A defining moment in the life of Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s new regional director for Africa, came when she was 9 and her father realized that her little sister’s mathematics textbook was below even the level he had studied as a poor child on a South African farm.
He and his wife had both graduated from one of the country’s top medical schools, the University of the Witwatersrand, but the National Party that came to power in 1948 had imposed “Bantu education” on blacks, preparing them only for subservient jobs under apartheid.
“My father decided right then that we would move to Botswana so his children could get a better education,” Dr. Moeti, 60, said in a telephone interview on Monday from Geneva, where on Tuesday she was appointed to the new W.H.O. post that will put her at the forefront of an international effort to stop the spread of Ebola.
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Dr. Moeti also credited a boyfriend with starting her down the path to her new job, and described the decision in medical terms. She joined the W.H.O., she said, because he was working for it as a doctor in Zimbabwe.
“I did it to give the relationship a chance,” she said. “Since we are now married, it was a results-based career move.”
A version of this article appears in print on January 28, 2015, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Botswana Doctor Is Named to Lead W.H.O. in Africa. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
