Dr. Abdisalan Mohamed Noor – Board Chairman

Dr. Noor graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Surveying from the University of Nairobi in 1999. Following an internship at the International Research on Livestock Institute he joined the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme in 2000. He completed his PhD on Spatial Epidemiology to develop models of access to and use of government health services in Kenya in 2005 with the Open University, UK and the University of Oxford, UK. In 2007 he was awarded a Research Training Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust to investigate the spatial and socio-economic determinants of access to and use of health interventions among rural African communities, particularly the understanding and modeling of the dynamics of insecticide treated net uptake. In 2009 Noor was awarded one of the most prestigious regional science awards, the African Union Young National Scientist of the Year award. Noor’s research interests now include new elements of changing malaria risk in Africa – the definition, measurement and spatial modeling of malaria risk in areas of low transmission. For this work Noor was awarded a five-year Intermediate Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust UK in 2010.

Noor is an honorary lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Department of Geospatial Engineering & Space Technology, Technical Advisor to the Kenyan Government’s Division of Malaria Control and supports other Ministries of Health in the region notably in Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan. He is a member of the Roll Back Malaria Monitoring and Evaluation Resource Group. He is currently an honorary Visiting Fellow at the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford and serves on the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme’s Executive Strategic Development Committee.

Prof. Edward K. Mburugu -Board Member

Professor Mburugu, received his BA degree in 1971 in the University of Nairobi. He worked briefly in the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) of the University of Nairobi as a junior research fellow in 1972. Later that year, he took up graduate studies in the United States in the University of Wisconsin at Madison having been awarded a fellowship by Population Council, leading to attainment of M Sc degree in Sociology and Demography in 1974. He received his doctorate (PhD.) in 1978 from the same university on another fellowship awarded by Rockefeller Foundation. On receiving the Ph.D., Professor Mburugu was appointed to lecturer position in the Department of Sociology and Social Work of the University of Nairobi in October 1978 and was later appointed to Senior Lecturer position in 1986. In 1991, he got another promotion and became Associate Professor of Sociology. He was promoted to position of Full Professor of Sociology in 2005. Professor Mburugu was the chairman of the Department of Sociology in the University of Nairobi from 1987 to 1990. In 1996, he took a one-year appointment as a Senior Research Fellow with Population Council where he also acted as Director of the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) in Nairobi. Later in the University of Nairobi, he became Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts, a position he held from 2002 to 2011.

Professor Mburugu has undertaken considerable research in areas of fertility and family planning, population movements and land use practices, evaluation of development programmes, and impact of basic services for the urban poor. He has publications in form of chapters in books and articles in reputable international journals. This is in addition to supervision of many students for PhD and Masters research work.. He has also co-edited a book entitled: An African Perspective on Development (1994). In 1998 he came up with major findings on “Contraceptive Prevalence in Kenya in a Time Perspective: Analysis of Data from Kenya’s Demographic Surveys (1977-1993)”, African Population and Health Research Center’s (APHRC) Working Paper Series (1998). He has also come up with a major report on “Customary Mechanisms of Conflict Management among Pastoralists in Northern Kenya” and a publication on “Families in Kenya” as part of a study in a project on World Families

Mrs Lorna Ottaro

Mrs. Lorna Ottaro graduated in 1972 with Hons. in BSc from Makerere University, and in 1973 she was awarded a Post Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Nairobi. Between 1975 and 1992, she was Principal in several secondary schools, after which she joined Thogoto Teacher’s College as the Dean of Curriculum. Mrs. Ottaro joined Kenya National Commission for UNESCO in 1995, where she served as Deputy Secretary General up to 1999. She served in various capacities between 1999 and 2003 at the Ministry of Education.

Currently, Mrs. Ottaro is the Executive Director at the Millennium Global Education Servcies, a center for international education placement, counseling and career development and training. She is also the Chairperson, Mfano Community Development Strategies- an NGO, and Chairperson, Women of Integrity Social and Welfare Organization based in Nairobi.

Mrs. Lorna Ottaro represents Public Interest in the NCPD Board of Directors.

Other Board Members

All other Members of the Board are Ex-Officio meaning, the office holder at any particular time automatically represents the organization in the NCPD Board. They include: