Rita Sembajwe

Rita Sembajwe is a public health informatician and digital health strategist with more than 20 years of experience supporting health information systems and public health programs across Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the United States. She helps organizations assess needs, strengthen governance and translate digital health strategies into practical, interoperable solutions. Her experience spans laboratory and clinical information systems, disease surveillance, enterprise architecture and programme delivery. For the Polio Epidemiology Intelligence System (PEIS), she leads project management and quality assurance, supporting requirements clarification, user engagement and validation with the Pakistan Polio Programme. Her work emphasizes responsible AI adoption, local ownership and the practical use of data for public health decision-making. She holds an MScPH in Public Health Informatics from Emory University and an AI in Healthcare Certificate from Harvard Medical School, and co-founded the OpenHIE Laboratory Information Systems Community of Practice.