Dr. Steve Swanson is a pediatrician and infectious disease/tropical medicine physician working in northern Tanzania since 2013. Dr. Swanson graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1997 and subsequently completed his pediatric residency at the Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland. He was a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalist at Stanford University Hospital before completing a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric infectious disease at Washington University School of Medicine and Epidemiology training at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Minnesota Department of Health. Following his time at the Minnesota Department of Health, he served as the pediatric inpatient medical director at Hennepin County Medical Center and as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota Global Pediatrics Program.
Since moving to Tanzania, he has served as a mentoring physician and been a catalyst for local pediatric training, neonatology curriculum development, and the establishment of the highest-level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Tanzania. He also continues his involvement as an associate professor with the University of Minnesota Global Pediatrics Program and teaches across the USA and Africa. In 2021, his team in Tanzania helped launch Africa’s largest conference in neonatology, Tiny Feet, Big Steps—Advancing Care of Critically Ill and Premature Babies in Africa. This international training conference is held annually in Arusha and, over the past 4 years, has trained over 600 African doctors and nurses from 20 African countries in the fundamentals of neonatology and how to advance their hospitals’ ability to care for premature infants.
In 2023, Dr. Swanson and his wife, Jodi Swanson, established the Institute for Child Healthcare Africa (ICHA), registered as a non-profit in the United States and a non-governmental organization in Tanzania. This organization is charged with continuing to advance neonatology training across Africa while also building local pediatric infrastructure in northern Tanzania through the establishment of the Arusha Pediatric and Maternal Care Centre for children and mothers..
Jodi trained in Biology at Wheaton College and received a Nursing Doctorate (ND) in Pediatric Nursing from Case Western Reserves University. She worked at Selian Hospital and was instrumental in the implementation of a standardized feeding program for hospitalized children with severe acute malnutrition. She works in both hospital settings, feeding clinics, and villages, to treat and prevent malnutrition in small children. In recent years, she has been active in elementary and secondary school nutrition education. She is now developing work in Community Health and Development through ICHA and is involved in the development of the Arusha Pediatric and Maternal Care Centre.
Steve and Jodi have 3 children who are all now in university or post-graduate education. The Swansons have completed 12 years of ministry in Tanzania and plan to continue their work through ICHA.