Chizoba

Barbara

Wonodi

,

MBBS

Dr. Chizoba Wonodi is an Associate Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Nigeria country director at the school’s International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC). She also serves as the director for immunization for the five-year USAID-funded MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership project. She is a public health physician with expertise in immunization program delivery, implementation science research, behavioral science, and primary health care development. Dr. Wonodi has nearly 30 years of experience in public health. Her most recent work focuses on deploying and evaluating childhood, adolescent, and adult vaccines in Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Madagascar, and Haiti. She has led several multi-million-dollar research, implementation, and technical assistance projects that positively impacted vaccination coverage and equity at the country level. Dr. Wonodi has mentored many public health practitioners and researchers through her work.

Dr. Wonodi obtained her medical degree from the University of Benin, Nigeria, and her master's and a doctorate in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as a Gates Scholar. She founded the Women Advocates for Vaccine Access (WAVA), a coalition of Civil Society Organizations in Nigeria advocating for increased uptake of vaccines and sustainable financing of immunization programs. WAVA serves as the secretariat for the national platform, the Expanded Civil Society Initiative for Immunization (ECSII), in Nigeria. Dr. Wonodi is a member of the Coordinating Committee for the Immunization Agenda 2030, the Gavi CSO Constituency Steering Committee, and the CSO representative to the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) for immunization.