Dr. Stella Iwuagwu is a passionate human rights advocate. She is the founder and executive director of Centre for the Right to Health (CRH), a non-profit organization founded in 1999 with a mission to advocate for the full realization of the right to health and respect for ethics and human rights in health care policies and practices, especially for vulnerable and marginalized groups in Nigeria. She and her Centre have been advocating for and implementing human rights-based integrated HIV/AIDS prevention and impact mitigation interventions in Nigeria. She was instrumental to the founding and empowerment of several support groups and organizations for people living with HIV/AIDS, people who inject drugs, and people living in same sex relationships.

Dr. Iwuagwu has a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing Science from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Ibadan. Following her outstanding leadership in Nigeria, she was granted an Oprah Winfrey African Women’s Public Service Fellowship for a Master’s degree in Management of Non-profit Organizations at the Wagner School of Public Service, New York University. She went on to obtain a PhD in Health Education from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale through the Walker Presidential Fellowship.

She served as an Assistant Professor at Cleveland State University for 5 years before returning to Nigeria in 2015 to resume leadership of the Centre. She is a Board member of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America and a Fellow of the Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs.

Faculty Page: https://www.ashoka.org/en-us/fellow/stella-iwuagwu