Wichita State University
Public Health Sciences
1845 Fairmount Street
Wichita
KSUSA
67260-0043
Biographical Sketch: Dr. Bukonda is an Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences at Wichita State University (WSU) since August 2007. Prior to joining WSU, Dr. Bukonda was Associate Professor, Public Health & Health Education Programs, Northern Illinois University (1997– 2007). He took a sabbatical leave in 2005 and served as Visiting Sabbatical Professor, Africa University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Mutare, Zimbabwe (August – December, 2005) and Visiting Sabbatical Professor, University of Mbuji Mayi, Congo (January – May, 2005). He also was Assistant Professor of Health Care Management, Southern Illinois University (1994-1997), Research Assistant, Pharmaceutical Research in Marketing and Economics Institute (PRIME Institute), University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy, Minneapolis, MN (Winter 1994), Lecturer (1981-7) & Academic Secretary (1982-7), University of Zaire, School of Medical Technology, Dept. of Health Systems Management, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Health Planner, Rural Health Project (SANRU), Kinshasa (1987), Division Chief, On-the-job Training Programs and Health Systems Research, Republic of Zaire, Ministry of Health (1985-87), Adjunct Chairman & Instructor, Medical Institute of Kindu (1976-78), and Hospital Administrator, General Hospital of Bukavu, Kivu Province, Congo (1975-76).
Dr. Bukonda has played significant roles as a member of various research projects and of a number of civil organizations in the United States of America and in Africa. This is reflected in a long list of research activities, collaborators and scholarly presentations given at scientific conferences all over the world. From 1999 to 2003, for instance, he served as a consultant for Joint Commission Worldwide Consulting and provided leadership for a research project aimed at studying the Zambian national hospital accreditation program. He was the lead author of a report of this study (Bukonda, Abdallah, Tembo, & Jay, 2000) which was published for the U.S. Agency for International Development (2000) under the title of “Setting up a national hospital accreditation program: The Zambian Experience.” He worked with colleagues at the Botswana-Harvard Partnership Institute for HIV Research and Education to develop and implement a research proposal aimed at understanding “Male Involvement in the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV/AIDS in Botswana” (2001). This work lead to the development and presentation of a scale aimed at measuring male involvement in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS at the 12th Canadian Conference on International Health (Ottawa, 2001), two presentations made at the 14th International AIDS Conference (Barcelona, Spain, 2002) and another presentation at the first South African HIV/AIDS Conference (Durban, 2003). He initiated and served as principal investigator of a two-year long HIV infection prevention project in Eastern Kasai of the DRC (2004-2006).
He was selected and invited by UNESCO to speak at the 2008 Global Forum Research Seminar (Paris, 2008) and by CODESRIA to serve as a facilitator at the 2008 CODESRIA Institute on Health, Politics and Society in Africa (Dakar, Senegal: October 13-18, 2008). He is recipient of numerous research and educational grants. A faculty fellowship grant from the Northern Illinois University Division of International Program under its Lillian "Pauline" Cobb Faculty Travel Fellowships for International Teaching and Service has enabled him to participate in and make a presentation at the First South African AIDS Conference. A fellowship from MEDICC (Medical Collaboration with Cuba) has enabled him to participate and to make a presentation at the International Conference on Medical Education for the 21st Century in Havana, Cuba (November, 2008). He was elected in 2004 and still serves as the executive director of Leja Bulela, Inc, a non-governmental organization formed in 1993 in Detroit and involved in providing humanitarian assistance to destitute peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
During his sabbatical leave in Africa in 2005, he conducted a survey of the health and socio-economic conditions of internally displaced peoples in Cibombo Cimuangi (Congo). Under this project, he is studying the incidence and correlates of diseases across life span among peoples who have been forcibly displaced from the Katanga province to the Eastern Kasai province. A subset of this study examines the patterns and correlated of diseases among elderly.
His interest in global health has enabled him to travel to many countries - - such as Belgium, Botswana, Canada, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, France, Greece, Ivory Coast, Portugal, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom, Turkey, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe - - to conduct many professional projects and develop meaningful professional ties.