“Dr. Kombe was widely admired and appreciated by colleagues and students for his unassuming manner, his warmth, his knowledge of global health issues, and his commitment to enhancing the health of the poor,” said Dr. Richard Skolnik, lecturer in global health at the George Washington University. “He enriched the lives of students and faculty with his broad perspective on health and his ability to bring to the classroom first-hand experiences from working in a large number of countries on the most critical health challenges.” Dr. Kombe helped establish the Global Health Department at GW and taught there until 2007.
In the 1990s, while obtaining his masters in public health and later teaching at the GW School of Public Health and Health Services, Dr. Kombe worked on public health issues in Washington, DC, Africa, and Eastern Europe. He conducted research on substance abuse prevention and barriers to accessing services by minority populations, and served on a team that provided HIV/AIDS, TB, and other health services to patients at the largest clinic for the homeless in Washington. Also in that period, he was a member of the Task Force on HIV/AIDS/STD Crisis Prevention and Mitigation for sub-Saharan Africa, and designed and implemented a Leadership for Health program for the countries of Eastern Europe.
December 8, 2009 at 12:17 pm
I met Dr. Kombe in 1999 when I reluctantly became a graduate student at GWSPHHS after many years away from school and studying. Dr. Kombe appreciated my work experience and validated so much of what I had learned by “doing.” He talked to me as a colleague and we shared our love of all the hope and promise that Africa holds. He gently nudged me into being a better student and helped me navigate graduate school as my advisor. After I had finished my MPH he paid me the ultimate compliment by asking me to come and lecture in one of his classes. I am where I am because I finished my degree; I could not have done it without Dr. Kombe’s encouragement and kindness. My heartfelt sympathy and condolences go to his family that he loved so dearly and to his friends — let’s keep persevering and working on finding solutions as Gilbert would wanted.