Liberia: Former NPHIL Director Dr. Tolbert Nyenswah Takes Key Role at Africa CDC to Lead Pandemic Preparedness

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Dr. Tolbert Nyenswah, Liberia’s former Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), has been appointed Director of Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPPR) at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), reinforcing the continental body’s efforts to strengthen health security across Africa.

By Gerald C. Koinyeneh

Dr. Nyenswah brings over 20 years of experience in epidemic control, health system strengthening, and emergency response management. He is widely recognized for his leadership during Liberia’s 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak and for serving as the founding Director General of NPHIL, where he established Liberia’s first public health institute and built critical surveillance and outbreak response systems.

In his new role at Africa CDC, Nyenswah will lead initiatives aimed at accelerating the implementation of the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty Agenda, including pandemic preparedness strategies, rapid response mechanisms, and coordination with member states to strengthen continent-wide resilience against infectious diseases.

A Globally Respected Public Health Expert

Dr. Nyenswah’s expertise extends beyond Liberia. He is a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a researcher at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), and has served as a senior consultant for the World Bank Pandemic Fund’s Technical Advisory Panel. He also leads PandemicShield, LLC, a global health consultancy firm based in Delaware, USA, and has contributed to multiple international public health initiatives addressing Ebola, Lassa fever, Zika, COVID-19, Mpox, and other high-threat pathogens.

He has authored and co-authored 107 peer-reviewed scientific publications in top journals including The Lancet Global Health and The New England Journal of Medicine.

His book, Collapse and Resiliency: The Inside Story of Liberia’s Unprecedented Ebola Response, is the first authored by an African scientist who led the outbreak response. For his leadership during the Ebola crisis, Nyenswah was awarded Liberia’s Order of the African Redemption with the rank of Grand Commander.

Strengthening Africa’s Health Security Architecture

The appointment of Nyenswah, along with other senior Africa CDC leaders, reflects a strategic push to reinforce continental capacity in pooled procurement, immunization, digital health, maternal and child health, and pandemic preparedness. Other new appointees include experts from The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burundi, Malawi, and Botswana, bringing decades of experience in global health, emergency preparedness, and health system innovation.

Dr. Nyenswah’s appointment underscores Africa CDC’s commitment to leveraging proven leadership and technical expertise to build resilient, people-centred public health systems capable of responding to current and future health threats.

A Legacy of Public Health Leadership

Before joining Africa CDC, Nyenswah served as Assistant Minister of Health for Disease Prevention and Deputy Minister of Health for Disease Surveillance and Epidemic Control in Liberia. He has also advised U.S. and global health authorities on pandemic response, contact tracing, and disease surveillance systems. His work has contributed to significant reductions in malaria prevalence, strengthened epidemic control measures, and expanded open-source training initiatives, including a global contact tracing course with over 1.4 million enrollments.

With this appointment, Dr. Nyenswah is poised to apply his extensive expertise to strengthening Africa’s pandemic preparedness and ensuring rapid, coordinated responses to emerging infectious threats across the continent.