Wits professor of public health in rural South Africa wins international alumni award
BRAAMFONTEIN – Professor Kathleen Kahn has received the 2020 Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Professor Kathleen Kahn is chief scientist at the Wits rural campus in Mpumalanga, officially known as the Medical Research Council/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt).
She is a personal professor in the health and population division in the Wits School of Public Health and leads the interdisciplinary PhD programme in public and population health. The Alumni Merit Award acknowledges Kahn’s substantial contributions to population health research and policy translation, equitable community health in rural southern Africa, and public health education.
Kahn said, “It is an honour to receive the 2020 Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In making this award, Harvard has recognised the importance of African health and development, the concerns of African populations, and the importance of African-led science. For this, I sincerely thank the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Alumni Association.”
Kahn has spent over 25 years working in rural South Africa and regionally. Since the inception of the Agincourt health and socio-demographic surveillance system in 1992, she has led work on mortality and cause of death measurement, using verbal autopsy to track transitions over a period of dramatic socio-political change and the HIV epidemic.
With an enduring commitment to mentorship and building capacity, Kahn has contributed substantially to building the next generation of African researchers. In 2008, she reformulated and now leads an interdisciplinary PhD programme in public and population health, which today boasts over 100 candidates.
