Protecting endangered Gorillas and other wildlife through one Health approaches, the story of Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka

My Guest today is the Founder and CEO of award wining NGO Conservation Through Public Health, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka. Her NGO protects endangered gorillas and other wildlife through One Health approaches. In today’s conversation she discusses the need for the tourism sector to make conservation a cardinal pillar of the industry and sheds light on the initiatives her NGO and other partners have engaged in to improve the lives of communities as well as the well-being of the gorillas. 

Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is the Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an award wining NGO that protects endangered gorillas and other wildlife through One Health approaches.

After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1996, she established Uganda Wildlife Authority’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 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.

CTPH’s most recent award is the 2020 Saint Andrews Prize for the Environment. Dr. Gladys is a National Geographic Explorer and winner of the 2009 Whitley Gold Award and 2018 Sierra Club EarthCare Award and 2017 Golden Jubilee Medal from the President of Uganda. In 2020, she was awarded the Uganda Veterinary Association World Veterinary Day Award and Aldo Leopold Award for Mammologists. In 2021 she was recognised by Avance Media among 100 most influential women in Africa and  recently won the UNEP Champions of the Earth Award in the category of Science and Innovation.

She is the current Chairperson of the Africa Chapter of the Explorers Club, on the leadership council of Women for the Environment in Africa, and Vice President of the African Primatological Society. She has recently been appointed to the World Health Organization Special Advisory Group for the Origin of Novel Pathogens (WHO SAGO).