07/07/2025
Our own Chair
Dr. Patricia Katowa-Mukwato: A Silent Hero in Zambia’s Fight for Better Healthcare
When most people think of healthcare heroes, they imagine doctors in hospitals or nurses on the frontlines. But behind every well-trained health worker, there’s someone working just as hard to shape the systems that educate, prepare, and support them. Dr. Patricia Katowa-Mukwato is one of those unsung heroes a woman whose work is helping to strengthen Zambia’s healthcare system from the ground up.
As a respected academic at the University of Zambia, Dr. Katowa-Mukwato has spent years focusing on the things that matter most to ordinary Zambians: making healthcare more accessible, ensuring our nurses and doctors are properly trained, and improving infection control to keep patients safe. From 2016 to 2023, she has led groundbreaking research aimed at solving real-life problems not from a distance, but from deep within our own communities.
Her research has asked bold, necessary questions:
• Are our future pharmacists and nurses being taught how to prevent infections properly?
• Do our hospitals have enough protective gear for nurses and midwives especially during health crises like COVID-19?
• How ready were our schools when the pandemic forced learning online?
• Are our medical students confident and capable when it comes to hands-on care?
These aren’t just academic questions they touch the lives of every Zambian. If you’ve ever waited in line at a clinic, worried about catching an infection at the hospital, or wondered if your nurse had the right equipment, then you’ve already felt the weight of the problems Dr. Katowa-Mukwato is working to fix.
One of her proudest achievements is helping to build a new, competency-based doctoral program at the University of Zambia a major step forward in training health experts who can lead with knowledge, compassion, and skill. She’s also investigated why so many women in remote areas struggle to access maternal healthcare, shining a light on inequalities that need urgent attention.
Her work doesn’t stop at Zambia’s borders either. She’s played a role in broader African studies, helping to strengthen the way health professionals are taught across the continent.
Dr. Katowa-Mukwato’s legacy is clear: better-educated health professionals, safer hospitals, stronger policies, and ultimately, better healthcare for all. She may not be on your TV screen or at your local clinic, but her influence is there in the hands of every well-trained doctor, in every rural hospital that gets a little more support, and in the hope that every Zambian deserves: that when you fall ill, someone knowledgeable and prepared will be there to help you.
This is the kind of hero we need. And she’s been right here with us all