Our Board of Trustees brings a tremendous range of experience to 's work.They are:
President: Professor Onesmo ole MoiYoi, Director of International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
Between 1977-1982, ole-MoiYoi held teaching and research positions in medicine and molecular endocrinology at Harvard University. In 1981, he joined the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases (now ILRI) in Nairobi, where he was Senior Scientist, Coordinator for the Biochemistry/Molecular Biology Laboratory and Project Leader in Pathophysiology and Genetics. The biochemistry and molecular biology of African trypanosomes and Theileria parva, a unique protozoan parasite that causes an acute leukaemia-like disease, were the areas of study.
He is now the Director of Research and Partnerships at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Nairobi. Capeís mandate is to develop environmentally-sound and sustainable solutions for the tropics' most pervasive disease vectors, including those for malaria and trypanosomiasis (tsetse fly), using a 4-H paradigm embracing human, animal, plant and environmental health.
ole-MoiYoi has worked at the interface of human and animal health research, and of developed- and developing-country problems. His current areas of research include the characterization of molecular pathways leading to the development of cancer in mammalian cells, an integrated control of malaria and the identification of genes for resistance to a variety of diseases, including malaria. As Director of Partnerships at ICIPE, Pr. ole-MoiYoi oversees the African Regional Program in Insect Science (ARPPIS), which employs the 4-H paradigm and has a network of 28 university partners throughout Africa. ARPPIS has trained over 280 MSc and PhD scholars across Africa.
Trustees:
Mary Ann Burris, Ph.D., Executive Director of TICAH 
Mary Ann is the founder of TICAH. She has a strong belief in the importance of tradition and in the necessity of paying attention to culture in all health and development work. Mary Ann was born in Texas and is the daughter of grandparents from four different parts of the world. She holds a BA in literature and philosophy from the University of North Carolina, an MA in Asian Studies from the University of Oregon, and a Ph.D. in international development from Stanford University. Before moving to Kenya in 1996, Mary Ann lived and worked in China several times.
From 1991 to 1995, Mary Ann worked for the Ford Foundation in Beijing, China, developing their programs on reproductive health and women's rights, and from 1996 - 2003, she was responsible for building the Ford Foundation programs in sexual and reproductive health and youth development in East Africa.
Mary Ann set up TICAH in 2003 because during her years in philanthropy in Asia and Africa, she felt that culture was rarely taken into account in the ways that it should be. She knew that there was a need to link AIDS projects in Asia and Africa, a need to pay more studied attention to traditional medicine, to pleasurable sexuality, to art as activism, and to looking at the whole context of our lives if we are to cure illness and attain health. Mary Ann is a research associate of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She is a participant in the Council of Elders project of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN), serves on several boards and volunteers on many projects having to do with culture, media, and health.
Professor Kimani Njogu, Director of Twaweza Communications and AHADI Trust
Kimani Njogu, an Associate Professor of Kiswahili and African Languages, is a Director of Twaweza Communications and Africa Health and Development International (AHADI). Since attaining his Ph.D. in Linguistics at Yale University in 1993, Kimani has done important work related to language, literature, media and culture. He is a translator of significant works into Kiswahili and has been involved in developing socially committed entertainment programs globally.
He has provided training on culturally sensitive and issue based entertainment programming in Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, India, China, St. Lucia, Grenada, Madagascar, Peru, Pakistan, Palau, Nigeria, Laos, Mexico and Peru, among other countries. Kimani is also a writer, literary critic and columnist and his Kiswahili book on the teaching of literature won the 2000 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. He is a Council Member of the International African Institute, University of London, Chairman of CHAKITA-Kenya (The National Kiswahili Committee) and member of the Task Force for the East African Kiswahili Council, established by the East African Community. He is also a Board member of the Legal Resources Foundation and MEDEVA, as well as a number of other organizations.
Nicola Blundell Brown, Programme Manager, African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF)
Nicky Blundell Brown with her background in Communication and languages is an inveterate logistics person and networker. Most of her working life has been spent with AMREF both in Europe and Africa, where she has been responsible for putting on major fundraising and promotional events, as well as being responsible for international co-ordination with AMREF's network of 10 European and 2 North American affiliates. Now based in Africa, as well as being Special Events co-ordinator for AMREF, Nicky is co-ordinating the processing and documentation of AMREF's history and setting up an appropriate system to ensure accessibility to the organisation's 48 years of experience in bringing health care to East and Southern Africa.
Patrick Maundu, Ethnobotanist, KENRIK and IPGRI
Patrick Maundu joins the TICAH board as a respected research scientist with 15 years of experience in field research and promotion of indigenous food plants in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa countries. He has led and conducted research in 13 African countries. Patrick is the primary author of two major works: Traditional Food Plants of Kenya (1999) and Useful Trees and Shrubs for Kenya (2005) and Editor of Useful Trees and Shrubs of Ethiopia(2007). He is interested in Economic Botany and Indigenous knowledge.
In addition to serving on TICAH's board, Patrick is an Ethno botanist both at the Kenya Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (KENRIK) and also at Biodiversity International (formerly International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI)) Sub-Saharan Regional office in Nairobi. He coordinates the Africa Leafy Vegetable Programme and manages the Dietary Diversity Project, which is promoting the use of traditional foods in the region.