Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an award-winning NGO that protects endangered gorillas and other wildlife through One Health approaches.
After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1996, she established Uganda Wildlife Authority’s first veterinary department. In 2000, she did a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina Zoological Park and North Carolina State University, where masters research on disease at the human/wildlife/livestock interface led her to found CTPH in 2003. In 2015, she founded Gorilla Conservation Coffee to support farmers living around habitats where gorillas are found. CTPH’s most recent award is the 2020 Saint Andrews Prize for the Environment.
Dr. Gladys is a National Geographic Explorer, Ashoka Fellow and Mulago Foundation Henry Arnhold Fellow. She has been featured on CNN African Voices, Chinese Global Television Network Faces of Africa, BBC, Animal Planet and National Geographic. She has won the 2008 San Diego Zoo Conservation-in-Action Award, 2009 Whitley Gold Award; 2011 WINGS Women of Discovery and Exploration Humanity Award, 2017 President of Uganda’s Golden Jubilee Award for her contribution to the nation as a conservationist and veterinarian, 2018 Sierra Club EarthCare Award, 2019 Finalist for the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa, 2020 Uganda Veterinary Association World Veterinary Day Award and 2020 Aldo Leopold Award for Mammologists.
She has served on the IUCN East and Southern Africa Regional (ESARO) Committee since 2016, and in 2020 joined the Advisory Committee of the International Livestock Research Institute One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre for Africa (OHRECA); She is on the leadership council of Women for the Environment in Africa, and Vice President of the African Primatological Society. She has sat on the boards of Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, Buganda Heritage and Tourism Board and currently serving on the boards of Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Trust, Wildlife Clubs of Uganda and The Gorilla Organization.