Ebola, Mpox, HIV/AIDS and others emerging global health threats. In her current role, Dr Achebe is also responsible for advancing the U.S. international health agenda through participation in multilateral and bilateral forums. She leads the Peace Corps agenda in setting priorities and policies that promote American public health interests worldwide. Dr Achebe is responsible for strengthening Peace Corps support of the U.S. international health agenda through multilateral and bilateral forums. She is responsible for overseeing the agency’s support and relationships with other US government agencies and international institutions as well as policymaking bodies such as the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), and World Health Assembly (WHA).
Prior to joining the United States government in 2020, Dr. Achebe spent the last 20 years leading the health and HIV divisions of Africare and Save the Children USA, both international NGOs, all at headquarters in Washington DC. Serving as Director for the office of Health and HIV/AIDS (OHHA) at Africare and then the Senior Director for HIV/AIDS and TB programs, as well as the team leader for the Global Fund Account Management team at Save the Children USA, she was tireless in providing high-quality technical expertise and international development assistance and leadership in Africa, and all over the world, as well as mobilizing funds successfully, for both organizations. At Save the Children USA, she also led the partnership with the Global Fund in Geneva. Dr Achebe also founded IDR Consults and became the Chief Executive Officer in January 2020. IDR Consults, a global health and advocacy consulting firm provided culturally sensitive multi-sectoral developmental assistance and capacity building to communities around the globe
Dr Achebe is a leader who has worked on the ground in more than 70 countries delivering health programs and mobilizing advocates. Over the course of her career, she has championed policies for access to primary health care services, especially to the most vulnerable groups in society, and has elevated the voices of people at the community level around shared advocacy goals.
Dr. Achebe holds a medical degree from the University of Benin in Nigeria; a master’s degree in Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health, Boston Massachusetts; a fellowship in Infectious Disease Epidemiology from Boston University School of Medicine and Pubic Health, Boston Massachusetts; and a certificate in Leadership from the Yale University School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut, all in the United States of America. She speaks several languages, including elementary French and English Creole, and has lived in three continents –
Africa, Europe and North America.
Charting a visionary approach, she has led and managed several diverse teams of talented professionals in the USA, Africa, Europe, Asia and Middle East, in multicultural and diverse environments. Her strong ability to identify problems and implement programs which improve organizational performance has led to many successful outcomes for the different organizations that she has been involved with and is valued for being a careful listener and thoughtful strategist, leading with grace, empathy, integrity, and respect. She also has a reputation as an inquisitive diplomat that builds and leverages international strategic partnerships. Dr. Achebe has served in an advisory role to board of multinational organizations, grassroot organizations, ad technical working groups.