Tara Okonjo

Epidemiologist and data scientist who builds disease surveillance models for governments across Africa and Southeast Asia. PhD in computational epidemiology from Imperial College London, MSc from the University of Cape Town. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Her cholera early-warning system deployed across 6 West African countries has been credited with preventing two outbreaks from becoming epidemics. Spent 3 years at the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme during COVID, where she built the dashboard that 40 African health ministries used daily. Writes about epidemic modeling, public health data infrastructure, why most pandemic preparedness plans fail at the data layer, and what it's like building surveillance systems in countries with intermittent electricity. Known for a piece called 'The Spreadsheet That Saved a City' about a cholera response in Lagos. Runs competitively and tracks her splits with the same rigor she applies to R-naught calculations.