Dr. Ronald Olum is an early career-researcher based in Uganda. He underwent medical training at Makerere University and, most recently, earned a Master of Public Health with Distinction from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. Dr. Olum also undertook the NIH Fogarty Global Health Training Fellowship under the ACHIEVE Consortium at Makerere University and Washington University in St Louis and is currently an HIV Implementation Science Fellow at the Mid-Atlantic CFAR Consortium (MACC+) Implementation Science Hub at Johns Hopkins University.

An active researcher in infectious disease epidemiology, implementation science, and global health, Dr. Olum has authored and co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications primarily focused on HIV, tuberculosis, and emerging or re-emerging diseases. Over the past three years, his work has centered on HIV prevention and care for adolescent girls and young women in post-conflict Northern Uganda, where he was born and raised as an internally displaced person during two decades-long armed conflict. Through the Gilead Research Scholars Program, he is currently leading a study to evaluate a peer-led HIV self-testing model supported by community health workers in the rural, hard-to-reach areas of Northern Uganda.

On the global scene, Dr. Olum serves on the World Health Organization’s Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent Health (GAMA) Advisory Group and on the Lancet Global Health International Advisory Board. He has been a Guest Editor for the Journal of Adolescent Health, an External Reviewer for the World Health Organization Hospital Care Pocket Handbook for the European Region, and a Technical Advisory Group member for UNESCO’s Global Status Report on School Health and Nutrition. In addition, he supported the Lancet Global Health Commission on Medical Oxygen Security, whose report is set to be released this year.

In 2024, Dr. Olum received the Dr. Anvar and Pari Velji Young African Leader Award from the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in recognition of his dedication to advancing global health outcomes in low-income settings through research and advocacy.