Dr. Kiche obtained an M.A. in Third World Development Support, and a Ph. D. in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies from the University of Iowa. She currently is an Adjunct Instructor in the Global Health Studies Program.

Broadly, she is interested in education and global health, and in the connection between migration, diversity, and pandemics on both the physical and mental health of populations.  She has conducted research on marriage norms and the HIV/AIDS pandemic in developing countries, focusing on the link between polygamy and HIV/AIDS in Kenya.  In her data driven course, “Pandemics and Mental Health,” she tracks factor driven dynamics of the shadow US mental health curve from the onset of the Covid-19 virus infection to the time of introduction of Covid-19 virus vaccines in diverse US populations.   Other notable work includes her dissertation, "The Educational and Occupational Aspirations of Sudanese Refugee Youth in an American Public High School in the Midwest.”             

Life experiences from living in Kenya and the US have invaluably informed her teaching and research in global health. She has also worked extensively with mentally challenged individuals, immigrants, and refugees in the US.

She has held various leadership roles in the African immigrant and refugee communities in Linn and Johnson counties of Iowa and is committed to the promotion of their health.  As the chair of the African Communities Network of Iowa, she organized a project in 2019.  Using information collected from the wellness project on immigrant and refugee mental health awareness, she co-authored a report, “Mental Health Awareness and Resources Utilization among African Immigrants and Refugees in Linn and Johnson Counties of Iowa: A Group Survey Approach.” While this project promotes mental health awareness among African immigrant communities, it also helps her conduct research on a mental health model premised on Awareness, Comfort, and Access (ACA). She also examines immigrant population health survey problems, with the objective of improving the quality of mental health survey information and group or participant sampling in diverse cultural populations. 

At U Iowa, Dr. Kiche teaches courses in US immigrant and refugee health, pandemics and mental health, and mental health in diverse societies.