For over 16 years, Patricia Mengech ’88 (far left) worked to fight the spread of HIV in Uganda.
Through the U.S. funded programs Patricia helped administer, about 1 million of the 1.3 million Ugandans infected with HIV are on AIDS treatment that will substantially extend their lives, she said.
“When AIDS first appeared in Uganda in the 1980s, it was a death sentence,” said Patricia, who has an undergraduate degree in biology from Dartmouth College and a master’s in international health from Johns Hopkins University. “People were dying in enormous numbers.”
A native of Kenya, Patricia for the past 17 years has worked for the U.S. Agency of International Development. She has lived in Ethiopia, South Africa, Uganda, and now works as the Deputy Director of the USAID Health Office in Kathmandu, Nepal.