Prof. Collette A. Suda, PhD, FKNAS, CBS, is currently the Principal Secretary, State Department for Gender, Ministry of Public Service and Gender. She is the former Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) and Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for University Education and Research, Ministry of Education, Kenya; Chief Administrative Secretary, Ministry of Energy; Principal Secretary for University Education, Ministry of Education; Principal Secretary, State Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education; Secretary for Gender and Social Development, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development; Director, Institute of African Studies; and Director, Board of Common Undergraduate Courses, University of Nairobi.
She also served as an external examiner; as a member of the National Commission on Gender and Development as well as of the Advisory Board of Women Enterprise Fund, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development. She is currently the Chairperson of the Governing Board of African Institute for Capacity Development (AICAD).
Prof. Suda, a full Professor of Sociology at the Institute of African Studies, University of Nairobi, is a Fellow of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences (FKNAS). She has a PhD in Rural Sociology, M.Sc. in Rural Sociology and M.Sc. in Community Development from the University of Nairobi. Prof. Suda has extensive research experience as principal investigator in gender, family studies, social change and sustainable rural development. She has published widely in international scholarly and peer refereed journals and co-authored a book.
On October 4th, 2007, she delivered her inaugural lecture at the University of Nairobi, entitled: “Formal monogamy and informal polygyny in Parallel: African Family Traditions in Transition”.