Empowering through Education

Dr. Wezi Msisha is an international public health specialist whose work focuses on improving the lives of poor and vulnerable individuals in low and middle-income countries. Her early experience as a nurse-midwife in Malawi, and then in the US shaped her interest in the interaction between the social and economic environment, and the health and wellbeing of women and children. Those experiences informed her subsequent involvement in service delivery programs addressing the health of vulnerable populations in urban U.S. settings, Eurasia, and South Asia.

Dr. Msisha is currently a Senior Health Specialist with the World Bank based in South Africa. In her current role she is responsible for managing a US$500 million multisectoral nutrition and maternal child health project and a $512 million health systems improvement project in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is working to prepare a nutrition program to address childhood malnutrition in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

Immediately prior to her current assignment, she spent 4 years in Afghanistan, as Program Manager of the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, an $11.5 billion trust fund financed by over 30 donor countries to support the development needs of Afghanistan. She joined the World Bank in 2007, through the Young Professionals Program, first working as a Health Specialist supporting the implementation of health sector reforms, nutrition programs, and analytic studies in various countries including Bosnia, Romania, and Uzbekistan, in the Europe and Central Asia region. From 2013 to 2015, she was responsible for leading the design, and implementation of health sector reform, and health service delivery projects in Armenia, and Tajikistan, as a Senior Health Specialist with the World Bank.

She earned a Diploma in Nursing and Midwifery from the University of Malawi. Dr. Msisha also has a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Howard University, a Master’s in Public Health from the George Washington University and a Doctor of Science in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.

In addition to professional endeavors, Wezi has been involved with efforts to support several schools in urban and rural Malawi through provision of books, and school supplies. All of these activities underpin her passion and desire for improved opportunities for people in low-income and developing countries.