DR. Gladys' story
DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA
In the legacy of the late Dr Dian Fossey, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has become one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa. She is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a 20-year-old nonprofit organization that promotes biodiversity conservation by improving the quality of life of people and wildlife to enable them to coexist in and around protected areas in Africa. She became an Ashoka Fellow in 2007 for merging Uganda’s wildlife management and rural public health programs to create common resources for both people and animals. Dr. Gladys trained as a veterinarian at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College. Having set up the first veterinary unit at Uganda Wildlife Authority, she went on to complete a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State university and North Carolina Zoological Park in USA. These experiences led her to found CTPH.
DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA
In the legacy of the late Dr Dian Fossey, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has become one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa. She is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a 20-year-old nonprofit organization that promotes biodiversity conservation by improving the quality of life of people and wildlife to enable them to coexist in and around protected areas in Africa. She became an Ashoka Fellow in 2007 for merging Uganda’s wildlife management and rural public health programs to create common resources for both people and animals. Dr. Gladys trained as a veterinarian at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College. Having set up the first veterinary unit at Uganda Wildlife Authority, she went on to complete a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State university and North Carolina Zoological Park in USA. These experiences led her to found CTPH.
In 1996, when Kalema-Zikusoka was 26, she was appointed the veterinary officer for the Uganda National Parks, which later merged with the Game Department to become the Uganda Wildlife Authority that same year. She was the first person to hold that position. At the time, Bwindi gorillas numbered about 300 whereas in 2018 a count of 459 was sufficient to downgrade the mountain gorilla subspecies to endangered from critically endangered. She pioneered the first wildlife translocations to restock Uganda’s national parks following 15 years of poaching during Uganda’s civil wars.
WALKING WITH GORILLAS
For the past 28 years, I have dedicated my life to protecting the endangered mountain gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and supporting other wildlife conservation efforts in Uganda and beyond.
My memoir Walking with Gorillas: The Journey of an African Wildlife Vet” was published in March 2023 in USA. It is about my personal journey becoming a conservationist, a wildlife veterinarian, a public health advocate and a policy maker.
DR. GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA
In the legacy of the late Dr Dian Fossey, Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has become one of the leading conservationists and scientists working to save the endangered mountain gorillas of East Africa. She is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), a 20-year-old nonprofit organization that promotes biodiversity conservation by improving the quality of life of people and wildlife to enable them to coexist in and around protected areas in Africa. She became an Ashoka Fellow in 2007 for merging Uganda’s wildlife management and rural public health programs to create common resources for both people and animals. Dr. Gladys trained as a veterinarian at the University of London’s Royal Veterinary College. Having set up the first veterinary unit at Uganda Wildlife Authority, she went on to complete a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State university and North Carolina Zoological Park in USA. These experiences led her to found CTPH.
