Dr Sammy Khagayi
Senior Mentor
Dr Sammy Khagayi is a senior epidemiologist and biostatistician who joins Nextgen for Earth as a senior Mentor on a voluntary basis. He is a Research Associate/Data Scientist (Climate & Health) at the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI), Durban, South Africa. With over 20 years of experience leading data-driven public health research across Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) in East and Southern Africa, he has built and strengthened surveillance and analytic systems and supported high-impact work spanning climate and health, HIV, and malaria, vaccine monitoring, maternal and child health. His current work focuses on building climate-ready HDSS infrastructure, integrating remote-sensing data with longitudinal health data, and developing early-warning systems for climate-sensitive diseases. Dr Khagayi has over 50+ peer-reviewed publications and is passionate about mentoring early-career scientists to turn evidence into action, publish rigorous research, and engage confidently with decision-makers.
