Kojo Lokko is a distinguished public health leader and senior faculty member in the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also serves as Deputy Director at the William H. Gates Sr. Institute for Population and Reproductive Health. With extensive experience across more than 20 countries in Africa and Asia, Lokko has built a reputation as a dynamic expert in scaling public health programs and fostering innovative public-private partnerships.

Lokko began his career in the pharmaceutical industry before transitioning to public health, where his leadership has been pivotal in managing large, complex global health programs. His expertise spans health financing, behavior change communication, service delivery, supply chain management, and government relations.

Currently, Lokko is the Executive Director and Principal Investigator of The Challenge Initiative (TCI), a groundbreaking scaling platform led by the William H. Gates Sr. Institute. TCI focuses on rapidly scaling high-impact family planning interventions tailored to urban populations, especially the underserved. Under his leadership, TCI now operates in 230 cities across 13 countries in Africa and Asia, positively impacting a population of over 241 million.

Before his role at TCI, Lokko served as Deputy Project Director for the Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3), USAID’s flagship global health and behavior change initiative led by the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP). At HC3, he oversaw initiatives across key health areas including malaria, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, and child health, leveraging cutting-edge social and behavior change methodologies.