Dr. Hellen Muttai

Site Director, CHAMPS Kenya

Dr. Hellen C. Muttai is Kenya's Co-Site Principal Investigator for the Child Health and Mortality Prevention Surveillance (CHAMPS) Program. Dr. Muttai joined CHAMPS after over 15 years of distinguished service in public health, disease surveillance, and implementation science. She previously served as a Medical Epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Nairobi, Kenya (2023-2025), where she led disease surveillance, implementation science research, and provided technical support to Kenya's Ministry of Health. Her CDC career included serving as Branch Chief for the Western Kenya Branch (2014-2020), managing a team of 20 public health specialists, and overseeing multi-million-dollar HIV prevention and treatment programs that helped achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. She also led national HIV prevention efforts (2020-2022) and served as Senior Technical Advisor for HIV Care and Treatment Programs (2008-2013).

Dr. Muttai has extensive expertise in epidemiology, infectious disease surveillance, health systems strengthening, and capacity building. She has played key roles in major population-based surveys, including Kenya's Key Populations Bio-behavioral Survey and Population-Based HIV Impact Assessment Survey. Her research contributions include developing HIV risk-score screening algorithms and geospatial analysis methods that have informed national and global health policies. She has published extensively on HIV, TB, and infectious disease epidemiology, with her work influencing WHO guidelines and national health policies.

Dr. Muttai completed her PhD in Public Health/Epidemiology from Maseno University in 2023, holds a Master's in Public Health in Epidemiology from Moi University, and earned her Bachelor's Degree in Medicine and Surgery (MBChB) from Moi University.