Dr Claire Karekezi, Rwanda’s first female Neurosurgeon obtained a Doctor of Medicine from the College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Rwanda.
She completed her neurosurgical training at Mohamed V University of Rabat (Morocco), the World Federation of Neurosurgical Societies Training Center for Africa and graduated in 2016.
She further enrolled in several neurosurgical fellowships with a special interest in Neuro-Oncology and Skull Base Surgery at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, USA.
She later completed a Clinical Fellowship in Neuro-Oncology & Skull Base Surgery at the University of Toronto, Toronto Western Hospital in Canada before returning to Rwanda in August 2018 to become the country’s first female Neurosurgeon.
In 2022, she was awarded the Forbes Woman Africa Academic Excellence Award.
Dr Claire Karekezi is a Consultant Neurosurgeon at Rwanda Military Hospital, a Senior Lecturer of Surgery at the University of Rwanda and a Visit Faculty at the University of Global Health Equity.
She serves as the Chair of the African Women in Neurosurgery (AWIN), an Executive Board Member at the Society for Neuro-Oncology Subsaharan Africa (SNOSSA), a Secretary of Rwanda Medical and Dental Council (RMDC) and is a member of multiple national and international neurosurgical societies.
“As a young ambitious woman, I believe you need to stick to your ambition. There is nothing impossible, you can dream big. I dreamt big, I didn’t realize that I could become a Neurosurgeon at some point but I had people who believed in me and who saw the light in me and they guided me. So that’s the importance of having parents, teachers and mentors, but also of being perseverance and keeping the dedication to what you want to become,” said Dr Claire Karekezi.
