Isaac Ejakhegbe

Isaac Ejakhegbe, has seven years of experience in the nonprofit sector with a focus on health promotion, maternal health, as well as issues on gender equality and HIV/AIDS. Isaac earned a Bachelor's of Science in Medical Physiology from Nigeria. Then a master's in Public health from the University of Ghana and was awarded the best graduating student of his set. Isaac's MSc thesis was on gender equality, women empowerment and contraceptive use in the Western Region of Ghana. Isaac also earned a clinical research and public health certificate from the Harvard School of Public Health (online-based). Previously, he has worked at the Africa Journal of Reproductive Health, and then as a program officer at the Initiative for the rehabilitation and care for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, and was involved in several projects on commercial sex workers. Isaac has also volunteered for UNICEF as a peer educator, where he helped to improve the SRHR of adolescent students in Northern Nigeria.

Isaac currently works as a State Coordinator and Program Officer at Wellbeing Foundation Africa. He is responsible for monitoring and evaluating the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) collaborative project for improving the quality of care on maternal and newborn health in Kwara State Nigeria, strengthening family planning (FP) into mamacare project, and managing the Alive and Thrives grant to improve infant and young child feeding practices in high-burden Kaduna and Lagos communities, Nigeria. In 2016, Isaac was named a winner of the "120 Under 40: The New Generation of Family Planning Leaders" Award. Isaac is also passionate about health blogging and his article has appeared in the Lancet Global Health Blog, Maternal Health Task Force-Harvard School of Public Health, among others.

Isaac is a recipient of the prestigious Women Deliver Young Leaders Fellowship- awarded to young people who through research and social engagement promote health as they relate to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with specific focus on maternal, sexual and reproductive health and rights. Through these experiences, Isaac developed strong skills for research, proposal writing, project management, and advocacy with a specific focus on maternal health, HIV/AIDS, gender, including SRHR.

In June 2016, Women Deliver awarded Isaac with a seed grant project to end female genital cutting in Nigeria by filling the gaps left by the 2015 Violence against Persons Prohibition Act. Through advocacy, community mobilization, and digital media efforts, Isaac's project seeks to achieve widespread awareness of the law throughout Nigeria and ensure its enforcement in his home state. Isaac is a scholarship recipient and has been well engaged both at local and international conferences such as the 2016 international AIDS conference in South Africa, 2018 Women Leaders in Global Health Conference at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine-UK, 2018 International family planning conference in Kigali –Rwanda, HIVR4P Conference in Madrid Spain, including the 2019 Women Deliver Conference in Canada.  For fun, he loves travelling, swimming and playing table tennis.