Verah Vashti Okeyo (She / Her)

I am a communications specialist, journalist and teacher with a collective experience of 15 years in both industries with skills in writing, communication, and project management experience. In addition, I have experience supervising staff, working within established brand standards in global health and international development. I am the communications manager for John Hopkins Affiliate, Jhpiego, and I am in charge of communications and engagement for 18 projects and 11 donors. While global health and general science are my communications mainstays, I have experience in research, gender, humanitarian organisations, and creative and education sectors. My career in media and communications began at East and Central Africa's most prominent media house (Nation Media Group) as a global health reporter and editor. The newsroom built my social capital in the continent's global health community as I crisscrossed the continent to report on major global health events, such as disease outbreaks. In the newsroom, my innovations and enterprise led to the founding of the diversity Equity and Inclusion desk, more than 300,000$ in funding during the pandemic for in-depth reporting on health systems from Microsoft, Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, International Centre for Journalists and Wits University. After taking core modules from LSE's Health Systems Department, my postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics in the UK deepened my understanding of health systems in the developing world. These skills have come in handy in straddling the three worlds – communications, journalism and teaching— where I have participated in media training for Africa CDC, Agakhan University Graduate School of Media Studies and The African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC).