VCU PhD Graduate Gati Wambura Leverages US‑Kenya Experience to Address Rabies and Maternal Health

Wambura grew up in Kenya, studied biochemistry at DePauw University, and earned a master’s in England before returning to the U.S. for doctoral training. She said returning to the U.S. was important because her passion for public health began there. Her PhD in healthcare policy and research from Virginia Commonwealth University was conferred this spring.

Rabies causes the deaths of hundreds of people in Kenya each year. Wambura’s dissertation examined maternal and neonatal health outcomes using an observational cohort design; the sample size was not disclosed in the source. She compared accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the United States with Kenya’s free maternal service policy, noting that her goal was not to judge which system is better but to understand how similar circumstances play out in different contexts. Her earlier work included research on colorectal cancer funded by the American Cancer Society and studies of ACO impacts on Medicare and Medicaid populations.

The findings suggest that cross‑national policy learning can highlight opportunities for improving service delivery without assuming direct causality; observed associations do not prove that one policy causes better outcomes. Practical takeaways for policymakers include considering integrated rabies surveillance and vaccination programs, and exploring how payment reforms like ACOs might be adapted to low‑resource settings to support maternal health. What to watch next: Wambura’s planned pilot projects with the Kenya Medical Research Institute and U.S. partners such as the CDC and Washington State University, which will test whether insights from U.S. ACO models can strengthen Kenya’s maternal service policy.