Professor Marian Jacobs

President, the Association of Medical Schools in Africa (AMSA)

Marian Jacobs is Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where she is also a professor of child health. She is a public health paediatrician who has been Director of the Child Health Policy Institute, the Children’s Institute for policy research, and the School of Child and Adolescent Health at that University.

She has held several national and international leadership positions, including Chair of the Boards of the Medical Research Council of South Africa, the Centre for Health Research in Bangladesh and the Council for Health Research for Development (COHRED). She has served on the Advisory Committee for Health Research for the World Health Organisation, and is a current member of the Advisory Board of the Doris Duke Foundation’s African project for health systems strengthening. She is also on the advisory boards of the African Population and Health Research Centre, and the George Washington University led Sub-Saharan African Medical Schools Study.

She is committed to contributing to strengthening African institutions as a key component of strong sustainable health systems.