Dr. Gladys Mwiti Named 2010 Scholar-Leader of the Year

February 19, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information contact Evan Hunter, evan@cisf.org or 847.295.9308

Dr. Gladys Mwiti Named CISF

2010 Scholar-Leader of the Year

DEERFIELD, Ill., February 15 – CISF (www.cisf.org) today announced that Dr. Gladys Mwiti, founder and CEO of Oasis Africa, has been named the 2010 CISF Scholar-Leader of the Year. Dr. Mwiti earned this prestigious award for her focus on high level holistic psychotherapy and community development. The CISF award recognizes excellence in leadership, scholarship, and faithfulness to the mission of the Gospel.

According to Dr. Tite Tienou, Chairman of the CISF Board, "Dr. Mwiti embodies the kind of Christian leader CISF has supported over its 25 year history. Through her leadership at Oasis Africa, she has brought healing to communities and individuals in the wake of internationally recognized crises. Her writing and work continue to develop the field of psychotherapy for the continent of Africa. She is helping to raise up a new generation of counselors equipped to address the unique needs of the people in Africa.  She is truly a scholar and a leader."

Regarding her work, Mwiti states, "Oasis Africa works to prepare value-based leaders who understand and respond to the deep needs of an emerging economy. Rooted in faith and fear of God, our input will help build a lasting foundation where Africa will learn to go back to the basics: to value people above things."

About Dr. Mwiti:  Gladys Mwiti founded Oasis Africa with her husband, Dr. Gershon Mwiti in 1990.  She now supervises a team of over 20 MA counseling psychologists.  Oasis has built a significant reputation as a training organization for peer counseling and trauma intervention for groups such as the US Embassy and USAID, Coca Cola, South African High Commission, and Food for the Hungry among others.  In addition, their holistic work has created several grass roots ministries for education, economic development and empowerment among some of the poorest people in Kenya.

Dr. Mwiti has led teams to train trauma counselors and address issues related to such crises as the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the US Embassy bombing in 1998, the Gujaret India earthquake in 2001.  In addition to trauma counseling, Dr. Mwiti has written on the topic of HIV/AIDS counseling and her work is not used as a curriculum to develop counseling support for HIV/AIDS patients.  More recently, Dr. Mwiti's books and training have provided the curriculum for training counselors in Burundi seeking to bring healing after their civil war.  After the violence following the 2007 election, Dr. Mwiti was called upon to conduct training and counseling among eight major corporations and all 57 public high schools in Nairobi.

Dr. Mwiti holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology that she earned in Nairobi as well as an M.A. in Christian Leadership and her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Fuller Theological Seminary.  She is the author of four books and a video based training curriculum for counselors in Africa, produced in conjunction with Fuller Seminary.   She is currently the chair of the Kenya Psychological Association and a consultant to the Lausanne Consultation on Care and Counsel as Mission. 

CISF supports prominent Christian leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe to attain advanced theological education at leading seminaries worldwide. After finishing their studies, they return home to make significant contributions to the church and society. Dr. Tite Tiénou, Academic Dean of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and chairman of the CISF Board explains, "CISF exists to help develop highly trained, Christian leaders. This is the greatest need in the church around the world today."