Cheryl Kerama
Dr. Cheryl Kerama is a Kenyan public and environmental health scientist whose work uncovers the metabolic drivers of tuberculosis. Currently completing her PhD at the Kenya AIDS Vaccine Initiative–Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI-ICR), University of Nairobi, she leads a multi-country study investigating how dysregulated blood sugar accelerates TB infection and treatment failure. Her 2023 paper in Frontiers in Public Health reframed the TB–dysglycaemia “syndemic” and prompted Kenya’s Ministry of Health to pilot routine HbA1c screening in fourteen high-burden clinics. In December 2023 she was named one of Africa’s top thirty female researchers by the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme.
Kerama’s project, SugarSmart TB, now partners with facilities in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to test a low-cost glucometric algorithm that could halve diagnostic delays and save an estimated US$6 million in annual treatment costs. She co-chairs the Pan-African Network on Metabolic Co-morbidities in TB and consults for the World Bank on economic modelling for integrated NCD–TB services.
An alumna of the Mandela Washington Fellowship, she mentors girls through the Geospatial & Health STEM Lab and hosts the “Data for Breath” podcast, spotlighting evidence-based solutions for respiratory health. Outside the lab, she is a marathon runner, beekeeper, and passionate environmental advocate.