Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is Founder and CEO of an award winning NGO and non-profit founded in 2003, called Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) that set up one of the first One Health field programs in the world to protect endangered gorillas and other wildlife.
After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1996, she established Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA)’s first veterinary department. In 2000, she did a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina Zoological Park and North Carolina State University, where masters research on disease issues at the human/wildlife/livestock interface led her to found CTPH in 2003. In 2015, she founded Gorilla Conservation Coffee to support farmers living around habitats where gorillas are found. The most recent award for CTPH is the 2020 Saint Andrews Prize for the Environment.
Dr. Gladys is a National Geographic Explorer, an Ashoka Fellow and Mulago Foundation Henry Arnhold Fellow, and has been featured on CNN African Voices, Chinese Global Television Network Faces of Africa and recently on the National Geographic Women of Impact documentary. She has won the 2008 San Diego Zoo Conservation-in-Action Award, 2009 Whitley Gold Award; 2011 WINGS Women of Discovery and Exploration Humanity Award, 2017 President of Uganda’s Golden Jubilee Award for her contribution to the nation as a conservationist and veterinarian on Women’s Day, 2018 Sierra Club EarthCare Award, 2019 Finalist for the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa, 2020 Uganda Veterinary Association World Veterinary Day Award focussed on One Health approaches and the 2020 Aldo Leopold Award for Mammologists.
She is on the leadership council of Women for the Environment in Africa and Vice President of the African Primatological Society and has sat on a number of Boards including Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, Wildlife Clubs of Uganda, Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Trust, Buganda Heritage and Tourism Board and The Gorilla Organization.