Yoko Shimpuku

Institution

Hiroshima University

Biomedical and Health Sciences

1-2-3 Kasumi, Minamiku, Hiroshima, 734-8551, JAPAN

Research Interests

Global Health, Health Promotion, Pregnancy, Childbirth, Antenatal Education, Midwifery Education

Topics to speak on:

Global Health, Africa, Science Leadership

Words of Wisdom

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

Biography

Yoko Shimpuku is a professor in Global Health Nursing in Hiroshima University. She has been an Executive Committee for three years. Especially she has been dedicating to activities related to National Young Academies and external relationships with G7/G20, INGSA, Tsukuba Conference, etc.

She is a certified nurse midwife and received her PhD in Nursing in University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. She is a member of the Young Academy of Japan (YAJ) and chairs the International Branch Meeting within YAJ. She is a member of the Gender Equity Branch Meeting at Science Council of Japan. She also established and chairs the Young Scientist Network of Japan Academy of Midwifery. In addition, she is a visiting professor in Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania, as she collaboratively developed the first Midwifery Master’s program in the country.

For her PhD dissertation, she interviewed Tanzanian mothers immediately after childbirth to learn about their experiences in the extremely resource poor setting. Since then, she has been regarding it as her mission in life to improve midwifery care to provide every woman safe and humanized childbirth. She is teaching both pregnant women and midwives and conducting evaluation research for the education to eventually reduce their high maternal and neonatal mortality.

After completion of her PhD, she experienced internship at the World Health Organization, Regional Office for South East Asia. She has been a member of WHO Collaborating Center and working closely with WHO to disseminate their evidence-based Early Essential Newborn Care program. Because of her global experiences, she was awarded for the first “Symbols of Tomorrow” in 2012. She had honors of lecturing the Princess Akishino of the Royal Family of Japan in 2014 and 2015. In 2020, she gave a speech at the UN, 5th International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly.