Tolbert

G.

Nyenswah

,

DrPH

Tolbert Nyenswah, LLB, MPH a senior research associate, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International health. An internationally recognized legal scholar and a global public health expert. Specializes in public health emergencies preparedness and response, advising on incident management system functionalities. Tolbert has been engaged with several public health emergencies, including, Ebola, Lassa Fever, Zika, Meningitis and currently the COVID-19 response. Nine (9) years fighting endemic malaria. Since COVID-19 some of the major contribution to the COVID-19 response includes the development of a COVID-19 contact tracing course that has over 700,000 enrollment and certification and over 15 million viewers- COVID-19 Contact Tracing Course , Crowdsourcing surveillance course and Harvard University building state capacity. Tolbert appeared on several webinars advising high level political and technical global leaders: CGD, Carey Business School ,Cornell University, JHU Faculty Real time COVID-19 response. Tolbert has been interviewed by: African, North American, Asian, European and South American media, few samples: Washington Post, The HILL , Business Insider, Bloomberg, USA Today, NPR Radio, BBC , Business Insider, VOA News, World Economic Forum, The Philadelphia Inquirer, VOA Africa, The New Yorker, STAT, POLITICO

My current research focuses on Ebola vaccines, detection of persistent Ebola virus in survivors, and transmission dynamics for emerging infectious diseases, especially using One Health (OH) approach. I was named winner of the Bloomberg Hopkins Emerging Leader Award, 2016. In honor of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Centennial. Award was established by Bloomberg Philanthropies to recognize a Bloomberg School student or alumni with the potential to impact public health on a large scale for years to come.
I have been recognized as public health leader both at home and internationally as a leader in Liberia’s successful response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, I have made an enormous impact on public health in disease control programming in West Africa.
A lawyer by training. My work as a public health leader first public health leadership role with the National Malaria Control Program in Liberia, a program that helped to reduce malaria prevalence from 66% in 2005 to 28% in 2011. I became Assistant Minister of Health and Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Prevention in 2012-2015, Deputy Minister of Health for Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Control 2015-2017. The position recognizes my role in bringing an end to the worst Ebola epidemic ever known and my leadership of the incident management system that quickly detected and contained the outbreak. Throughout my career I have consistently demonstrated analytical excellence and strong leadership, notably through effective communication and skilled team building. My leadership has saved thousands of lives in Liberia preventing the Global spread of Ebola. Being a visionary, I led the establishment of Liberia's First National Public Health Institute after the Ebola crisis and became its First Director General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) 2017-2019. The National Public Health Institute of Liberia as a center of excellence to prevent, detect and respond to public health threats in Liberia and West Africa.