Dr. Chisina Kapungu

Dr. Chisina Kapungu is the Director of Learning and Partnerships at WomenStrong International. In this role, she provides technical oversight on the development and implementation of Learning Lab activities focused on girls’ education and empowerment, women’s health, prevention of violence against women and girls, and economic opportunity. She also provides technical guidance on evaluation projects and capacity-strengthening activities for WomenStrong member organizations.

Chisina has nearly 15 years of experience as a clinical psychologist, community-based researcher, and program developer, with special expertise in adolescent health, sexual and reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS. She has a wide range of competencies spanning quantitative and qualitative research, program development, monitoring and evaluation, data analysis, capacity-strengthening, and translating research into action.

Prior to joining WomenStrong International in 2019, Chisina was Senior Gender and Youth Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women, where she provided technical guidance to research and evaluation projects focused on gender, youth development, and adolescent health internationally. Chisina also served as assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she served as principal investigator of a research study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) aimed at the evaluation of a culturally sensitive and faith-centered HIV prevention and health promotion program for African American girls and their mothers.

Chisina has managed maternal and child health projects in Ghana and Zimbabwe, and she also worked as a health policy fellow in the office of Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, where she provided scientific and technical expertise identifying emerging health policy issues in women’s health, infectious disease, global and domestic public health crisis response, and international development.

Chisina holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Loyola University Chicago.