Growing up in Zambia during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Kalonde Malama, MPH, PhD, lost many close family members to this often-deadly disease. 鈥淭reatment options available in higher resource settings were non-existent where I lived,鈥� he recalls. The unfairness of that disparity set him on a course of study and a lifelong mission to help improve health equity not just in his native country, but throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
An International AIDS Society prize-winning researcher with over ten years of progressive experience in global health research and program management, Malama joined 香蕉视频鈥檚 Ingram School of Nursing (ISoN) as Assistant Professor in August 2024. His tenure-track research position focuses on sexual health equity within Black populations. As he explains, marginalization and stigma due to race, gender and sexual orientation can impact the experiences patients have as they interact with the healthcare system, which in turn, can lead to negative healthcare outcomes. 鈥淢y research is about getting at the heart of these experiences and designing interventions that improve uptake of services, prevention and treatment options.鈥�
Prof. Malama pursuit of higher education took him to the University of Birmingham in the UK, where he obtained a bachelor鈥檚 degree in Biomedical Sciences followed by a master鈥檚 in Public Health. He continued his studies in France, earning a PhD in Public Health from Aix-Marseille Universit茅. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto, where he conducted a longitudinal analysis on factors affecting antiretroviral therapy adherence and viral suppression among 1442 women living with HIV and participating in the Canadian HIV Women鈥檚 Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study.
His experience managing large scale sexual and reproductive health research projects in Zambia, Rwanda, Botswana, Uganda and Canada, deepened Prof. Malama鈥檚 respect for the nursing profession. Every interdisciplinary project he was involved in such as coordinating and training 255 healthcare professionals to provide joint couples HIV counselling, testing and family planning in Zambia, provided firsthand evidence of the critical role nurses play in delivering prevention and treatment interventions. 鈥淣urses truly are the frontline of healthcare in Africa, treating a large volume of patients. While highly valued by the population, they are undervalued by the healthcare infrastructure 鈥� overburdened, overworked and underpaid,鈥� he notes.
Joining the Ingram School of Nursing was a natural progression at this stage of his career. He was enticed by 香蕉视频鈥檚 international reputation for excellence, its well thought-out, comprehensive action plan to address anti-Black racism, and the ISoN鈥檚 commitment to social justice - a key strategic priority for the School. Having attended the International AIDS Conference in Montreal in the summer of 2022, Malama, who is fluently bilingual, loved the vibe here 鈥� the festivals, the food, and the people.
With 30 peer-reviewed published articles to his credit, Prof. Malama is co-principal investigator on a research grant titled Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science in Africa (DELTAS Africa). He hopes to collaborate with ISoN colleagues in the development of a course on health equity and social justice. Another goal is to create an exchange program between the ISoN and healthcare sites in Africa, to provide opportunities to learn from each other and counter the common misconception that healthcare in Africa is inefficient. 鈥淭he truth is the opposite. Healthcare in Africa is severely under-resourced, yet those who work in the system continue to do so much with so little,鈥� he observes.
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Photo: Kalonde Malama (left) congratulates PhD student Robera Berhanu on winning the Tomlinson Award, offered by McGill's Graduate and Post-doctoral Studies.
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