Ms. Stella Itungu

Stella is the Chief Executive Officer of COSECSA, a Member of the Board of Directors (AO Alliance, Switzerland), Chair, High-Level Council of Global Surgery Foundation (GSF), and Honorary Member of Women in Surgery (WiSA).

As the CEO of COSECSA, she oversees the Secretariat affairs and manages all the operations of the Surgical Training Programme of the College across 24 Countries in East, Central and Southern Africa and coordinates other surgical capacity development programmes with multiple collaboration partners.

Before COSECSA, Stella’s career included leadership roles in multimillion-dollar regional integration projects funded by the Global Fund, the World Bank and the African Development Bank. In the health sector, she worked as Director of Operations and Programs for the Global Fund Pilot Project (Roll Back Malaria Program) in Uganda. 

At regional intergovernmental and international levels, Stella worked as a Coordinator of a $26.5m World Bank Financial Sector Program at the East African Community (EAC) implemented in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, as well as a Regional Coordinator of a $23m African Development Bank Payment Systems Program again under the EAC 

Her expertise spans regional integration, health education, program management, strategic partnerships, and policy harmonization.