Harriet Mayanja-Kizza

Harriet Mayanja-Kizza is a Ugandan physician, researcher, and academic administrator. She is the former dean of Makerere University School of Medicine, the oldest medical school in East Africa, established in 1924.

Background and education She was born in the Central Region of Uganda in the 1950s. She holds the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, obtained from Makerere University in 1978. She also holds the degree of Master of Medicine in Internal Medicine, obtained in 1983, also from Makerere. She studied immunology and pathology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, graduating with the degree of Master of Science in those fields in 1999.

Career Mayanja-Kizza has worked as a lecturer in the Department of Internal Medicine at Makerere University Medical School. She has also served as the head of the Department of Internal Medicine, both at the medical school and at Mulago National Referral Hospital, the university's teaching hospital. In November 2010, she was appointed dean of the Makerere Medical School, at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. She has presented widely at national, regional, and international conferences and has published extensively in peer journals. In 2022, she was ranked by the AD Scientific Index as the best scientist in Uganda.

Other considerations Her area of specialization is immunology, focusing on the interaction between AIDS and tuberculosis. Her research focuses on immunopathogenesis, and immune-modulation treatments among patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection and tuberculosis.