Dr. Christine K. Nalwadda is a Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Department of Community Health and Behavioural Sciences (CHBS) at the School of Public Health, Makerere University. She holds a PhD in Public Health from a joint twinning program between Makerere University, Uganda, and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. With over two decades of experience in academia and public health research, Dr. Nalwadda is deeply engaged in teaching, research, mentorship, and university service.
Her primary research interests lie in maternal and newborn health, sexual reproductive as well as community health, with a strong emphasis on qualitative methodologies. Dr. Nalwadda has contributed to several multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research collaborations with esteemed institutions such as the Karolinska Institutet, Zambia Institute of Public Health, Yale University, University of Toronto, University of Oxford, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the University of Western Australia. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the evaluation of the Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) pilot study to increase access and demand for family planning implants in rural Uganda under the broad Self-Care Project for the Ministry of Health.
As a recipient of multiple fellowships, Dr. Nalwadda is an alumna of the Africa Research Excellence Fund (AREF) and a second-cohort Fellow of the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx). She has also completed extensive professional training in Doctoral student supervision, research ethics, grant writing, scientific writing, impact evaluation, qualitative methods, and public health systems—across institutions in Uganda, Sweden, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.
She has served in progressive academic leadership roles, including Acting Dean of the School of Public Health on multiple occasions. In her leadership capacity, Dr. Nalwadda oversees departmental strategy, supervises graduate research, and contributes to curriculum development, faculty development, and community engagement. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications in the areas of maternal and newborn health, health systems strengthening, and implementation science.
Dr. Nalwadda is a grounded, interdisciplinary public health researcher with a strong background in Oral health clinical practice, health service delivery, media engagement, and project coordination. She continues to mentor the next generation of public health leaders while advancing community-responsive and evidence-based solutions to Uganda’s most pressing health challenges.
In addition to promoting evidence-based and community-responsive solutions to Uganda’s most urgent health issues, she continues to mentor the upcoming generation of public health leaders.
Email: cnalwadda@musph.ac.ug
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