Dr. Winifred Ukponu is Associate Director (Global Health Security) at Georgetown Global Health Nigeria. With nearly 20 years of experience in Clinical Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Winifred’s work spans global health security, outbreak management, emergency preparedness and response, infection prevention and control (IPC), surveillance, epidemiology, and case management for infectious diseases.

She has coordinated and evaluated public health programs, including PEPFAR and GHSA initiatives, with organizations such as the Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity at the University of Maryland (CIHEB-UMB) and GU-CGHPI. For the past nine years, Dr. Winifred has provided technical assistance to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control & Prevention (NCDC) in surveillance, case management, emergency response, and IPC. She has also implemented polio projects funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Nigeria.

Dr. Winifred has worked on the Global Fund COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19 RM) project to support pandemic preparedness in African countries, collaborating with governments in Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zambia to establish or strengthen their National Public Health Institutes. Her collaborations with global organizations, including WHO AFRO, Africa CDC, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI), have focused on developing emergency response protocols and IPC guidelines across Africa.

She has led the design and implementation of a 34-week Public Health Emergency Preparedness, Response, and Recovery (PHEPRR) Fellowship program for West Africa and partnered with NCDC and US CDC to pilot Nigeria’s first Public Health Emergency Management Intermediate Course. Dr. Winifred has also contributed to the development of a Clinical Management Fellowship for Lassa Fever with the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital and other institutions. She is currently exploring the use of behavioral science through LISTEN (Local Innovations Scaled Through Enterprise Networks) to address public health issues in collaboration with the Ondo State Government.

Dr. Winifred holds a medical degree from the College of Medicine, University of Ilorin, and a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Lagos State University. She earned a Diploma in Leadership & Management in Health and is a Distinguished Fellow of the US CDC’s IMPACT Program.