Tegemea (31) is from Tanzania and she is currently a PhD student at the Department of Nursing at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is expected to graduate in 2024.
Before starting her PhD, Tegemea worked as a nurse in the obstetrics and gynecology department of a Tanzanian public hospital for six years. Her key responsibilities involved delivering individualized health services to women (specifically to postnatal women who had delivery complications); educating women on family planning; and providing family planning services to the women of reproductive age. Some of her projects have already improved the lot of Tanzanian pregnant woman such as improved privacy at prenatal visits, cleaner clinics and further respectful maternity care. She led a group of trainers in reducing gender-based violence and wrote a proposal for a grant to establish a standardized gender-based violence service delivery center.
Coming from a country where maternal death and child mortality rates are very high and having professional experience in the field of obstetrics and gynecology has led Tegemea to focus on improving maternity health as her PhD thesis.
In terms of future career goals, Tegemea is planning to become a lecturer and clinical researcher at a Tanzanian University to build an evidence-based information system that will help develop sustainable projects to improve maternal health services.
Tegemea strongly believes that getting access to higher education empowers women. She believes that getting a PhD degree from a top American university will provide her respect and reputation in addition to academic knowledge. This will, in turn, increase her chances of having a positive impact on maternal health policies in Tanzania.
