Episode 9 - Interview with Joy Kamunyori

In this episode we hear from Joy Kamunyori, a digital health and project management professional from Kenya about her 14 year career assessing, developing and implementing public health IT systems in sub-Saharan African countries.  We discussed: Joy’s background what she studied and how she ended working in public health  How her passion for education and development and skillset landed her in a public health role that started of her career How she became interested in Computers  and eventually chose to study computer science  What she likes and drew her to coding and computer science  How mentorship played a significant role in her career and choices at many junctures  Her experience pursuing graduate studies in Computer Science  What her work looks like now, in scale and range and the kinds of problems she supports solving  How she considers herself an interpreter in her work in digital health and what that looks like  How her roles have changed as her career has progressed in the field  The relationship between Public health, education and development  How Digital Health as a field  and use of technology for health started, emerged and has now expanded to be integral in public health systems  Challenges and key considerations for countries as they transition to having fully digital health information systems and how Joy has come across and been part of these conversations What are Joy’s favorite things about doing her work  What public health means to Joy  Joy’s advice to a younger self  Top 3 skills she recommends to work on in the field