Dr. Nkinsi began his career as a Chief Medical Officer (Kikwit Health District) with the Congolese Ministry of Public Health in 1983. His responsibilities included general practice at the district hospital, lectures on tropical pathology and community health care to the Kikwit Nursing School, and supervision of 31 rural health centers that served a population of 250,000. After achieving his masters’ degree, Dr. Nkinsi worked for Save the Children (US) in West Africa (Burkina Faso, Mali) and in Cameroon. Dr. Nkinsi joined CARE in 1996 as Health Sector Coordinator in Cameroon. In 1998, in addition to his responsibilities in Cameroon, he was nominated Reproductive Health Advisor for CARE country offices in the West Africa Region, including Madagascar and Haiti.
He joined CARE’s headquarters in Atlanta (USA) in 1999 as the Director for the CARE-CDC Health Initiative (CCHI). He was responsible for leading, cultivating and sustaining a major strategic long-term partnership between CARE and CDC on a variety of innovative global health programs. The CCHI model, which reflects community-based participatory research, has facilitated the timely translation of research findings into improved and sustainable public health practices. Major CCHI’s accomplishments include: Ten collaborative health projects –including control and surveillance of infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, maternal and children health - have been implemented in Africa, Central and South America; production of two manuals and CD-ROMS: The Healthy Newborn and The Safe Water Systems; the publication of 22 articles in the October issue of the American Journal of Public Health by field staff as lead authors.
Dr. Nkinsi also worked as Senior Technical Advisor for the HIV/AIDS Unit at CARE, which provides technical support to over 50 projects with HIV/AIDS components in 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Dr. Nkinsi was responsible for several major improvements in CARE’s HIV/AIDS program. Through his considerable assistance to CARE field offices, and in collaboration with Ministries of Health in East African countries, CCHI has initiated several innovative and far reaching prevention, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) services, mother to child transmission (MTCT) interventions and home-based programs. These activities are utilizing cutting edge technological approaches to extend HIV/AIDS activities from facility settings to community-based programs.
Dr. Nkinsi joined Bill and Melinda Gates foundation on November 2002 as Senior Program Officer for HIV, TB and Reproductive Health in the Global Health program. Dr. Nkinsi is responsible for technical and management support of several HIV/AIDS field programs, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, including the two largest foundation-supported programs such as Botswana’s (ACHAP) and India’s (AVAHAN).