Meet AMREF's new Director General: Dr. Teguest Guerma
On Friday, June 4, 2010 Dr. Guerma, met with staff at AMREF’s Headquarters. This was at a ‘tea’ hosted at the end of her first week at the Headquarters. The event which brought together staff based in Nairobi - including the Flying Doctor Emergency Service, representatives from the Kenya Country Program and AMREF Headquarters, provided an opportunity for the ‘handing over’ of the AMREF family by the outgoing Director General Dr. Michael Smalley to Dr. Guerma as she starts her journey at the helm of Africa’s leading health development organization.
In a symbolic gesture, Dr. Smalley handed over a copy of AMREF’s Corporate Strategy to Dr. Guerma as he came to the end of his term at AMREF.
“I hand over to you over 53 years of history, heritage and excellence. I have now handed over the ‘baton’ to you, Dr. Guerma,” He said. Dr. Smalley was then presented with a ‘mosaic from all AMREF staff, which was created by one of us - Helen Kairu of the Community Partnering directorate.
Upon accepting the leadership of the AMREF family, Dr. Guerma (who tells us that we should call her Teguest) started by telling the staff present a little bit about herself - the sort of thing that one would not read about her anywhere else.
“Teguest means patience. For some reason, my mother appears to have been the patient one and not me. I left Ethiopia at the age of 19 and since then I have been an international citizen. My roots are in Africa though,” she said. “I have come back to my roots to serve with passion, enthusiasm and a commitment to improve health in Africa.”
Dr. Guerma went on to reiterate that she is coming into the organization with great expectations.
She said "I am coming to succeed," and that her main focus towards improving the health of the african people will be to produce results. In order to accomplish this, she appealed to the AMREF staff and donors to help her with this important task. She reminded all, that we have important roles to play in pursuit of the AMREF vision.
During her first week at AMREF, Dr. Guerma spent time getting to know the AMREF family. In her first three days, she met representatives of the international board, staff and even some members of the family of one of AMREF’s founders, Sir Michael Wood.
Dr. Guerma will be visiting other AMREF offices in the near future and staff across the organisation will have the chance to interact with her as she settles into the AMREF family.
Distinguished Career:
After joining WHO in 1989, Dr. Guerma served at country and regional levels and also at the organization’s Headquarters in Geneva. Her experience included stints in Congo, Nepal, and Botswana, where she was the Country Representative. Whilst in Botswana she was instrumental in putting HIV/AIDS on the Government agenda and helped establish the National AIDS Council.
As the Representative at the UN Headquarters in New York, Dr. Guerma led a variety of new initiatives to promote awareness of African health issues in the UN and the greater New York area, including resource mobilization in collaboration with partners from private sector.
Since 2004, Dr. Guerma has served as the Associate Director of the HIV/AIDS Department at WHO Geneva where she co-led the 3x5 initiative and has also spent a sustained period as Acting Head of the Department. Her experience in global public health will add great value to AMREF’s already illustrious reputation as a leading African health and development organization.
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