We have been holding a series of events called “Find-Your-Role-Model” Sessions to provide students with opportunities to interact with alumni and global leaders in healthcare sciences. Through these roundtable-style, informal events, we hope students will find role models to help facilitate their career development and become future global leaders.

 We are pleased to introduce Ms. Yuka Onishi, who serves as a health specialist at UNICEF. She runs community, maternal, and child health programs in Lesotho, a country in southern Africa, and works to help strengthen local health systems in collaboration with United Nations’ agencies and national organizations.
 Ms. Onishi graduated from Tokyo Medical and Dental University’s Nursing Faculty in 2011. After working for six years as a registered nurse in Japan, she served as a JICA public health volunteer Leyte, Philippines severely damaged by Super Typhoon Yolanda. In 2017, Ms. Onishi completed her master’s degree in International Child Studies at King’s College London. Her career since, at ADRA Japan and now at UNICEF, has taken her around the world, and has seen her contribute to Health System Strengthening, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health and multisectoral programs in Lesotho, Indonesia, Nepal and Zimbabwe.

 

Topics

Personal Background and Vision
・Her vision of the future of healthcare and her personal mission; her inspiration to pursue those goals; her role models; the hardships and failures she overcame; what it is like to work overseas; and why she chose to work in Lesotho

Current / Future Activities
・What projects she is currently working on; the differences in research environments in different countries; challenges she is currently facing; and some of the moments when she found working in UNICEF particularly rewarding
Advice for Students/ Healthcare Professionals
・The skills and mindset needed to work globally
・Advice for students and young researchers