PROF. EHIMARIO IGUMBOR

Prof. Ehimario Igumbor is a global health leader, epidemiologist, and implementation scientist with over 20 years of experience shaping and delivering public health research and programmes across Africa. His career spans academia, international public health organizations, and national health agencies, with notable contributions in Nigeria and South Africa.

Prof. Igumbor has a strong track record at the interface of research, policy, and implementation, including technical support to national public health agencies such as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), and leadership roles in multi-country research initiatives and programmes across Africa.

He began his professional journey in academia, progressing to Full Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health in South African universities. From 2012 to 2019, he served as Senior Public Health Specialist and Lead for Epidemiological Surveys, Surveillance and Operations Research at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in South Africa. In 2019, he relocated to Nigeria and served as Senior Epidemiology Advisor to the Director General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) during the national COVID-19 response. Since then, he has worked as an Independent Consultant in public health and epidemiology subsequently taking up appointment as Chief Executive Officer of the International Foundation Against Infectious Diseases in Nigeria (IFAIN) in November 2025. At IFAIN, he leads institutional strategy, research programmes, and partnerships focused on infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), surveillance systems, and health systems strengthening.

Prof. Igumbor's expertise centers on health information systems, epidemiological estimations and modeling of infectious diseases, burden of disease analysis, large-scale health surveys, and public health capacity development. He has supervised over 40 Masters and Doctoral students and holds academic appointments as Extraordinary Professor in the School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Infectious Disease Research, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Nigeria and Honorary Professor at the Walter Sisulu University Medical School, South Africa.

He serves on multiple national and international advisory bodies, including Nigeria’s National Health Research Committee (NHRC), the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum, the Health Commission of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group amongst others. He has advised organizations such as WHO, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNICEF, and the World Bank, and has contributed to national health and education policy documents.

Prof. Igumbor is widely published, authoring/co-authoring over 150 scientific outputs, and sits on editorial boards of journals including Archives of Public Health, Academia Medicine, and Journal of Public Health in Africa. His work emphasizes evidence-informed policy, equitable global health partnerships, and capacity strengthening in LMICs.
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