Williams Foundation Scholar Strengthens Health Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the fall of 2020, most health news worldwide focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, but in Nigeria, a cholera surge was about to infect approximately 111,000 people and claim more than 3,600 lives during the following year — a figure exceeding the deaths from COVID-19 in that country for the same period.

Noting that cholera should be a preventable disease and that women and children were disproportionately affected, Monica Gbuchie, MBBS, says this moment was a turning point for her.

“I decided I wanted to strengthen health systems from the ground up,” says Gbuchie, who was finishing her medical degree at Niger Delta University at the time. She subsequently shifted her career direction from surgery to public health, focusing on reproductive, maternal, and child health.

“Women and children are the fabric of society. Their health shapes the well-being of entire communities and nations,” says Gbuchie, the inaugural Tokunbo and Dapo Williams Foundation Scholar. “When we pay attention to maternal and child health, we are protecting our collective future. Yet in a crisis, they are the ones who suffer most due to existing inequities.”

Gbuchie then co-founded the ACT4Her Initiative, a nonprofit which promotes reproductive health and education in underserved Nigerian communities. Her work extends to system strengthening, policy, and community-based interventions.

With a desire to learn how to scale projects and expand services, Gbuchie next set her sights on earning a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, which U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks as the number one school of public health. Yet, she says the cost and logistics to attend were daunting.

“I wanted to put my best foot forward, but it felt like this far-fetched dream. Then, I got the Williams Foundation scholarship. My mom literally screamed when I told her. You can’t imagine how happy I was,” says Gbuchie. “I am very grateful for the investment in me. It was my biggest win of last year.”

“It gives us great pleasure knowing that we are providing Monica Gbuchie with a ladder to climb to the top in public health, as she is the first recipient of our foundation’s scholarship. Our fervent wish is that she will continue to pay it forward,” say donors Tokunbo Williams, MD, and Dapo Williams, MD. “Our main mission is to contribute to capacity building in the specialty of public health in Nigeria.”

Gbuchie is already paying that investment forward, presenting research about understanding contraception use and education in Africa, at the seventh annual International Conference on Family Planning in November 2025.

She has also presented findings from the Purple Umbrella Walk project at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA). This flagship project was created through a collaboration between the Act4Her Initiative, the Nigerian Medical Students’ Association, and other stakeholders. Launched in 2022, it has educated thousands of students about sexual and reproductive health and HIV awareness while also providing HIV testing and counseling services.

At Johns Hopkins, Gbuchie’s classes are in the Women’s and Reproductive Health concentration, and she is also pursuing a Maternal and Child Health certificate.

“I look forward to using the knowledge, skills, and networks I build through this MPH program to advance health equity, strengthen health systems, and improve women’s and reproductive health outcomes across sub-Saharan Africa and beyond,” Gbuchie says.

“I want to be a thought leader in the global health space. Johns Hopkins is giving me the skill set to do that,” she adds.