Ronald Olum

About Ronald Olum

Dr. Ronald Olum is a Public Health Physician and a PhD Student in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. He underwent medical training at Makerere University and earned a Master of Public Health with Distinction from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. Dr. Olum also undertook the NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellowship with the ACHIEVE Consortium at Makerere University and Washington University in St. Louis and was an HIV Implementation Science Fellow with the Implementation Science Hub at Johns Hopkins University.An active researcher in infectious disease epidemiology, implementation science, and global health, Dr. Olum has authored or co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications primarily focused on HIV, tuberculosis, and emerging or re-emerging diseases. Over the past three years, his work has centered on HIV prevention and care for adolescent girls and young women in post-conflict Northern Uganda, where he was born and raised as an internally displaced person during a two-decade-long armed conflict. Through the Gilead Research Scholars Program, he led a study investigating a peer-led HIV self-testing model supported by community health workers in the rural, hard-to-reach areas of Northern Uganda (FACT HIV Study).Dr. Olum serves on the World Health Organization’s Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent Health (GAMA) Advisory Group and on the Lancet Global Health International Advisory Board. He has been a Guest Editor for the Journal of Adolescent Health, an External Reviewer for the World Health Organization Hospital Care Pocket Handbook for the European Region, and a Technical Advisory Group member for UNESCO’s Global Status Report on School Health and Nutrition. In addition, he supported the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, whose landmark report was released this year.Dr. Olum received the Dr. Judy Wasserheit Young Leader Award (2025) and the Dr. Anvar and Pari Velji Young African Leader Award (2024) from the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) in recognition of his excellence and dedication to improving global health outcomes in low-income settings through research and advocacy.

Experience

1. Young Expert Advisor

   World Health Organization

   Sep 2024 — Present

   Young Expert Member of the World Health Organization Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA) Advisory Group.• Providing technical guidance to WHO and the UN H6+ agencies, including UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNFPA, World Food Program and the World Bank on adolescent health measurement.• Supporting the development of global indicators for tracking adolescent health outcomes.Contributed to the following outputs:1. Guidance for countries to assess adolescent health and well-being. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2025. Adolescent health profiles: Country dashboard. UNICEF; 2025.

Education

• Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences

  Mentored Student Research Program, Neuropil in Canids

• University of Washington

  Certificate, Leadership and Management in Health

• Yale School of Medicine

  Elective Exchange, Global Health

• Makerere University

  Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB)

• Pasteur Institute

  Certificate, Modelling in Infectious Diseases

• Imperial College London

  Master of Public Health

• The Johns Hopkins University

  Fellowship, Implementation Science

• Namilyango College

  Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education , Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Information Technology, General Paper

  2014 — 2015

• Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, Epidemiology