The African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has just learned that former former AWF Charlotte Conservation Fellow Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka has received a Conservation-In-Action Award from the Zoological Society of San Diego.

Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka is the founder of the Ugandan nonprofit Conservation through Public Health (CTPH), an organization that works to promote conservation and public health by improving primary health care to people and animals in and around protected areas in Africa. CTPH monitors wildlife health, educates local communities about the risk of disease being transmitted between people and animals, and provides communications resources to students and others working to advance conservation.

Located in Uganda, home to about half of the world’s 720 remaining mountain gorillas, CTPH devotes special attention to the plight of the highly endangered great ape. “Human encroachment, poaching, political unrest, and diseases transmitted by humans and livestock continue to diminish the populations,” say Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka.

Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka earlier served as the first veterinary officer for the Ugandan Wildlife Authority, where she collaborated with AWF and the International Gorilla Conservation Program on mountain gorilla conservation and gorilla medical issues. Her Fellowship supported her work toward a master’s degree in specialized veterinary medicine at the University of North Carolina.

Introduced in 1996, AWF’s Charlotte Conservation Fellowship Program grants scholarships to African nationals pursuing masters’ degrees or doctoral research. Since its inception, the program has helped more than 40 students from across Africa pursue graduate degrees in fields ranging from biology and conservation economics to enterprise development and community conservation.

To learn more about AWF’s Charlotte Conservation Fellowship Program, click here.

To learn more about CTPH, click here or visit www.ctph.org.