Distinguished Achievement Award

Dr. Landry Dongmo Tsague 07PH

2022-2023 Recipient

Conferred in appreciation of a lifetime of career accomplishments, recipients of the Distinguished Achievement Award exemplify dedication to the public health ideals of promoting health and preventing disease, and to the Rollins School of Public Health’s shared values and mission: To make the world healthier and more equitable through excellence in research, education, and practice.

When physician Landry Dongmo Tsague PhD, MD, MPH arrived at the Rollins School of Public Health in 2005 from his home in Cameroon as a William H. Foege Fellow in Global Health, his contributions to the field were already quite impressive. In the early years of his public health career, Dr. Tsague was pivotal in designing, rolling out, and directing for the Cameroonian Ministry of Public Health the national program to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV and strategies to prevent African children and their mothers from dying of AIDS. For this work, Dr. Tsague was honored with an International AIDS Society Young Investigator Award. Likewise, in addition to his education as a medical doctor at Cameroon's Medical School at the University of Yaounde I, Dr. Tsague had also completed training in clinical research in France and in applied health informatics and statistics in Benin.

Yet, Dr. Tsague considers his MPH education and experiences at Rollins as a Foege Fellow to be a major milestone in his public health journey, one that provided him with invaluable opportunities to fine-tune and deepen his research, scientific writing, and leadership skills. It was also during this time that his friend Raoul Kamadjeu, then a fellow at the CDC, proposed that “in their spare time” they should create and launch an open-source medical journal for African scientists, the Pan-African Medical Journal (PAMJ).

Dr. Tsague found his time at Emory essential to the upstart journal, and in 2006 launched the PAMJ. Dr. Tsague noted, "Even as an African medical student, I could see the missed opportunities that our generation and the generation before us had faced to make our work known by the global health community and to make our work used for global health." In less than 20 years, Dr. Tsague’s unwavering dedication, visionary leadership, innovative solutions, and service as a managing editor have helped establish the Pan-African Medical Journal as one of the leading open-access journals in global health, and according to Google Scholar, it is one of the most influential open-access medical journals in Africa.

Following his MPH program at Rollins, Dr. Tsague continued his groundbreaking work on HIV/AIDS, maternal, newborn, and child health, immunization, and health system strengthening, and earned his doctorate degree in public health from the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. Renowned as a passionate advocate for adopting more efficacious solutions to end pediatric HIV and AIDS in Africa, Dr. Tsague has served communities in Zambia, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Congo, Senegal, and Equatorial Guinea. 

Dr. Tsague's achievements extend beyond his professional roles, and his deep commitment to volunteering his expertise is evident from his involvement in numerous scientific committees such as the International Conference on Public Health in Africa, the Experts’ Committee for the International Conference on AIDS and STI in Africa, and the WHO HIV/AIDS Guidelines Development. His dedication to knowledge dissemination and collaboration continues to positively impact the future of public health in Africa and beyond.

Dr. Tsague has co-authored over 18 manuscripts and received awards for his contributions to global public health including the New Investigator in Global Health Award from the Global Health Council, the Social Innovation for Public Health Impulse Fellowship award, and the Jakes Gerwel Award in Public Health from the University of Western Cape, South Africa.

"Making a significant contribution toward ending the AIDS epidemic in Africa during my lifetime has remained my personal aspiration —a commitment that was nurtured during my time at Rollins," remarked Dr. Tsague. It is evident that Dr. Tsague has already significantly contributed to this aspiration and continues to nurture this commitment. From leveraging strategic partnerships to fostering innovation for change in knowledge sharing and improving health outcomes to building coalitions with civil society and community actors to engaging adolescents and young people in his innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention, Dr. Tsague exemplifies dedication to the public health ideals of making the world healthier and more equitable through excellence in research, education, and practice. It is an honor to present Dr. Landry Dongmo Tsague with our 2022-2023 Distinguished Achievement Award.

Criteria for Selection

1. The individual shall be a recent graduate of Rollins and will have made an outstanding contribution to public health at a community, state, national, or international level.
2. The contribution(s) should have been made subsequent to receiving a degree from Rollins.

Nomination Procedure

Please complete our Award Nomination Form

All nominations are confidential and will be considered for three years, unless otherwise indicated by the nominee. If needed, the committee will contact the nominee to update the application.