Lukoye Atwoli is a Professor of Psychiatry and the Dean of the Aga Khan University Medical College, East Africa. He also practices psychiatry at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi. Prof Atwoli holds a Visiting Scientist position at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and is an Honorary faculty at the University of Cape Town.
Prof Atwoli trained in medicine (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, MBChB) at Moi University before undertaking specialist training in psychiatry (Master of Medicine in Psychiatry, MMed Psych) at the University of Nairobi, where his MMed dissertation explored posttraumatic stress disorder among Mau Mau Concentration Camp survivors in Nairobi. He later earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Cape Town in South Africa, focusing on the epidemiology of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder in South Africa.
Prof Atwoli is widely published, and his current research interests are centered on trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder and the genetics of mental disorders, although he also leads and participates in research on children’s and youth mental health, and on HIV and Mental Health.
He is a member of the World Mental Health Surveys Consortium that carries out cross-national psychiatric epidemiological research that informs practice and policy globally.
Prof Atwoli is the President-Elect of the African College of Neuropsychopharmacology (AfCNP), and the immediate past Vice-President of the Kenya Medical Association (KMA). He is also currently the Secretary-General of the African Association of Psychiatrists (AAP), and sits on several advisory boards nationally and internationally. Specifically, he is the Chairperson of the Board of the Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital, the only specialized mental health care facility in Kenya, and sits on the Board on Global Health of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
Prof Atwoli is a social and health rights advocate, and has influenced policy and programmes in the health sector as well as in the political sphere. He has been a strong mental health campaigner and advocate who constantly speaks out for the rights of the disadvantaged in society.