Co-founder and Program Manager, RWHC

Jeanne F. Nizigiyimana, MSW, MA is the Co-founder and Program Manager of the Refugee Women’s Health Clinic (RWHC) at Maricopa Integrated Health System in Phoenix, AZ where she also chairs the Refugee Women’s Health Community Advisory Coalition (RWHCAC). While providing community culturally-grounded health education, her work involves the duties of a community partner for research activities that are co-designed and co-implemented by an interdisciplinary, multicultural staff, volunteers and community members. Originally from Burundi, Ms. Nizigiyimana’s main goal thru RWHCAC is to strengthen the refugee communities. Her refugee journey and resilience inspire a passionate work that impacts the lives of underserved women globally. In 1999, she co-founded Refugee Women United for Progress, in Phoenix, Arizona. Inc. In the summer of 2014 and 2017, she volunteered to join a global initiative sponsored by ASU Global Center for Applied Health Research (GCAHR) to explore Culturally Specific Health Education Programs for Internally Displaced Women-Survivors of War, a Community-Based Participatory Research project in Burundi, Central Africa. She has served on various boards and hence has received numerous awards including the ASU-SIRC Community Leadership Award in Eliminating Health Disparities.