Choolwe Nkwemu-Jacobs, PhD, is a Global Health expert and Epidemiologist with extensive experience in research and academia. She currently serves as as Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Zambia and is the Co-founder of Women in Global Health Zambia. Choolwe is committed to advancing equitable health outcomes and improving access to healthcare services through the application of robust epidemiological methods, mixed methodologies, and implementation science. Her research work span a range of critical public health issues, including women’s health, gender equity, newborn and adolescent health, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), HIV/AIDS, and the health workforce.
She is the Principal Investigator at the University of Zambia for IS4NCDs, an Erasmus+-funded collaborative project focused on strengthening implementation science education and institutional capacity for NCD care. In addition, she leads Zambia's Countdown to 2030 country collaboration, which tracks progress on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH-N) indicators, as well as gender-related metrics. She also leads the evaluation of the implementation of the Reaching Every Community/Reaching Every District (REC/RED) strategy within Zambia’s integrated Primary Health Care framework. Choolwe received her education from the University of Zambia, the University of Otago (New Zealand), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), and Johns Hopkins University (USA). She is also a faculty fellow at Washington University and an alumna of Harvard University and Vanderbilt University.