Susan, an infectious disease physician, joined the Tiba Board in late 2024, having volunteered at Matibabu numerous times over 20 years. Her undergraduate degree was from the University of California, Berkeley. She trained in medicine at Stanford University and moved to Boston for internal medicine residency and infectious disease fellowship, including tuberculosis research. A brief exposure to AIDS in Zimbabwe, Africa in 1989 opened her eyes to global challenges as she returned to northern California for a clinical ID practice in Berkeley. In 2002 she became the ID physician in Kaiser Fremont, as that hospital opened. Effective therapy for HIV became the norm. Managing the Covid pandemic into 2021 reminded her of the early days AIDS. During her time at Kaiser, she was able to return to Africa on brief trips with Tiba to the Matibabu clinic, later hospital, in Ukwala, in rural western Kenya.
She recalls on her first trip to Kenya in 2005, only 1 person came to a clinic with medication for HIV, despite widespread HIV/AIDS in the country. Nearly 20 years later she observed a dedicated government (and PEPFAR) funded nurse provide cutting edge antivirals for nearly 1000 people living with HIV in the Ukwala community at Matibabu, transforming their lives. As Matibabu health care services evolve, she hopes to aid in the transformation of the diagnosis and treatment of other important community conditions.
Susan Jacobson, MD
