After more than 40 years of service to the global malaria community, Deputy U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator Dr. Rick Steketee will be retiring on August 31, 2023. It is with profound gratitude that PMI thanks Dr. Steketee for his service to malaria endemic communities across the globe. 

As Deputy Coordinator for the past five years, Dr. Steketee led USG engagements on key strategic, policy, and technical issues, and has been instrumental in guiding the global malaria community on issues ranging from maintaining malaria services during the COVID-19 pandemic to maximizing impact of the new malaria vaccine. He also played a critical role in the development of PMI’s Strategy 2021-2026: End Malaria Faster. 

A medical epidemiologist with more than four decades of public health experience in infectious diseases and an internationally recognized expert in malaria, Dr. Steketee spent 21 years as an active-duty member of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), with 15 of those years working on malaria at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During that time, he spent approximately five years in Malawi, evaluating programmatic approaches to controlling malaria in pregnancy and early childhood. Dr. Steketee’s career with CDC culminated with his service as Malaria Branch Chief from 2000-2005.

Dr. Steketee continued to make valuable contributions in the fight against malaria at PATH, where he joined in 2005 as the Science Director for the Malaria Control Program supporting field work in sub-Saharan African countries. He became the Director of PATH’s Malaria Control and Elimination Program (MCEP) and Director of the Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) in 2015, where he provided leadership across a broad portfolio of malaria programs, including Senegal and Zambia.

Throughout his career, Dr. Steketee has worked closely with the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. He has also contributed to numerous WHO Expert Review Groups on malaria and as a member of the WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee (now WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Group), where he served as an expert on malaria implementation, research, and elimination.

PMI is incredibly grateful for Dr. Steketee’s leadership and expertise in the fight against malaria. His work contributed to global efforts to save 11.7 million lives and prevent more than 2 billion malaria cases since 2000 and his impact will continue to be felt for decades to come in the form of those he’s mentored. Please join PMI and the entire global malaria community in congratulating Dr. Steketee on his successful and impactful career.

APPENDIX

Background – Announcement from July 2018

PMI Names Dr. Rick Steketee as the New Deputy U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator

It is my pleasure to introduce and welcome Dr. Rick Steketee, MD, MPH as the new Deputy U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator. Dr. Steketee will assume his Deputy role for the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in August.

Dr. Steketee is a medical epidemiologist with over 30 years of public health experience in infectious diseases and is an internationally recognized expert in malaria. He spent 21 years as an active duty member of the U.S. Public Health Service, with 15 of those years working on malaria at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  During that time, he spent approximately 5 years in Malawi, evaluating programmatic approaches to controlling malaria in pregnancy and childhood, eventually becoming CDC’s Malaria Branch Chief in 2000, where he managed a staff of 75 professionals engaged in malaria prevention and control efforts in the U.S. and overseas.

Subsequently, Dr. Steketee joined PATH in 2005 and worked as the Science Director for the Malaria Control Program at PATH supporting field work in sub-Saharan African countries.  He has been the Director of PATH’s Malaria Control and Elimination Program (MCEP) and Director of the Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) since 2015. As the Director of MCEP, he provided leadership across a broad portfolio of malaria programs, including PMI’s MalariaCare project – a 5-year PMI-funded 16-country program operating in sub-Saharan Africa and the Mekong Region in southeast Asia in support of malaria diagnosis and treatment in PMI focus countries; the Program for the Advancement of Malaria Outcomes (PAMO) – a PMI-funded Zambia country program; and the Malaria Control and Elimination Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) – a multi-country malaria control and now elimination effort in sub-Saharan African malaria-endemic countries operating since 2004 and currently engaged in Ethiopia, Kenya, Senegal and Zambia.

He has worked closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB and Malaria, and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and participated on RBM working groups including the Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group, the Harmonization Working Group, the Malaria in Pregnancy Working Group and the Case Management Working Group. Dr. Steketee has participated in numerous WHO Expert Review Groups on malaria and is a current member of the WHO Malaria Policy Advisory Committee.

Over the past twelve years, PMI, led by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [PDF, 1.6MB], has worked with partner countries to drive progress in malaria. Together with national malaria control program leadership, communities, local partners, donors, faith-based groups, and multilateral organizations, PMI works to ensure effective malaria interventions reach people where they live.

Again, on behalf of our interagency partnership and teams in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., we welcome Dr. Steketee to PMI.

Dr. Ken Staley
U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)