About Winnie Byanyima
Winifred Byanyima (born 13 January 1959) is the executive director of UNAIDS (2019 to present). She is a Ugandan aeronautical engineer, politician, human rights activist, feminist, and diplomat. She was previously the executive director of Oxfam International (2013–19) and the director of the Gender Team in the Bureau for Development Policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2006. == Background == Byanyima was born in Mbarara District in the Western Region of Uganda, a British protectorate at the time. Her parents are the late Boniface Byanyima, one-time national chairman of the Democratic Party in Uganda, and the late Gertrude Byanyima, a former schoolteacher who died in November 2008. Winnie Byanyima attended Mount Saint Mary's College Namagunga in Mukono District. She went on to obtain a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester, becoming the first female Ugandan to become an aeronautical engineer. She later received a master's degree in mechanical engineering, specializing in energy conservation from Cranfield University. == Professional career == Following her training as an aeronautical engineer, Byanyima worked as a flight engineer for Uganda Airlines. When Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda since 1986, started the 1981–1986 Ugandan Bush War, Byanyima left her job and joined the armed rebellion.
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