Jeanette Dawa (MBChB, MSc, PhD) is a public health specialist/epidemiologist with a background in medicine, public health and infectious disease modelling. She currently works as a medical epidemiologist with Washington State University (WSU) within their Global Health Program based in Nairobi, Kenya. At WSU, among other roles, Jeanette serves as the Center Director for the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases – East and Central Africa (CREID-ECA), which is part of a NIH funded global network of research centers. These research centers are situated in regions around the globe where emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks are likely to occur. In CREID ECA, Jeanette co-ordinates a multi-country Rift Valley Fever (RVF) virus study that is investigating the presence of low-level RVF virus transmission between animals and humans during inter-epidemic periods.
Jeanette has supported the Ministry of Health, Kenya in identifying top priority infectious diseases and their specific triggers that should activate the Kenya Emergency Supply Chain for deployment of medical countermeasures during disease outbreaks. She has also served as an external resource person for the Kenya National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (KENITAG), where she supported the systematic collection, assessment and review of available data to support evidence-based decision making in the field of vaccination. More recently, she has served as a member of the modelling committee advising the Kenyan government on appropriate public health measures during the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020. Jeanette’s interests lie in the use of analytic methods to enhance the utility of surveillance data in decision making, and conducting research that leads to direct changes in practice and health policy.