Prof.NYIRAZINYOYE Laetitia

Prof. Laetitia Nyirazinyoye is a Professor in Public Health at the University of Rwanda, in the Community Health Department of the School of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences. Initially, she was trained as nurse at the Rwamagana School of Nursing and Midwifery (Infirmière accoucheuse A2) from which she graduated in 1996 with Distinction. She received her bachelor’s degree in public health in 2002 at the National University of Rwanda and joined academic staff of the University the same year. In 2007 after receiving her Master of Science in International Development and Technology Transfer, Prof. Laetitia was awarded a PhD in 2011, in International Health and Development with concentration in community health programs at Tulane University. Laetitia has an expertise of more than twenty years in teaching and conducting policy and program evaluations using qualitative and mixed research methods. The focus of her studies is Maternal Child and adolescent health especially the relationship between mental health and human development in a divided society, including the protection of children, adolescents, and women against both exposures to, and increase of trauma from genocide, violence, and HIV/AIDS. She was elected as the Vice-President of the Group of graduates genocides survivors (GAERG) from 2022 to 2024. She has been member of the Executive Committee of the Rwanda National Ethics Committee (RNEC) from 2013 to 2023. From 2011 to 2018, She was the Principal Investigator of a PEPFAR-funded CDC grant supporting SPH in improving quality teaching for service delivery. Since 2006, she has been trained to strengthen capacity of health professionals and policy makers from Eastern and Southern African Countries. In the last fifteen years, Prof Laetitia has supervised more than 10 PhD theses and participated in five PhD thesis evaluation committees at the University of Rwanda, and other Universities including Western University in Canada, and Radboud University in the Netherlands. She continued to develop her teaching skills in distance teaching using recent technologies and Global Health approach, methodologies, and principles to address complex health challenges faced by the people of Rwanda, and other cultures and contexts in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Prof. Laetitia has the training and research experience to support the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement, the Rwanda Biomedical Center, Government development partners, research institutions, and Civil Society Organizations including religious organizations and Genocide survivors’ communities, in implementing research and interventions to improving health and lives of the population in Rwanda and in the World. Prof. Laetitia is currently leading two studies entitled “Promoting mental well-being of children and adolescents through implementation of a school-based mindfulness intervention in Sub-Saharan Africa” and she is leading a study assessing “The post-Genocide role of a religious community in resilience and reconciliation” from a nationwide study of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Genocide against the Tutsi that aims at exploring factors associated with Faith, forgiveness, and family among its members.