- Source: Elizabeth Itotia
Elizabeth Wangari Itotia (born c. 1992), is a nuclear pharmacist from Kenya. She is the first Kenyan woman to qualify as a nuclear pharmacist (also referred to as a radiopharmacist). As of July 2021, she is one of only three similarly qualified people in that country, the others being male. She is currently employed as a member of the nuclear pharmacy team at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH).
Early life and education
Itotia was born in 1992, in Limuru, in present-day Kiambu County to a farming family. Itotia joined Loreto Kiambu Girls' High School, where she scored a straight A in KCSE and was admitted to the University of Nairobi to study pharmacy. She graduated at the top of her class in 2017 (58th graduation valedictorian), with a Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) degree.
She was awarded a scholarship by the International Atomic Energy Agency to pursue a master's degree. She was admitted to Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University in Pretoria, South Africa, where she graduated in 2021 with a Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree, specializing in Nuclear Pharmacy.
Career
After her first degree, Itotia joined Kenyatta University Hospital for the mandatory one-year supervised work period. While there, an opportunity arose for her to pursue higher studies on scholarship. She chose nuclear pharmacy because KUTRRH is increasingly attending to large numbers of cancer patients, who require sophisticated diagnostic and treatment modalities in the nuclear medicine and nuclear radiology arenas. After completing her master's degree, she returned to Kenyatta University Hospital, to practice what she had been taught.
Itotia is a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Kenya.
See also
Borna Nyaoke-Anoke
Shitsama Nyamweya
References
External links
Kenya's first female radiopharmaceutical scientist Archived 26 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine As of 25 July 2021.
Meet The First Female Radiopharmaceutical Scientist in Kenya As of 2 June 2021.
