THE
TEAM
GI Rising is an international team of faculty, students, physicians, nurses, technicians, and volunteers who are all ages and from all walks of life. We are working together to reduce the burden of gastrointestinal and liver disease in Rwanda through local sustainable initiatives. Our board members are listed below, but this represents only a small number of our dedicated volunteers in GI Rising.
Steve Bensen, MD
Professor of Medicine
Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine
Section of Gastroenterology
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center
Frederick Makrauer, MD
Harvard Medical School
Section of Gastroenterology
Brigham & Women's Hospital
​Matt Smith, MD
"Being a partner in the development of the gastroenterology program in Rwanda and watching the steady progress has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life."
Lisa Rubenberg, CRNA
"I joined the Rwanda Endoscopy Week in 2018 where I was an educator for the Conscious Sedation Course. My experience was incredible, and I returned in 2019 and was fortunate to be able to bring my Husband and 2 boys with me."
Rebecca E Laird,
MD MPH
"My husband and I joined Rwanda Endoscopy Week in 2019. We witnessed firsthand the comradery and collaboration in GI Rising that sets it apart. I am proud to be a part of such a dedicated, intelligent, and intentional group."
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Kenechukwu Chudy-Onwugaje, MBBD, MPH, MS, FACG
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"I joined the board to be part of this collaborative group that is working with our Rwandan colleagues to continue to advance digestive health care."
Katie Dunleavy MB BCh BAO
Advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease Fellow
Mayo Clinic
“I joined GI Rising in 2023 after traveling to Kigali for the 6th Rwanda Endoscopy Week. The collaboration between local Rwandan partners, and global physicians is outstanding. I am in awe of the dedication to the education of Rwanda’s first GI fellows.”
Dr Donald Duerksen MD FRCPC
Section Head Gastroenterology
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I attended my first Rwanda endoscopy week in 2018. Its been my privilege to be involved with such an amazing group of individuals and participate in this collaborative vision.
Gaspard Habimana, MD MMEd PCH
Dr. Habimana received his medical training and Masters of Medicine in Pediatrics at the University of Rwanda. He completed a fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Yonsei University in South Korea as well as a rotation at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in the United States. Dr. Habimana chose to pursue pediatric gastroenterology as a means to start filling a gaping void he saw in the Rwandan healthcare system. At the time of his subspecialty training, he noted that nearly half of the Rwandan population was under the age of 18 and many were afflicted with gastrointestinal disorders. Yet, there was not a single physician trained in pediatric gastroenterology. Dr. Habimana became the first Rwandan physician to be trained specifically in pediatric gastroenterology. In the future, Dr. Habimana hopes to start a pediatric gastroenterology fellowship program in collaboration with international partners with the ultimate goal of providing standard diagnostic and therapeutic services to patients of all ages with gastroenterological disorders across the country.
Zainab Ingabire, MD
Dr. Ingabire is a first-year attending, part of the first graduating class of The University of Rwanda’s Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology program. She completed her undergraduate and medical education at the University of Rwanda. Her interest in gastroenterology and hepatology piqued in 2017 when, as an internal medicine resident, she had the opportunity to participate in the first Rwanda Endoscopy Week. From there, Dr. Ingabire began to pursue further education in the field. When a Fibroscan was introduced to the University of Rwanda, Dr. Ingabire was one of the first doctors to be trained to use the machine. She began to integrate the use of Fibroscans into her work in general medicine practice for risk stratification of chronic liver disease. This ultimately led her to embark on her fellowship training in gastroenterology and hepatology. As she grows in her career, she hopes to help make advanced endoscopic procedures more widely available in remote and rural areas by training and mentoring future gastroenterology trainees.
Cedric Kwitonda, MD
Dr. Kwitonda is a second-year gastroenterology (GI) fellow, primarily based at King Faisal Hospital. He was born in Burundi, as a refugee, returned to Rwanda in 1994, and lives in Kigali currently with his wife and two children. Dr. Kwitonda completed his undergraduate degree in Burundi and residency at the University of Rwanda. He developed an interest in gastroenterology after participating in Rwanda Endoscopy Week (REW) – as a resident, he saw numerous patients that needed GI specialty care and saw an opportunity, during REW, to fill that gap. He has supplemented his training with international rotations in India and Wisconsin, USA. He hopes to complete his training in Advanced Endoscopy.
Solange Mukanumviye, MD
Dr. Mukanumviye is a first-year attending, part of the first graduating class of The University of Rwanda’s Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology program. She was born in the north of Rwanda, and now resides in Kigali with her husband, 2 daughters, and son. She completed her undergraduate and residency at the University of Rwanda. She first joined REW in 2018 as a resident, participating in introductory meetings with visiting and local gastroenterologists, including Drs. Steve Bensen and Vincent Dusabejambo. Upon graduation, she worked in Gisenyi District Hospital as an internal medicine physician, where she continued to interact with GI Rising. In Gisenyi, Dr. Mukanumviye found both an interest in performing endoscopies and strong desire to contribute to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with GI-related pathologies, leading to her application for fellowship. In the future, she plans to continue her work as a general gastroenterologist, while contributing to the need for advanced endoscopy care in Rwanda.
Dyna Nyampinga, MD
Dr. Nyampinga is a first-year attending, part of the first graduating class of The University of Rwanda’s Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology program. She was born in the western province of Rwanda, and now lives in Kigali with her husband and son. She completed her undergraduate in 2015 and residency in 2020, both at the University of Rwanda. Her interest in GI started in medical school, when she was handed her first endoscope during REW. After meeting the rest of the team over dinner, she became involved in research projects in residency, focused on upper GI bleeds and outcomes. As an early career gastroenterologist, she hopes to strengthen GI capacity in Rwanda, both clinically and academically, and pursue advanced endoscopy training in the future.
Eric Rutaganda, MD PMH
Dr. Rutaganda completed his medical education at the University of Rwanda and Hepato-gastroenterology training at the University of Sorbonne Paris Nord and Paris-Saclay University in Paris, France. He also earned a Masters of Science in Public Health from Clarke International University in Kampala, Uganda. Dr. Rutaganda had dreamed of pursuing gastroenterology since primary school. From a young age he recalls being aware of a high prevalence of GI and liver diseases in his community. For him, he saw gastroenterology as a solution to answer the unmet needs of patients in his country. By the time he began his subspecialty training, there were no more than two trained GI doctors in Rwanda. That scarcity of GI specialists pushed Dr. Rutaganda to return to his home country with the goal of promoting access to gastroenterological care. Dr. Rutaganda’s hope is to equip Rwandan doctors with the capability of managing increasingly complex GI disorders thereby decreasing, or completely eliminating, the need to refer patients out of the country to receive treatment. At present, he is working to foster GI education and promote preventative measures such as colon cancer screening, H. pylori prevention, and HBV/HCV eradication at community and national levels.
Shikama Felicien, MD
I serve as Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist at Butare University Teaching Hospital in the Southern Province of Rwanda. My academic background includes Bachelors in General Medicine and Surgery, Masters in Internal Medicine, and Fellowship in Adult Gastroenterology and Hepatology that I completed respectively in 2011 , 2017 and 2024 from the University of Rwanda. For professional experiences, I served as Internal Doctor at Rwamagana District Hospital in the Eastern Province of Rwanda in 2012, and as General Practitioner and Head of Department of Internal Medicine at Byumba District Hospital in the Southern Province of Rwanda. After I graduated as a physician in 2017, I served as Head of Department of Internal Medicine at Ruhengeri Referral Hospital in the Northern Province of Rwanda and in 2018 I served as Physician Endoscopist at Butare University Teaching Hospital.
Besides medical practice, I have served as General Secretary and Treasurer of Rwanda Society for Endoscopy since 2016 until now and I am an active member of the organizing committee of Rwanda Endoscopy Weeks which is a yearly outreach event that is organized by Rwanda Society for Endoscopy under collaboration with GI-Rising. In addition, I am an active member of the Endoscopy and Outreach committee of World Gastroenterology Organization from 2022 until now (by nomination).
I have attended international conferences and workshops namely the hands-on training in GI endoscopy at Rabat Training Center Morocco in 2017, the CUGH 2019 (Consortium of Universities of Global Health) conference that was held in Chicago, USA where I presented a ePoster on Cold agglutinin disease prevalence and hyperreactive malarial splenomegaly in the Southern Province of Rwanda. In December 2019, I participated in hands-on training in endoscopy in Cairo, Egypt. In addition, I attended the 2nd World Congress of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ENDO2020) that was held in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in March 2020 where I presented an abstract on gastric cancer in Rwanda. I have attend the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress in Madrid, Spain in 2023 as well as the Digestive Disease Week (DDW) in California, USA in 2022. My main areas of interest are gastric cancer and viral hepatitis.