Lucy Chesire

Lucy Chesire of Kenya is the Executive Director and Secretary to the board of TB ACTION Group, an organization founded in 2009 by a group of patients living with tuberculosis (TB) and/or HIV. She is a leading and internationally known civil society advocate who has been on the forefront advancing the TB and HIV agendas globally. In 1992 she became the first Kenyan health careworker to openly acknowledge being infected with HIV. She is a Clinical Nutritionist by profession, and while working for Advocacy to Control TB Internationally, she successfully lobbied the World Bank for tuberculosis funding, a 63 Million USd project currently being implemented in 5 African countries with the aim to strengthen laboratory services in the region. Lucy has spoken at international conferences, and helped raise the profile of TB in internationally and in Kenya. She served as the first patient representative on the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board, anadvisor on UNITAID’s civil society team, a member of the community delegation to the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria, where she is also the Alternate Board Member-GFATM , a member of the TB REACH proposal steering committee of the Stop TB Partnership, and a member of the Strategic Technical Advisory Group on TB of the World Health Organization. In 2007 Ms. Chesire was awarded the Karel Styblo – Public Health Award by the UNION and, in 2009 she became the first woman recipient of the KOCHON Prize by the Stop TB Partnership.