PEOPLE AND PLACES : THE LIFE PROFILE OF PROFESSOR KWASI TORPEY, DEAN OF UNIVERSITY OF GHANA SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH.

Kwasi Torpey is a Professor of Family Health and Dean of the University of Ghana’s School

of Public Health, with over 26 years’ experience as a physician, scientist, researcher, program director and trainer.

He received his MBChB from the University of Ghana Medical

School and his Master of Public Health in International Health from the Netherlands School

of Public Health. He obtained his PhD in the Institute of Tropical Medicine and the

University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Prof Torpey is a fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and

the West Africa College of Physicians.

He is Honorary Associate Professor of the London

School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an Associate Fellow of the Amsterdam

Institute of Global Health and Development in the Academic Medical Centre at the

University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

The Professor of Family Health is also the Scientific Chair of International Conference on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis, and Prevention Research in Resource -limited Settings (INTEREST); the first African to serve in that role.

His work has focused largely on infectious diseases particularly HIV, TB, hepatitis and more recently

COVID - 19. Non - Communicable Diseases (NCDs), and reproductive health systems are also key areas of his research.

Prior to joining the University of Ghana, Kwasi had a long and distinguished career working

for Family Health International (FHI360), an international NGO based in the United States, spanning over a decade and half.

There, he implemented public health programmes in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Sudan, Papua

New Guinea, Zimbabwe and Zambia for a wide range of clients.

Notable among the clients included the United States

Agency for International Development, United States Centres of Disease Control and

Prevention, World Bank, UK Department for International Development, and the United Nations donor funded projects and Ministries of Health in sub - Saharan Africa. 

Within Family Health

International, Prof Torpey served in the following roles; Deputy Chief of Party and Technical Director

for the $443million USAID - funded Strengthening Integrated Delivery of HIV/AIDS

(SIDHAS) project in Nigeria.

Others were Senior Regional Technical Advisor (Africa Region), and Director, Technical Support for Zambia. 

Across these positions he has provided technical support to country programs in HIV prevention, care and treatment. He served as the clinical lead to design and implement the START program in Ghana. 

This was one of the first public

sector HIV treatment programs in Africa and culminated in the access of HIV treatment in

Ghana. He subsequently provided technical assistance in the expansion of HIV treatment in Zambia, Nigeria, and several sub-Saharan African countries. 

During this period, Legon's Dean of Public Health led several proposals raising over USD 1.5billion in grants for HIV and other public health

program implementation in Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana,Tanzania, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. (accounting for over $900million).

Kwasi also served in the Ghana Police Service at the Police Hospital as a public health

physician and a deputy of the Ghana Police AIDS Control Programme. He was involved in early efforts to control HIV among most at risk population within the Police. 

Prof Torpey has a strong research portfolio successfully winning grants from Ghana Health

Service, World Health Organization, Global Fund, World Bank, National Institute of

Health/Fogarty International, GIZ, USAID among others. 

Since 2016, he has successfully

won over 24 grants totaling over $10million dollars (1.5million/per year). 

This is the end of part 1. Watch out for part two (2) soon.

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