Dr. Yvette Efevbera is a global health and equity leader working to create a world where young people and women are healthy, happy, unafraid, and unapologetic. She has worked for nearly 15 years across academic, non-profit, and philanthropic spaces at the intersection of research, programs, policy, and advocacy. With demonstrated commitment to collaboration and bridge building, she leads culturally intentional efforts to improve programs and policies linking gender and youth, particularly in settings of adversity. Efevbera’s experience advancing health, development, gender, education, and equity has spanned several countries, with focus in sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora.   

Efevbera was most recently lead at the Gates Foundation for addressing child marriage and gender-based violence and building a new adolescent and youth focus; in that role, she developed new strategies and led targeted investments to advance the field addressing barriers girls and women face. Her work included building partnerships across diverse teams and stakeholders, ranging from subject matter experts to non-profits to grassroots organizations to multilateral organizations, and building multi-million-dollar portfolios to increase evidence, advocacy, and program opportunities addressing adolescent health, child marriage, and gender-based violence. Prior, Efevbera was an NIH-funded Principal Investigator at Harvard University, leading research on girl child marriage, adolescent health, and women’s issues in African contexts. She has worked for several organizations in different countries, including Wellspring, UBS Optimus Foundation, Harvard Center for Population Studies in Burundi, and mothers2mothers in Malawi. Efevbera’s passion has been creating spaces for underrepresented voices to participate in decision-making, further reflected in her board and service experience and as a certified diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant.

Efevbera holds a Doctor of Science in Population and Reproductive Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She holds a MSc in Global Health from Harvard and a BA, with High Honor in International Relations and African Studies from the Honors College and James Madison College of Michigan State University. A scholar-advocate, Efevbera has published in several journals including Journal of Adolescent Health, Social Science & Medicine, and BMC Public Health.

Languages: English, French

Contact Dr. Efevbera at efevbera@post.harvard.edu