Dr. Halid Kirunda is the President of Uganda Red Cross Society, a position he has held since March 2019 and Chairperson of the Localization Alliance. He ascended to the position of President serving a 4-year period as a member of the Uganda Red Cross Central (National) Governing Board. He has represented his Branch in National Council since 2006 and been a member of Red Cross for 37 years. He is a public servant with the National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) where he serves as a Director of Research. He has worked with the public sector for 31 years, 18 of which spent on livestock and public health research. He has published more than 30 papers in peer reviewed journals and written five policy briefs. Among other qualifications, he holds a PhD in Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health.

Besides, Dr. Kirunda has served as a reviewer of University Curricula with the National Council for Higher Education for 10 years (2009 – 2019) and a member of the Products Standards Development Committee of Uganda National Bureau of Standards for a similar period (2010 – 2020). He has served on the Presidential Technical Advisory Committee for livestock disease control and two Steering Committees (Livestock Vaccine Development and Livestock Disease Control) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal industry and Fisheries of Uganda. He is currently a Vice Chairman of the Research Ethics Committee of NARO and a member of the NARO Animal Vaccine Research and Production Advisory Committee. Dr. Kirunda is a member of the Executive Committee of the Africa & Middle East Regional Network on Infectious Diseases of Animals and Zoonoses Research and a Regional Advisor (Africa Region) of the Global Alliance for Research on Avian Diseases.