Dr. Gladys Kalema makes it to top 5 CNN heroes 2026

In the forests of Bwindi, a mountain gorilla and a villager can fall sick from the very same thing. For a long time, nobody joined those dots.

Then one Ugandan vet did. Dr. Galdys Kalema Zikusooka has spent almost three decades proving that you cannot save the gorillas unless you also look after the people who live next door.

Today, her works within Bwindi Impenetrable Forest have taken her to the world stage. She has been named among the Top 5 CNN Heroes of 2026, and Uganda is being asked to help carry her over the line.

CNN announced its five finalists on 28 October 2026. The top 5 have emerged from thousands of nominations around the world and Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka is the only African on the list. The other four finalists come from the United States and Mexico and work on issues such as hunger, homelessness, animal rescue and access to mobility aids.

She is also the third Ugandan to be recognised by the programme since it began in 2007. Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe was honoured in 2007 for helping girls and young women in Gulu rebuild their lives after the war, and Dr. Jackson Kaguri was recognised in 2012 for supporting children and grandmothers affected by HIV/AIDS. Her name now joins theirs.

According to her own story, Gladys became Uganda’s first wildlife veterinarian in 1996. In those early years, her job was simple on paper, look after sick animals in the wild. But when a disease outbreak hit the mountain gorillas of Bwindi National Park, investigators linked the spread to the people living around the forest.

That finding changed how she saw the problem. The gorillas were not sick in isolation. They share a landscape with farming families, and if those families are unwell, poor and short of options, the forest and its wildlife suffer as well. She decided that conservation could not succeed without better health for the communities nearby.

In 2003 she founded Conservation through Public Health (CTPH) to tackle both sides at once. The idea is known as One Health: human health, animal health and the environment are linked, so they should be protected together.

CTPH has reached more than 10,000 households around Bwindi. It works on community health, hygiene, family planning and conservation education, and it trains local people to become health volunteers in their own villages.

The organisation also runs a community and gorilla health centre on the edge of the Bwindi Park, equipped to investigate unexplained deaths among apes and to test for dangerous diseases. Her team collects and tests gorilla samples inside the forest, which means problems can be spotted early.

One of the most creative parts of the story is a cup of coffee. In 2015, she set up Gorilla Conservation Coffee, a social enterprise that helps farmers near gorilla habitat reach better markets and use farming methods that are friendly to the forest.

When a farmer earns a fair income without clearing more land, the forest stands a better chance. It is conservation that fits into a family’s daily life, and that is why it works.

Dr. Kalema-Zikusoka says that the work with these households has helped the Bwindi gorilla population grow by more than 50 percent. The CNN’s profile of her makes the same point. It is important to be clear that many people and organizations have contributed to gorilla protection in Uganda’s Bwindi and Mgahinga National Park, including park rangers, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and partners, but CTPH’s model has become a respected example of how health and conservation can work together.

CTPH co-founder Dr. Stephen Rubanga said that winning the top prize would let the organisation raise more money to protect the gorillas and to expand health programmes, gorilla health work, conservation education and livelihood projects.

This is not her first recognition. She was named a UN Champion of the Earth in 2021 by the UN Environment Programme in the Science and Innovation category.

Earlier honours include a Whitley Gold Award, the San Diego Zoo Conservation-in-Action Award, a Women of Discovery Humanity Award, a Sierra Club EarthCare Award and an award from the Uganda Veterinary Association, among many others.

Here are the practical details, since this is where readers can make a difference.

Public voting opened on 28 October 2026 and closes on 29 November 2026. Supporters can vote up to 10 times a day, and an email address is needed to cast a vote.

The CNN Hero of the Year will be announced during the 20th annual CNN Heroes; An All-Star Tribute on 5 December 2026 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

Each of the five finalists receives US$10000 for their work. The Hero of the Year receives an additional US$100,000 and a further unrestricted grant from the Elevate Prize Foundation.

The other finalists can also benefit from donation matching and support to strengthen their organizations.