Dr Monica Musenero

Title: Minister | Science, Technology and Innovation

Monica Musenero Masanza, DVM, MS, MPH – Dr. Monica Musenero is a diversely trained and skilled Consultant and Scientist with extensive national and international experience. She has previously worked with Makerere University as an Assistant Lecturer, the Uganda Ministry of Health as the Assistant Commissioner, Epidemiology and Surveillance, and Principal Program Officer with Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET). She spent 3 years as Field Coordinator with the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone, as one of the experts who played key roles and was internationally acclaimed for the expertise and heroic efforts in bringing the West Africa Ebola outbreak under control, which earned her formal recognition by both the Sierra Leonean and Uganda governments. In Uganda, she has been at the frontline of the design and implementation of the highly successful Epidemic preparedness and Response system and was key in response to all the Ebola and Marburg outbreaks in the country since 2007.

Dr. Musenero did her graduate studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, USA where she obtained an MS Science (majoring in Microbiology, with Immunology and Molecular Biology and research on Vaccine development). She went on to obtain a Master’s in Public Health from Makerere University, specializing in Field Epidemiology. Monica has been a central figure in making the One Health movement a reality in Uganda and the African region. She introduced the first multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary team including Anthropologists and Sociologists, creating interventions that drastically contained Plague outbreaks in the country. She has served as Technical Advisor for the USAID funded One Health Work Force Program.

Dr. Musenero is currently the Minsiter of Science, Technology and Innovation under the Office of the President, Senior Presidential Advisor on Epidemics and and one of the key players in Uganda’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.