Melvine A. Otieno

Melvine A. Otieno is an Environmental Health scientist and the founder of Planetary Health Eastern Africa.

As a climate change activist in Kenya, she has worked closely with KLUG- German Alliance Climate Change and Health in Climate Change and Health/Planetary Health Leadership online course-Transformational and transdisciplinary.

She obtained a BSc in Environmental Biology and Health and MSc in Environmental Health at the University of Eldoret. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Global Health at Martin Luther University in Haale(Saale), Germany. She was appointed as one of the global Planetary Health Campus Ambassador (2029) and served as a Next Generation Network Fellow (2020-2023) of the Planetary Health Alliance, working to inspire, activate and convene the next generation of planetary health campus ambassadors from around the world, as well as conduct outreach to facilitate local and international collaborations.

She’s also an Associate team member of Women Leaders for Planetary Health. As an Early Career Researcher, Melvine has worked on several internationally funded projects as Research Assistant for Newton Utafiti fund on Aquaculture (2018-2019) and BGS-UoE-MU research on dynamics of Environmental Geochemistry and Health in the Lake Victoria Basin (2020-2022) and a Co-Investigator on the GCRF QR Time Urgency Grant, to investigate the role of wet markets and backyard livestock in supporting nutrition of preschool-aged children in Kenya: challenges from COVID-19 influenced closure (2021-2022).

She is currently an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Eldoret (Kenya), School of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management where she coordinates SOPHEA project-Strengthening One and Planetary Health in Eastern Africa, funded by DAAD in partnership with JMU Würzburg University in Germany and Catholic University for Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS) in Tanzania.