Skip to main content
Kundai Chinyenze

Kundai Chinyenze


International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Kenya


Kundai Chinyenze is a physician with 21 years’ experience working in East and southern Africa and the UK in HIV vaccine and other biomedical prevention R&D, as well as capacity strengthening for R&D and service provision. She currently serves in the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) as the ADVANCE Chief of Party and IAVI Africa Director: Kundai leads the development and execution of the long-term strategy for the USAID-funded cooperative agreement, incorporating the most relevant internal and external scientific advancements and translating them into affordable, globally accessible HIV vaccine candidates and other prophylactic biomedical interventions. ADVANCE is a multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral partnership to accelerate HIV prevention research outcomes and global health impact.

Kundai’s clinical research experience includes the design and implementation of clinical trials for candidate vaccines, antibodies and microbicides. She has led regional programmes working with research partners in academic institutions, NGOs and private institutions. She has also worked with service providers in the public and private sectors, policy makers and regulators, as well as international agencies (including WHO and UNAIDS), serving on various working groups.

Previously, Kundai worked in microbicide research and the HIV and AIDS care and treatment field as a government medical officer. She set up the first antiretroviral therapy clinic in Zimbabwe’s largest referral hospital and worked on the Zimbabwe National Antiretroviral Therapy Rollout Programme.

The IAS promotes the use of non-stigmatizing, people-first language. The translations are all automated in the interest of making our content as widely accessible as possible. Regretfully, they may not always adhere to the people-first language of the original version.