Dr Jane Chuma’s dream as a young girl was to follow in the footsteps of her aunt.

“My aunt had a PhD and taught at Kenyatta University. I wanted to be a ‘doctor of books’ like her,” Dr Chuma said.

Dr Chuma attended Kiamabara Primary School in Karatina and Tetu Girls Boarding School before joining Kabare Girls in Kirinyaga for her secondary education.

She then joined Moi University for a BA in economics. But in her first year, at only 19, she became pregnant.

She took two years out of college to raise her daughter instead of juggling college and motherhood.

“I would not have made it without the support of my family. After their initial shock, they provided everything I needed. I went back to college after those two years totally focused on achieving my dream,” Dr Chuma said.

When she finished her BA in 1999, she joined the University of Cape Town for her masters programme, where she encountered Prof Diane McIntyre.

“She was so inspiring and so willing to nurture young scientist that she has been my mentor ever since,” Dr Chuma said.

She returned to Kenya to seek work but failing to get a job, she returned to Cape Town for her PhD.

From there, she linked up with scientists at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust in Kilifi where she finished her PhD at age 29.

She is now a research scientist at the KEMRI Wellcome Trust unit in Kilifi with her own funding from the Wellcome Trust and is supervising her first PhD student.

Dr Chuma, 36, is one of the few health economists in the region. Her initial research focused on how the cost of health care contributes towards poverty.

She then sought to find out why health interventions, specifically insecticide treated bed nets did not seem to reach the poorest of the poor even when they were provided free of charge.

Her current research is aimed at discovering the most appropriate health financing designs for Kenya which will make sure that both the rich and the poor have equal access to health care.

She is exploring community health insurance schemes in Nyeri and Kirinyaga as well as mining data from various national health utilisation and budgeting surveys to inform her conclusions.