2022 Leadership Journey Project: Women Leading Change and Organizational Growth at the Ghana Physicians and Surgeons Foundation
Bertha Serwa Ayi is an infectious disease consultant in Essentia Health West in Fargo, North Dakota where she is also acts as the Medical Director of the Essentia West Sepsis Program.
She is also an Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Kansas Health Science Center and University of North Dakota, USA and an adjunct lecturer at the University of Development Studies in Tamale, Ghana and the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho, Ghana. She is the President elect of the Ghana Physicians and Surgeons Foundation of North America (GPSF).
A graduate of the University Of Ghana Medical School (UGMS Class of 1996) where
she graduated with honors and received the Alcon/Paracelsus Award in Ophthalmology, she completed her Internal Medicine Residency training at Good Samaritan Hospital Inc., affiliated with John Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore Maryland in 2002.
In 2004, she completed fellowship training in Infectious Diseases at a combined training program at Creighton University Medical Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center and the VA Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a Board Certified Infectious Disease Specialist and a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Disease Society of America. She completed a MBA with a focus on Health Services Administration at the University of South Dakota, graduating in 2013.
She has been actively involved in health affairs of Ghana, Africa and globally. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic she has been relentless in educating the public and colleagues about this disease in print, television, and social media bringing much needed direction locally, nationally and internationally. In April of 2020 she was appointed a member of the Case Management Technical Working Group of the Africa Task Force for the Management of COVID-19 of the Africa Centers for Disease Control (CDC) by the Director General of the CDC Dr. John Nkengasong.
She is a well-loved speaker and an astute author with two published books; several book chapters and numerous medical journals and internet publications. She has been a regular contributor to Science Speaks: Global Infectious Disease News Blog, A project of the infectious Disease Society Global Health.
Since July 2020 she has been a member of the Board of Directors of Mercy Ships International and the Chairperson of its Medical Review Committee since January of 2021.
In 2015 she was nominated for and won the Women of Excellence award in the category of Women Striving to Improve the Quality of Life, under the auspices of Women Aware, a nonprofit organization.
She is passionate about global health, malaria eradication and poverty reduction.
