Celenara GROUP

Leadership

Sotonye Somoni Dokubo

Founder & Principal Consultant. MPH · MSc (Distinction) · PMP · ISO 9001 Lead Auditor (IRCA) · MNIM.

A public-health, programme-quality and disaster-risk professional with 15+ years across the African region — spanning epidemic preparedness and response, health-systems strengthening, MEAL, quality-management auditing and education leadership.

Sotonye Somoni Dokubo holds IRCA-certified ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor qualification, an MPH, an MSc with Distinction in Disaster Risk Management and Development Studies, and PMP certification. He is completing doctoral research in disaster risk management at the University of Port Harcourt. Fifteen years of that work has been operational: Africa CDC deployments to Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, including PHEOC coordination in Uganda and head of mission in Sierra Leone. Celenara applies both the auditor's discipline and the field operator's judgement to advisory, programme management, training and quality auditing for donors, governments and NGOs. He contributed to a US$300,000 Gates Foundation Grand Challenges award.

Core competencies

Epidemic preparedness & responsePHEOC / IMS coordinationISO 9001 lead auditing & QMSMEAL & evidence-based programmingInfection prevention & controlOne Health & cross-border healthDisease surveillance & EIOSProgramme & project managementRisk communication (RCCE)Proposal & grant developmentCapacity building & trainingPublic-health supply chain

Selected experience

  1. Senior Special Assistant, Humanitarian Interventions

    May 2025 – present

    Office of the Executive Chairman, Degema LGA — Rivers State, Nigeria

    • Strategic coordination, preparedness, response and recovery oversight for humanitarian interventions across the LGA.

  2. Epidemiologist · Field Coordinator · National Focal Point

    Mar 2020 – Sep 2025

    Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) — HQ Addis Ababa; deployments to Uganda, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia

    • Uganda (2025) — National Focal Point, NPHEOC: PHEOC and VEOC coordination, quality-management systems, surveillance and data, RCCE innovation, IPC and training in support of the Ministry of Health.
    • Sierra Leone (2021–22), Head of Mission — event-based surveillance, emergency preparedness, cross-border coordination, immunisation, One Health (anthrax, Marburg, Mpox) and policy and strategy development.
    • AVoHC induction (2024–present) — planned and facilitated induction training for 1,500+ Africa Volunteer Health Corps members across the continent.

  3. Epidemiologist — Rapid Responder and IPC Deputy Technical Lead

    Mar 2020 – Mar 2021

    COVID-19 Incident Management Team — Port Harcourt, Nigeria

    • Managed IPC and WASH programmes to standard; trained 1,500+ frontline health workers on IPC and 500+ on SORMAS; co-developed State PHEOC annual operations plans and led risk-communication drives that raised vaccine uptake.

  4. Principal Master and Educator, rising to Vice Principal

    Sep 2013 – Apr 2020

    Rivers State Ministry of Education (RSSSSB) — Port Harcourt, Nigeria

    • Taught 5,000+ students and served twice as a WAEC external examiner (20,000+ candidates); provided leadership for 100+ academic and non-academic staff; chaired the Examinations and Interhouse Games committees.

Earlier: Intern, UNODC/FMOH Model Drug Treatment Centre, UPTH (2017); Field Officer, Research & Development, International Development Consultants Ltd (2012).

Education

AwardFieldInstitutionYears
PhD candidateDisaster Risk Management & Development StudiesUniversity of Port Harcourt2020– (in progress)
Mini-MBABusiness AdministrationTekedia Institute, Boston, USA2023
MSc (Distinction)Disaster Risk Management & Development StudiesUniversity of Port Harcourt2018–20
Master of Public HealthPublic HealthUniversity of Port Harcourt2016–18
Professional DiplomaOccupational Safety & Health (Upper Credit)Rivers State College of Health Sci. & Tech.2016–17
BMedSc (Hons)Human Physiology — Second Class HonoursUniversity of Port Harcourt2005–09

Certifications & licences

CertificationAwarding bodyDate
ISO 9001:2015 Lead AuditorQuality Management Systems — Chartered Quality Institute & IRCA (SEQM Training Ltd), London12 May 2023
Project Management Professional (PMP)Project Management Institute2026
Africa CDC PHEM TrainingCert. ACDC-PHEM-25/08-1/-48 · Kampala, Uganda2025
COSHH Risk AssessorInternational Association for Chemical Safety2020
Writing Winning Grant ProposalsResearch4Life · Information & Outreach Centre for Africa2023
Procurement & LogisticsDisaster Ready — public-health supply chain2023

Professional memberships

  • Member, Project Management Institute (PMI) International
  • Member (MNIM), Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered)
  • Professional Fellow (FECRMI), Emergency, Crisis & Disaster Management Institute, Nigeria
  • Practitioner, Chartered Quality Institute (PCQI, UK)
  • Member, International Epidemiological Association (IEA) — African Region
  • Member, International Association of Public Health Logisticians (IAPHL)

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