Dr. Emelda Okiro heads the Population Health Unit within the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya. Her team aims to understand determinants of health transitions and vulnerabilities at fine scales, evaluate healthcare access, and work to develop the science around using routine health information across Africa and embed the use of evidence for national ministries' decision-making. Before this position, Emelda was a Program Officer/Gates Fellow within the Global Health Team at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has previously worked on projects that have evaluated the public health impact of malaria control and anti-retroviral treatment programs while at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation-IHME and developing primary health care strategies at Philips Research Africa. Emelda is on the BMC Medicine Editorial Board and the TDR Scientific & Technical Advisory Committee. Emelda has a PhD in Epidemiology, has been awarded two internationally competitive Wellcome Trust (UK) Fellowships and is widely published.