Béatrice Kalenga Tshiala

Dr. Béatrice Kalenga Tshiala is a distinguished Congolese public health executive, academic, and nutrition specialist with over two decades of experience in community healthcare delivery and specialized infant-maternal nutrition. She currently serves as the Deputy Director of the National Nutrition Program (PRONANUT) under the Ministry of Public Health, Hygiene and Social Prevention in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a leadership role she has executed since 2016. Additionally, she operates as an Associate Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Bunia by official ministerial appointment.

Throughout her career, Dr. Kalenga Tshiala has been an influential figure in shaping national and regional public health policies. She has designed multi-sectoral strategies for the World Bank and UNICEF, led national emergency response teams for public health crises (including Ebola, COVID-19, cholera, and Mpox), and formulated the nutritional protocol for COVID-19 recovery frameworks. Driven by her core professional thesis that investments in nutrition during the critical "first 1,000 days of life" are essential to human capital development, she has actively supported the Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi Foundation and UN Women in mitigating chronic malnutrition across multiple DRC provinces.

Her field and institutional experience spans several cross-border collaborations, featuring regional health monitoring and technical sharing missions in Kenya, Senegal, Mali, and Cameroon. She has also driven extensive capacity-building campaigns across all 26 provinces of the DRC, serving as a primary trainer for community-based acute malnutrition workflows. In the civic sector, she is the President of the Nutritionists of Bas-Congo and serves on the Executive Technical Committee for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.

Dr. Kalenga Tshiala holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and an Advanced Studies Diploma (DEA) in Dietetic Nutrition and Human Food Systems from the Mill Hill School in Kinshasa, both completed with highest honors (Grande Distinction). Her doctoral research focused heavily on maternal-infant nutrition strategies within the Maluku commune. She also earned her Master's and Graduate degrees from the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Médicales (ISTM) in Kinshasa. She is fluent in French, Lingala, Swahili, and Tshiluba, with a strong command of English.