Class of 2026: Gati Wambura extends her reach as a ‘global health citizen’

By Haley Tenore

Gati Wambura grew up in Kenya, spent time living in Thailand, earned her bachelor's degree in the United States and completed her master's in Britain. With her Ph.D. this spring from Virginia Commonwealth University, she will bring her global perspective to health policy and research that can transcend borders.

"Coming back to the U.S. was important, because my love for public health started here," said Wambura, whose doctoral studies in healthcare policy and research have been through the VCU School of Public Health's Department of Health Policy. "I got to learn about public health systems that are beyond what I knew before, and kind of fed into my identity as a global health citizen."

As an undergraduate at DePauw University in Indiana, Wambura studied biochemistry and considered medical school. A lecture on public health inspired a new path, and she earned her master's at the University of Bradford in England.

"A lot of my interest surrounded sexual and reproductive health," she said. "But I really wanted to come back to Kenya to pursue a career in public health."

And Wambura did, working in part through the national government in her native country. Her focus then shifted to studying infectious diseases - including rabies, which kills hundreds of Kenyans annually, and how vaccination programs and nationwide surveillance could reduce its impact. She also researched aflatoxin, antimicrobial resistance, water quality, sanitation and hygiene.

Much of that research came through the Kenya Medical Research Institute, whose U.S. partners include the Centers for Disease Control and Infection and Washington State University. Wambura spent some time with WSU, implementing her research, before arriving at VCU in 2021.

"I was always asking myself about how policy affects outcomes … but I didn't have the knowledge to become an independent researcher," she said. "When my friend told me about VCU and the program here, I thought it would be a perfect fit."

Her arrival coincided with the throes of COVID-19, which Wambura said bolstered class discussions that examined the role of research scientists and health policy. And the pandemic didn't slow her academic pursuits.

In addition to leading the student chapter of AcademyHealth, Wambura researched colorectal cancer through a grant from the American Cancer Society. She explored the impact of ACOs - accountable care organizations - that aim to provide patient-centered, lower-cost health care to Medicare and Medicaid recipients.

That work influenced Wambura's dissertation, which also incorporated her longtime passion for maternal health as well as her Kenyan roots. The project focused on maternal and neonatal health outcomes as they relate to healthcare delivery and payment systems - in this case, looking at ACOs in the United States and the free maternal service policy in Kenya, which aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality.

Wambura noted that her goal was not to compare the programs or the two countries. It was meant to explore women going through very similar circumstances but living in very different countries with vastly different healthcare systems.

She thinks of the two as "same-same, but different," a commonly used phrase in Thailand.

"I just wanted to embody my identity in my 'why' as a researcher, and use my knowledge in both to learn [and] just understand the two systems," Wambura said.

That mindset remains as she graduates from VCU to continue her public health journey.

"What I've learned throughout my time is that we're all more alike than we are different," Wambura said. "That's what has fully encompassed my work as a research scientist - understanding that we're more similar than we are different. We're all battling similar things, just in different systems and different contexts."