Mercy Ships International Diplomatic Ambassador for Africa since 2022. She facilitates partnerships with governments, diplomatic entities and communities, supporting Mercy Ships’ mission to deliver free medical and surgical care to those in need across the African continent. In May 2022, she played a key role in the christening of the Global Mercy™ – the organization’s flagship hospital ship, in Dakar, Senegal. A distinguished pediatrician and reproductive health specialist, Dr Tuakli was the first African woman clinical professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Her work in there contributed to the creation of a special Community Medicine Department at Children’s Hospital of Boston. She was the Founder and Medical Director of CHILD Accra in Ghana, and her contributions to child health education in Africa and the USA have been internationally lauded. As the first female Rotary president in Ghana, she advanced child protection legislation for Africa’s children, earning recognition from the African Union. She also initiated a Rotary funded surgical rotation that has grown into an accredited WHO-supported Safe Surgery in Africa course onboard the Mercy Ships fleet. She has served on several international boards, including Mercy Ships, Zenith Bank, the Global Virus Network and CarePoint. In 2022 Dr. Tuakli retired as the first female and non-white Chair of United Way Worldwide’s international board of trustees. She is an acclaimed leader and contributor to global health, and the recipient of numerous awards, including a UN Global Citizens Award and several lifetime achievement honours.
For a reasonably open world
