Biography
Dr James Sylvester Squire is a medical doctor and public health specialist/Medical Epidemiologist with over 15 years of progressive experience in disease surveillance, outbreak response, public health emergency management, research, and health systems leadership. He holds an MPhil in Applied Epidemiology and Disease Control (University of Ghana), a Master of International Public Health (University of Queensland, Australia), and an MBChB (University of Sierra Leone).
He has held senior leadership roles within Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health, including Medical Superintendent, District Medical Officer, and National Disease Surveillance Program Manager. As District Medical Officer in Kailahun, he led the successful containment of the 2014–2015 Ebola outbreak. As National Program Manager, he pioneered the implementation of electronic Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (e-IDSR), making Sierra Leone the first country in the region to implement electronic disease surveillance at all levels of the health system.
He contributed to the development of the 3rd Edition IDSR for the Afro Region, and he is a certified master trainer for the IDSR. He also led national surveillance efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing critical epidemiological intelligence to guide the response. Dr Squire has led surveillance and epidemiology efforts for preparedness and response to multiple outbreaks, including Lassa fever, circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, measles, anthrax, foodborne illnesses, schistosomiasis, acute watery diarrhoea, and Mpox.
Internationally, he served as a Malaria Epidemiologist with AFENET and the WHO Country Office in South Sudan, and consulted for the Taskforce for Global Health on the Global Fund Surveillance Project. He currently serves as Director of Surveillance and Applied Epidemiology at the Sierra Leone National Public Health Agency. He is also a part-time lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of Sierra Leone and has published over 60 peer-reviewed scientific articles (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8593-7972). In 2025, he served as Incident Manager for the Mpox outbreak in Sierra Leone, providing strategic leadership that resulted in successful containment and the official declaration of the end of the outbreak by the Minister of Health on 15 December 2025.
Dr Squire is an experienced leader, mentor, and trainer with strong analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills. He has extensive experience in multisectoral and One Health collaboration addressing zoonotic and emerging infectious diseases. He is a Fellow of the African Institute of Public Health Professionals and a recipient of multiple national and international awards for academic excellence, leadership, and humanitarian service.