Dr. Donatilla Mukamana is an Associate Professor at the University of Rwanda School of Nursing and Midwifery. She was the first mental health nurse in Rwanda after the Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. She found a need to contribute to the education of mental health nurses and to the care of vulnerable women, specifically victims of sexual violence during the genocide. Dr. Mukamana developed a biopsychosocial model of care to survivors of genocidal rape applicable in areas of war and civil unrest. She was then recognized for being the pioneer in research on genocidal rape among Rwandan survivors of the Genocide against the Tutsi and received an award for the article published in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship on “The Lived Experience of Genocide Rape Survivors in Rwanda in 2009.” 

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Dr. Mukamana has been a Servant leader with record of leading strategic initiatives that advance nursing education, practice and research in Rwanda and Africa. As Inaugural Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, she initiated a postgraduate program with eight specialties of Masters in Nursing at the University of Rwanda in 2015 and PhD in Nursing in 2018; both programs attract national and international nurses. Dr. Mukamana is leading interdisciplinary and multinational research-based grants and advocates for the welfare of the most vulnerable members of community, including people with intellectual disability and mental illness, and those affected by HIV/AIDS. She has been appointed to national and international working groups and was nominated for a Transformational Leadership Award by the Lead Nurse Africa International Foundation in April 2018. She became a Fellow of American Academy of Nursing in October 2022.