The Global Forum 2020: speaker biographies

Hon. Alexander K.K. Abban is currently the Member of Parliament for the people of Gomoa West Constituency in the Central Region of the Republic of Ghana and Deputy Minister of Health. He holds a first Degree in Sociology and Law from the Premier University of Ghana. He also holds a Masters Degree in Financial Law from the Boston University School of Law, U.S.A. Hon. Abban, a lawyer by profession, worked as a legal advisor for the Ghana Stock Exchange and a part-time lecturer at the Ghana School of Law and the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. He is committed to ensuring the advancement of Universal Health Coverage where no one will be left behind in the provision and access to quality health care.

Dr. Aceng Jane Ruth is the Honorable Minister of Health for Uganda. She previously served as the Director General for Health Services, where she was responsible for coordinating the technical functions for the delivery of health services in the country. She is also a pediatric and public health expert. As the Minister of Health she possesses the Constitutional Powers and functions of spearheading the Ministry, including Administration, Policy Formulation and direction. She is also responsible for defending the Ministerial budget and issue orders and statutory regulations on the sector.

Dr Margaret Agama-Anyetei is the Head of the Health, Nutrition and Population Division of the African Union Department for Social Affairs. A senior medical doctor with specialty in clinical and neuro-psychology, she has extensive experience working with marginalized and vulnerable populations particularly women and children and key populations in conflict and humanitarian settings. She has wide management and field experience in various national, regional and international settings. She has also worked in areas of Health policy development, Advocacy and Policy and Strategic development in the areas of HIV/AIDS and in the integration of Gender, HIV and AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health.

Dr Mahamat Hamit Ahmat is Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Public Health, Chad, since 2018. Following his graduation as a Doctor of Medicine in 1999, he worked as a practising physician at Bol Hospital until 2001, after which he became Chief Medical Officer for N’gouri Health District. Following this, he has been Regional Health Delegate for three Regions in Chad from 2005-2012. He then completed a post graduate public health degree in Niger in 2014, specializing in reproductive health, and was appointed as the Director of Reproductive Health and Immunisation services. In 2016 he became Deputy Director General for Health Activities and was responsible for the implementation of the national health policy. Since 2018 he has been Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Public Health.

Dr An graduated from Harbin Medical University in 1995, and gained a Masters in Public Health in 2006. In 2016-2017, he joined the Humphrey Fellowship in Emory University and US CDC, focusing on vaccines and immunization.

Dr An was seconded to the World Health Organization China Office between 2009 and 2013, as National Professional Officer in the immunization team, working mainly on measles and rubella elimination and new vaccine introduction. More recently, he has acted in a critical role to coordinate inactive polio vaccine introduction in China as part of a global polio immunization strategy switch plan. He currently leads the pneumococcal vaccine working group in NIP China CDC.

Dr. Geoffrey Anguyo is a general practitioner trained at Makerere University Medical School in Uganda, with interest in innovative and sustainable approaches to community health and global health education. He is the founder and the executive director of Kigezi Health Care Foundation (KIHEFO) a non-profit organization based in south-west Uganda. He is also the medical director of Child Family Health International for the Ugandan global health program, and supervisor of the student community placement program with Mbarara University of science and technology faculty of medicine and department of community health. In August 2018 he was elected board member of the governing council for Uganda Society for health scientists, which brings together health professionals. He is currently supervising the implementation of a pilot project on the use of point of care ultrasound to scan pneumonia in children. The project targets mid-level health workers and assesses their competence before being rolled out. It is supported by the Butterfly Company and the technical assistance to get experts to review the process is coordinated by Bridge to Health Medical and Dental(BTH) a Canadian-based non-profit organization. Current ultrasound technology is inexpensive, portable, easy to teach, produces images that are simple to read and requires few resources.

Marie Gladys Guerrier Archange is the current Country Director of CARE International in Chad. She oversees CARE’s refugee crisis response and CARE’s contribution to building community resilience and supporting access to basic services in a complex humanitarian context. In 2012, she served as Programme Director at Plan International Haiti before becoming Country Director for Plan International in Rwanda. In this capacity, she pushed the organisation’s agenda in gender transformative programming in both development and humanitarian settings. Previously, Marie Gladys Guerrier Archange joined the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) where she worked closely with the Haitian government and introduced the “Small Grant Programme of the Global Environment Fund”.

Professor Shally Awasthi is Head of the Department of Paediatrics in King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, where she has worked for over 33 years. She specialises in epidemiology, paediatric pulmonology, infectious and parasitic diseases and clinical trials, and has published over 280 research papers in the field. She has been awarded Fellowships of National Academy of Medical Sciences, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, National Academy of Sciences, India Allahabad and Indian Academy of Paediatrics.

Sheillah Bagayana is the Mbarara technical lead-LPOS Research at MRRH/FREO2 Australia. She is an emerging expert in medical oxygen plants and delivery systems in Uganda, where she locally manages the charity FREO2 Australia. The charity research organisation advances research and development of affordable oxygen technologies locally. These systems provide uninterrupted supply of oxygen to children, including during power outages. Sheillah Bagayana has worked as maintenance engineer for the 14 oxygen plants in regional hospitals under the 1.8 million USD project managed by Silverbacks in partnership with the Ministry of Health. She also co-founded Shishi International, a start-up working to assemble and manufacture medical devices locally for neonatal and maternal care in Uganda with the support of the United States Development Fund. Prior to that, she consulted Clinton Health Access Initiative on the training of health workers and technicians in oxygen systems.

Dr Kevin Baker is the acting Head of Research at Malaria Consortium. His work, as an implementation scientist, has focused on better understanding the diagnosis and management of paediatric pneumonia in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. He is currently leading a number of studies looking at improving the diagnosis of pneumonia by frontline health workers in Ethiopia and Nepal. Dr Baker has over 15 years research experience in a range of global organisations, ranging from financial services to global health.

Currently, Dr Bassat is an ICREA Research Professor and Head of the Malaria Programme. As a pediatrician with special interest in infectious disease epidemiology and public health, Dr. Bassat has attempted to combine his clinical work with biomedical research in those diseases that most affect the poor and vulnerable. His main area of interest has been the prevention and treatment of malaria in childhood, with a particular focus on understanding the clinical overlap of malaria and other common pediatric conditions. His research has also covered the new paradigm of malaria eradication, with a particular interest in evaluating the role of drugs in elimination strategies. He has also conducted work on the description of the epidemiology and etiology of respiratory infections (viral and bacterial), diarrheal diseases, and neonatal infections in places such as Mozambique, Morocco or Bhutan. He has also studied Yaws, a neglected tropical skin disease, advancing on the science of its potential eradication.

Dr Jessica Beckerman serves as the Chief Medical Officer of Muso, a global health organization working to cure delay, because no one should die waiting for care. For the past decade, the Muso team has conducted operational research with the Government of Mali, to design solutions for early access to care and improved survival. Building on this research, Mali’s President last year committed to a historic reform of Mali’s national health care system, which Dr. Beckerman and her team will be intensively supporting over the coming years. In 2019, Muso also began providing strategic support to the national community health system of Côte d’Ivoire. A board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist physician, Dr Beckerman previously worked in health equity and human rights for the NGOs Partners In Health and Tostan. She studied international development at Brown University, obtained her medical degree from the University of California San Francisco, and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Kaiser Permanente. Muso’s work has been featured by the BBC World Service, the Guardian, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the Atlantic and others.

Seth Berkley is an epidemiologist and the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the global health organization protecting lives by improving access to vaccines in developing countries. Seth joined Gavi in 2011 in a period of rapid acceleration of Gavi’s programs. Now, with more than half a billion children immunized, he is leading Gavi’s efforts to reach a further 300 million children in the next five years and build sustainability into country immunization programs. Prior to Gavi, he spearheaded the development of vaccines for HIV as founder and CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

Julie Bernstein is the Deputy Director for Program Advocacy and Communications within Global Policy and Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She leads a team responsible for Vaccine Delivery, Integrated Delivery, and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health advocacy and communications. Julie has nearly 20 years of experience leading advocacy and communications at nonprofits and foundations that focus on social justice and women’s and children’s health. Prior to joining the foundation, Julie was Director of Policy Communications at CARE, where she led CARE’s communications efforts across several priority issues including maternal health and ending child marriage. Before CARE, Julie was Director of Global Programs and Senior Media Advisor at Susan G. Komen for the Cure where she was instrumental in expanding Komen’s global presence through educational programs and communications campaigns. Julie also served as Communications Director at Alliance for Justice, a national association of more than 100 organizations dedicated to advancing justice and democracy.

Pneumonia is one of the biggest killers of children in Nepal, attributing to almost 30% of child deaths. In 2018, 13-year-old Niruta BK of Chhatiwon, Makwanpur, was almost another casualty of this preventable disease. Niruta was diagnosed with the condition almost 2 years ago at her local primary health care facility in Bharapur. The doctors at the hospital provided the diagnosis, but were unable to treat her condition due to the severity and the absence of the correct treatment services available. Therefore, the doctor had no choice but to refer her to Patan Hospital in Lalitpur after her condition aggravated, where she then had to make the journey with her father. It was during this curative phase that Khadga, Niruta’s father, began to contemplate and become anxious as to how he was to pay for this life-saving treatment. He worked as a labourer, earning just enough to keep the family and meet their needs. This medical treatment would be a huge additional cost and he felt forced into considering selling his cattle and taking out costly loans to save his daughter. Khadga is not alone when it comes to out-of-pocket costs that can have a catastrophic impact at the household level. He writes ‘A man will do whatever he needs to, irrespective of the consequences that he will face later, to save the life of his own child’.

Catharina Boehme is a Chief Executive Officer at the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics. Leading the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), Catharina Boehme oversees an organisation which enables the development and delivery of much-needed diagnostic tests for diseases of poverty. She also serves as co-Chair of the New Diagnostics Working Group of the Stop Tuberculosis (TB) Partnership, and is a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic and Technical Advisory Group (STAG-TB). Before joining FIND in 2005, Boehme established a TB research unit at Mbeya Medical Research Program in Tanzania.

Professor Bogaert joined the Centre for Inflammation Research in September 2016. Since 2008 she worked as a physician scientist at the Department of Pediatric Immunology of the UMC Utrecht, The Netherlands, where she initiated several ecological studies of the upper respiratory tract microbiome in relation to pathogenesis and prevention of respiratory infections. She worked from 2006 to 2008 as a postdoctoral fellow (Professor M Lipsitch and Professor R Malley, Harvard School of Public Health/Boston Children’s Hospital) where she executed in vitro and animal studies on susceptibility of infants to pneumococcal colonization and infection, with specific emphasis on host-immunity.

Sarah Boseley is the health editor of the Guardian newspaper in London. Her writing over the last 15 years has centred around health and medical issues with both a UK and a global perspective. She has won ten awards for her work, including the One World Media award, BMJ Group journalism award and the Lorenzo Natali prize from the European Commission. She received the journalism award of the European School of Oncology for cancer coverage in 2006 and was named BMJ health communicator of the year in 2010 for her work on the problems of the drug-supply chain in Africa. She launched her global health blog on the Guardian website in 2009.

Dr  Felix Bundala is  head of the Newborn and Child Health Programme in the Ministry of Health in Tanzania. He has been working for the Reproductive and Child Health Section in the Ministry of Health for the past 12 years and has held various positions including Programme Officer Responsible for IMCI. Dr  Bundala is a medical doctor and holds a masters in Health Policy and Management.

Michael is Head of the Technical Advice & Partnerships Department (TAP) at The Global Fund in Geneva.  He is building impactful collaboration with Global Fund’s partners and is responsible for providing technical advice and support to the Global Fund’s Country Teams to accelerate in-country results against HIV, TB and Malaria while also building Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health.  He has worked at the Global Fund for more than 10 years, and previously led the High Impact Africa 1 Department at the Global Fund’s Grant Management Division.   Michael has more than 30 years of strategic planning, operations management, and people leadership spanning international development institutions, bilateral aid, NGO and the private sector across Asia, Africa and Europe.

Professor Harry Campbell is currently Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and Public Health and co-Director of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Unit in Global Respiratory Health, which is setting up many child pneumonia studies in Asia. He also co-directs the Centre for Population Health Sciences and WHO Collaborating Centre for Population Health Research and Training at the University of Edinburgh. He has over 25 years’ experience in child pneumonia research. He set up the Basse field station and pneumonia research programme at MRC Gambia, developing pneumonia research and programme implementation during three years at WHO Geneva and serving as a consultant to WHO, UNICEF, BMGF, UNHCR on many occasions. In the past few years he has led pneumonia field studies in several low- and middle-income countries, including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nigeria. He authored over 500 research publications, mainly focused on childhood pneumonia.

Dr Mickey Chopra is a qualified medical doctor and currently the Global Solutions Lead for Service Delivery in the Health Nutrition and Population global practice of the World Bank. He leads its work around the organization, management and quality of health services. Previous to this he was the Chief of Health and Associate Director of Programs at UNICEF’s New York Headquarters.
Additionally, he has chaired the Evaluation and Research Group at the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria to ensure that their investments are reaching those most in need, and chaired the Special Committee for Large Countries for GAVI that worked on ensuring increased coverage of vaccines for Nigeria and India in particular. He led the technical team that oversaw the UN Commission on Essential Medicines and Commodities.

Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck is President of the National Committee of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative of Senegal since 2019 and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Galien Forum Africa since 2018. Previously, she was Minister of State to the President of Senegal from 2017 to 2019. She has also served as Minister of Health and Welfare and as Minister of Health and Prevention. Dr Coll-Seck was Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and Director of Policy, Strategy and Research and Country and Regional Support at UNAIDS. Dr Coll-Seck also leads the Department of infectious diseases at University Cheickh Anta Diop of Dakar. Coll-Seck was appointed to the High-level Advisory Group for Every Woman Every Child and has also been serving on the Guttmacher–Lancet Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. She has served on a number of boards and has received prestigious awards during her career including “Best Minister of the World” in 2017.

A French national, Philippe has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of HIV/AIDS, infectious and tropical diseases and public health. Philippe has been working at Unitaid for 10 years, and played an instrumental role in the creation of Unitaid in 2006. Previously, he was a practicing Doctor at Hospital “La Pitié Salpétrière” in Paris (Infections Diseases Department) and was twice advisor for the French Ministry of Health, Minister Bernard Kouchner. He was the head of the Mission against HIV/AIDS and harm reduction for l’Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) and also heads the French regulatory agency for medicines and health products. He chaired the Board of the European Medicines Agency. Philippe holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and is a Doctor.

Leslie Elder is a senior nutrition specialist at the World Bank. As a member of the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Secretariat, she focuses on nutrition and supports work on maternal, newborn and child health. She is the interlocuter between the GFF and the World Bank Human Capital Project, a member of the Investing in the Early Years team and World Bank representative on the Nurturing Care core team. Prior to joining the World Bank in 2009, Leslie was Senior Director, Newborn Health and the Deputy Director of the Gates Foundation-funded Saving Newborn Lives program at Save the Children US.  She has an MPH from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BSN from the University of Pennsylvania.

His Excellency Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz was appointed Minister of Public Health of the National Unity Government of Afghanistan in February 2015. He is a medical graduate of Kabul University, with an MSc in Public Health Management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an MBA from the International Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur, India.Dr. Feroz was the Technical Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Public Health, between 2002 and 2004, during the interim government. Between 2005 and 2014, he did consultancy work for donors within Afghanistan and in other countries including in India and South Sudan. He has published a number of academic papers.

Henrietta H. Fore, BA, MS, is UNICEF Executive Director since 2018. She has worked to champion economic development, education, health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in a public service, private sector and non-profit leadership career that spans more than four decades. Previously, Fore served as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development and Director of United States Foreign Assistance, managing US$ 40 billion of U.S. foreign assistance annually. She was Under Secretary of State for Management, the Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Department of State, as well as Assistant Administrator for Asia and Assistant Administrator for Private Enterprise. Fore managed the world’s largest manufacturer of coins, medals and coin products as the 37th Director of the United States Mint in the U.S. Department of Treasury. She has served on a number of boards and has received prestigious awards during her career.

Ms Bience Gawanas is the Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa to the United Nations Secretary-General at UN Headquarters in New York since January 2018. Named amongst the 100 most influential individuals for women and children’s health by Women Deliver, she has also been the recipient of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) award for the Most Outstanding Contribution on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Ms. Gawanas has held various portfolios, spanning a 40-year career, including as Special Advisor to the Namibian Minister of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare and as Special Advisor to the Namibian Minister of Health and Social Services. She has worked as a lawyer at the Legal Assistance Centre, a human rights NGO in Windhoek and has served as Public Service Commissioner, overseeing the transformation of the public service.

Dr. Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin is the Minister of Health for Ethiopia since November 2018. She is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, with extensive experience in healthcare leadership and hospital administration. She has worked in government, NGO, academia and leading grant-funded programs. Dr. Lia has served as CEO and Vice Provost of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medial College – leading hospital service and academic reforms as well as growing partnerships. She has also worked as Project Director of the Maternal and Child Survival Program at Jhpiego, Ethiopia, and as Program Director at the University of Michigan’s Center for International Reproductive Health Training. Dr. Lia’s passion is strengthening and reforming health systems and has received recognition for this work.

Dr Binyam has more than 19 years’ experience in implementing and managing integrated maternal, newborn and child health programmes, adolescent sexual and reproductive health, nutrition, community health, programme development and quality and health system strengthening in development and humanitarian settings. He is currently head of health, nutrition and WASH for Save the Children’s Somalia Programme. Previously, he has worked in Nigeria, Rwanda, Somali and Democratic Republic of Congo in various capacities including head of health and child survival. Earlier in his career he has worked as a medical coordinator in Congolese refugee camps in Rwanda, and practiced surgery in Rwanda and Ethiopia. He has a medical degree and postgraduate degree in General Surgery from Addis Ababa University, and MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is currently the WHO Director-General. He is the first WHO Director-General to have been elected from multiple candidates by the World Health Assembly, and is the first person from the WHO African Region to serve as WHO’s chief technical and administrative officer. Immediately after taking office on 1 July 2017 Dr Tedros outlined five key priorities for the Organization: universal health coverage; health emergencies; women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health; health impacts of climate and environmental change; and a transformed WHO. Dr Tedros holds a Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in Community Health from the University of Nottingham and a Master of Science (MSc) in Immunology of Infectious Diseases from the University of London. Dr Tedros is globally recognised as a health scholar, researcher, and diplomat with first-hand experience in research, operations, and leadership in emergency responses to epidemics.

Brigadier General Alexander K Ginting is a medical doctor and currently a Special Advisor to the Minister of Health in Health Financing and Development.
His previous assignment was a Head Medical Committee of the Presidential Hospital RSPAD Gatot Soebroto Jakarta. He was a former Head of the Pulmonology and Respiratory Department from 2010 to 2015 and conducted a working group on TB and HIV AIDS at the Central Army Hospital. He was also assigned as a team leader in preparedness for pandemic influenza in the Indonesian Armed Forces.

Dr Githinji Gitahi is the MBS Group Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa since June 2015. Amref Health Africa, founded in 1957, is the largest African-led international organisation on the continent. It reaches more than 11 million people every year through 150 health-focused projects across 35 countries. Dr Gitahi is Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee, a global World Bank and World Health Organisation (WHO) initiative for Universal Health Coverage (UHC). He is a member of the Board of Directors at the Standard Group and was recently appointed by the Africa Union as a member of the Governing Board of the Africa Centre’s for Disease Control and prevention (Africa CDC). In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the health sector and work at the helm of Amref Health Africa, Dr Githinji received a presidential commendation, ‘Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear’ (MBS) on 12 December 2018.

Dr. Barney Graham is an immunologist, virologist, and clinical trials physician whose primary interests are viral pathogenesis, immunity, and vaccine development. His work is focused on HIV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and emerging viral diseases. In 2000 he became one of the founding investigators for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he is now the Deputy Director and Chief of the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory, and oversees the advanced development of VRC candidate vaccine products.

Leith Greenslade is Co-ordinator of Every Breath Counts, a coalition of 40 organizations that have joined forces to support governments to tackle the leading infectious killer of children – pneumonia.Leith also founded and leads JustActions which works with partners to make progress in 10 critical areas ranging from increasing women’s incomes, to preventing early death, to reversing inequality. She is a proud member of the Every Woman, Every Child movement established by the United Nations Secretary-General, and has served as a Vice Chair with the MDG Health Alliance, a network of leaders committed to accelerating the achievement of global health goals.Deeply committed to the power of new ideas, Leith founded two global innovation teams focusing on the health of children, sits on the Board of TEAMFund and advises several non-profits, including Women in Global Health.She has served on the US Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and in several positions with the Australian Government, including with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Health.

Dr. Mohammad Shamsul Haque is the Line Director-Maternal, Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (Maternal Newborn Child & Adolescent Health) Directorate General Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Bangladesh. Dr. Shamsul has more than 30 years’ experience in maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health working in programs and policies with a regional experience. He has been a pioneer in the implementation of the National Immunization Programme in Bangladesh.

Claire Hitchcock joined GSK in 2001 and leads GSK’s community partnerships programmes in the Europe and EMAP (Emerging Markets and Asia Pacific) regions, working with the businesses to implement programmes that are integral to GSK’s Global Health Strategy. She is responsible for a wide range of initiatives, including GSK’s commitment to invest 20% of profits in the world’s poorest countries back into improving healthcare infrastructure, PHASE (Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education) and GSK’s global humanitarian response and product donations programme. Claire has wide experience of business/community partnerships. She has held senior roles in multi-national companies – Diageo, Prudential, and IBM- as well as worked for government and nonprofit organizations. In 2012, she was proud to receive the BITC (Business in the Community) Game changer Award for her contribution to promoting responsible business.

Dr Saad Jaber is a Consultant Cardiovascular Surgeon with over 28 years of experience in the field. He is the former Director of Queen Alia Heart Institute, which is a branch of the Jordanian Royal Medical Services, and currently the Minister of Health whilst maintaining a senior advisor role within Cardiovascular Surgery.

Dr Kevin Kain is Director of Tropical Disease Unit & SAR Laboratories, Sandra Rotman Centre for Global Health at the UHN-Toronto General Hospital. He also serves as Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr Kain’s research efforts are focused on developing a translational research programme that characterises host-parasite interactions responsible for major global infectious disease threats, particularly those that pertain to women and children. Dr Kain’s efforts are also focused on global equity, knowledge sharing and education, including the transfer of appropriate technologies and the training of research scientists in the developing world, enabling and empowering them to address their own problems in a sustainable fashion. His work has been recognised by multiple awards, such as the Young Investigators Award from the Canadian Infectious Disease Society, and Bailey K Ashford Medal from the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene among many others.

Dr Karin Källander is a Senior Health Specialist in the Implementation Research & Delivery Science Unit in UNICEF’s Health Section. She is the Unit Lead for child & community health and the global focal point for digital health. She previously worked as Senior Research Advisor at Malaria Consortium in London, UK, where she was heading the organisation’s research group, leading and guiding research and evaluations in the areas of maternal, newborn and child health, including digital innovations for effective health service delivery. She is a specialist in health systems research, child health epidemiology, community-based primary healthcare, and is an Associate Professor in the division of Global Health at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Dr Källander has over 17 years’ experience as a researcher, lecturer, programme coordinator, and consultant in both development and emergency settings, seven of which were spent living in an African low-income country.

A medical graduate with a post graduate qualification in Public Health, and with more than 25 years of experience in Public Health Programmes at national level, Dr Khera is presently serving as Commissioner (MCH) in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. He has served in the capacity of Assistant Director General and Technical Programme Manager in the National AIDS Control Organization, Government of India for five years. He has also served as Technical Programme Manager in the National Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. Moreover, Dr Khera has investigated number of outbreaks of communicable diseases and published more than 50 articles in national and international journals.

Dr Carina King is an Infectious Diseases Epidemiologist, with a focus on observational and experimental research for improved diagnosis and management of paediatric pneumonia in sub-Saharan Africa. She leads research into novel diagnostic technologies and strategies for prevention and effective management of paediatric pneumonia at community and primary care levels in Nigeria and Malawi. Dr King is based at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet and is an honorary senior research associate at the Institute for Global Health, University College London.

Lois King is a PhD student with the Global Health Research Unit on Respiratory Health in Asia (RESPIRE) at the University of Edinburgh. She holds a Masters in Public Health, with a background in Biomedical Sciences. Her research interests are health policy, systems and financing. Her PhD project is looking at the governance of childhood pneumonia in Bangladesh and the influence of global-level agenda setting to better understand how we perceive and measure neglect in global health.

Professor Keith Klugman is the Director of the Pneumonia Programme at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). He leads the Foundation’s work to reduce deaths from pneumonia, neonatal sepsis, and meningitis in children. He also co-directs the Maternal, Newborn & Child Health Discovery & Tools Programme. Professor Klugman has made major contributions in the field of pneumococcal research, including antimicrobial resistance. His work demonstrating pneumococcal conjugate vaccine efficacy in the developing world has led to interventions that have saved millions of lives, especially in Africa. Professor Klugman previously served as the President of the International Society of Infectious Diseases and chaired the International Board of the American Society for Microbiology. He also chaired and served on numerous expert committees for the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Wellcome Trust, and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Irene Koek is currently the Acting Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Global Health, in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).Prior to this, she was the senior infectious disease advisor for the Global Health Bureau and the Global Health Security Agenda lead at USAID.From 2010-2014, she was director of the Health Office in USAID/Indonesia where she also served as health attaché and PEPFAR coordinator.After her return to Washington from Indonesia and until April 2015, Ms. Koek served as the deputy director of the Office of Population and Reproductive Health in the Global Health Bureau. Ms. Koek joined USAID in 1986. Starting in the Office of Population, she moved to the Policy and Program Coordination Bureau in 1995 as a health advisor, addressing maternal and child health, family planning and infectious disease issues.In 1998, Ms. Koek became the chief of the Infectious Disease Division in the Global Health Bureau, overseeing staff and programs for malaria, tuberculosis and neglected tropical diseases.In that role, she helped to start the President’s Malaria Initiative and served as chair of the Stop TB Coordinating Board.Ms. Koek has a Master of Arts degree from George Washington University.

Senator (Dr) Mamora is currently the Honourable Minister of State for Health, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Sen (Dr) Mamora was Deputy Director General (Operations) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council in 2015, a position he also held in the 2019 Presidential Election Campaign. Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora is a medical practitioner by profession and politician by vocation.

Thabani Maphosa is Gavi’s Managing Director of Country Programmes, overseeing Gavi’s operations in 73 countries. The Country Programmes Department’s raison d’être is to harness the power of the Vaccine Alliance for countries to save the maximum number of lives through immunisation. This is achieved through maximising financial investments (donor and domestic), bringing the best partners to the table and driving innovative solutions. The Country Programmes Department manages Gavi’s relationships with governments and provides grant management oversight for all in-country resources. Prior to joining Gavi, Thabani held several leadership roles in World Vision International for over 16 years. Thabani is a seasoned humanitarian who has led disaster preparedness and response efforts globally. He is also recognised for introducing the use of technology in the last mile and for scaling up cash transfers in stable and fragile contexts. With a Master of Philosophy degree in Science, Thabani has worked in academia as a lecturer in physiology and microbiology.

Suharso Monoarfa, an entrepreneur and politician, is the Minister for National Development Planning in Indonesia. Suharso Monoarfa, nicknamed Sumo by closest friends, started his career as a businessman for 20 years. After showing some successful results in the business field, Suharso became a professional politician in 2004. Suharso has been actively participating in numerous development projects in the country. Suharso’s contribution to public affairs started when he was appointed as The Minister of Public Housing and a member of the Presidential Advisory Council.

Dr Luka Tombekana Monoja is a public health consultant, and a retired international MCH/SRH consultant. He graduated as a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Khartoum in 1976, and went on to be awarded Master of Science from the University of London, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Royal College of Physicians in London.

Dr Monoja was Minister of Cabinet Affairs and of Health from July 2007 to August 2011, and has been a Member of the National Legislative Assembly since May 2010. His tasks have included provision of technical assistance to senior national managers in the formulation of health sector (especially maternal and child health) policies, and in-service training for senior national and middle level health managers.

Dr. Golam Mothabbir is a senior Health and Nutrition Advisor at Save the Children Bangladesh. He is a public health specialist with more than 20 years’ experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of community-based maternal, child health and nutrition programs in mainly development contexts. Mothabbir obtained a Masters in Public Health and a Diploma in Food and Nutrition Security from IAC, The Netherlands.He had successfully applied Community Case Management (CCM) strategy for addressing child mortality in Bangladesh from preventable causes utilising community health workers and private providers – establishing a new model for community management of pneumonia and diarrhoea.He has also carried out two CCM research projects: “Enhanced community case management to increase access to pneumonia treatment multicenter trial in Bangladesh”, WHO, and “Community Case Management during flooding emergencies in Southern Bangladesh”. Mothabbir is actively engaged in many child health and nutrition national networks including the Civil Society Alliance for SUN.

Hon. Jappie Mtuwa Mhango is the Minister of Health and Population and is also serving as Member of Parliament for Rumphi North Constituency for a second term. He has also served as Minister of Transport and Public Works; Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security; Minister of Information, Civic Education and Tourism; and Deputy Minister of Defence. Born on 21 June 1969, Jappie Mtuwa Mhango is also a successful entrepreneur and manager who has worked in several reputable organisations. He holds various important positions in sports bodies such as the National Olympic Committee and the Volleyball Association of Malawi. He holds a Master’s Degree in Management.

Zoë Mullan is Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal, The Lancet Global Health. She is an Ex-Officio Board Member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and an International Advisory Board member of Sun-Yat Sen Global Health Institute, Guangzhou, China. Between 2013 and 2017 she was a Council Member and Trustee of the Committee on Publication Ethics. She trained in Biochemistry at the University of Bath, UK, before joining the publishing industry in 1997 as a Scientific Information Officer with CABI. She moved to The Lancet in 1999, where she has worked in various positions since then, notably as technical editor, section editor, and founding editor of The Lancet Global Health.

Dr Tisu Mvalo is an Assistant Research Professor of Pediatrics at UNC as well as the in-country Pediatric Director of UNC Project Malawi. He practices clinically at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe, Malawi and he also provides on-the-ground mentorship for the rotating learners. Dr. Mvalo is the PI in several ongoing research studies at UNC Project Malawi, including the Innovative Treatment in Pneumonia (ITIP) trials and Tuberculosis Meningitis trials.

Dr. Jai Krishin is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (P.I.M.S) in Islamabad since 2017. He did his Fellowship in the field of paediatrics in 1998 and has since worked in a  children’s hospital. As a professor he is involved in the training of undergraduates and post-graduates, and in supervising students of MD, FCPS, MCPS and DCH. He is the registered examiner of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and is also involved in the training of health care workers at community level. He has special interest in Paediatric Nephrology. He has published 16 research papers in the field of Paediatric Medicine.

Dr Maria Neira is Director for the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization. She has also served as Vice-Minister of Health and President of the Spanish Food Safety Agency. Dr Neira is a medical doctor who began her career working with refugees in Salvador and Honduras for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders).

Dr. Fawziya Abikar Nur is the Federal Minister for Health and Social Care in Somalia since March 2017.  She graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Somali National University in February 1985 and completed a two-year post-graduate fellowship in Public Law at the University of Bologna. She has also obtained a master’s degree in Health Services Management from the Istituto Superiore di Sanita’ in Rome and completed a PhD in Public Health from l’Universita’ Degli Studi di Roma, “La Sapienza”. Dr. Fawziya Abikar Nur began her career as an assistant lecturer at the Somali National University and has worked on poverty reduction training programmes at Rome University-Sapienza and Istituto Superiore di Sanita’. From 2012 to 2016, she worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization (Somalia Office) conducting needs assessments in health projects, facilitating training activities, monitoring and evaluation and coordinating the public health law project in Somalia.

Dr O’Brien’s career in vaccines and immunizations over the past 25 years at the Bloomberg School was sparked by her field experience in Haiti caring for children who needlessly suffered from vaccine-preventable diseases. Her contributions to on-the-ground field research in vaccine clinical trials, disease epidemiology, and vaccine impact studies have extended to policy- and implementation-oriented work in countries throughout Africa and South Asia. She also directed the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Program at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health.

Cuppy Foundation is a non-profit organisation established by Florence Otedola, more popularly known as DJ Cuppy. The charity works to improve the welfare of Nigeria’s vulnerable and marginalized children, focusing on early childhood education and healthcare among numerous other programmes. The foundation was launched in August 2018 and is focusing on supporting the northeast regions of Nigeria.

Dr Landaogo Ouedraogo is a public health specialist who is currently the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health for Burkina Faso. His specialist studies have included health promotion, malaria, preventative medicine in developing countries and disaster management, and he is experienced in vaccine financing advocacy. His previous experience includes as head doctor for the Kombissiri medical centre with responsibility for the surgical unit. He has received the national order of Burkina Faso for services to the nation – the highest honour in Burkina Faso.

It was back in 2013 that Ridhima Pandey, one of India’s young environmental activists, saw the devastating effect of climate change in India in the form of the Kedarnath flood. Seeing such an environmental disaster unfolding before your very eyes can change a person, and sure enough, Ridhima was the only young activist from India who accompanied Greta Thunberg in the protest against the lax attitude of governments towards climate change at the UN Climate Action Summit.

Dr. Stefan Peterson is UNICEF’s Chief of Health and Associate Director, Programme Division, based in New York. He was a Professor of Global Health at Uppsala University and at the Global Health Division of Karolinska Institute.  He has also been a visiting professor at Makerere University in Uganda.  As a health systems researcher and medical doctor, Dr. Peterson did extensive field work in Tanzania and Uganda, and worked with different ministries of health, and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO).He implemented projects supported by the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency (SIDA), the Gates Foundation, and the European Union. He was a co-founder of Medecins Sans Frontieres Sweden and the CCM Task Force Operations Research Group.  Dr. Peterson is a medical doctor with degrees in Medicine, Public Health and a PHD in International Pediatrics. He is a national of Sweden.

Dr Plasencia graduated in Medicine (MD) from the University of Barcelona in 1981, and holds a PhD from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1996. He is a specialist in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. From 2012-2014 he was Deputy Director of the Center for International Health Research (CRESIB) – Hospital Clinic – University of Barcelona. Previously, he was Director of the Municipal Institute of Health – Public Health Agency of Barcelona. He was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, as well as an Associate in the Health Policy and Management Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. He currently teaches and co-directs the Master in Global Health at the University of Barcelona and participates in the Master of Public Health at the University of Pompeu Fabra and the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Dr Shamim Qazi is a pediatrician, public health physician and researcher. He has programmatic, clinical, training and research experience in the field of communicable and preventable childhood diseases. He is presently responsible for development of research agenda dealing with clinical, epidemiological and implementation research related to the management of common childhood illnesses including respiratory infections, fever and neonatal sepsis. He coordinates development of WHO guidelines in light of new evidence and provides specific input and technical support on pediatric clinical content and in promotion of such activities in developing countries. He co-led the development of the WHO/UNICEF integrated global action plan on prevention and control of pneumonia and diarrhea (GAPPD).

Luis Quevedo is an award-winning Spanish filmmaker, TV producer and personality. A former scientist turned communicator, after moving to New York from Madrid in 2010, he pioneered NPR’s blog and podcast “Science Friday en Español” and is now director and host of CST, a Spanish language daily science, health and technology TV show broadcasting across the Americas. He’s been Managing Director of the Imagine Science Films Festival in New York, produced with support from Google, Nature, Science and more, and co-creator of CUNY’s Social Gradient Podcast, a program about science, health and education for minorities. Luis has been distinguished as a Minority Fellow of the National Association of Science Writers and mentor of the AAAS Mass Media Fellows.

Bobby Reiner, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Health Metrics Sciences and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation within the Schools of Medicine at the University of Washington. He is a Disease Ecologist and that combines his extensive background in Applied Mathematics, Statistics and Probability with four years of postdoctoral training in mathematical ecology, epidemiology and entomology to model infectious diseases.

Itai is a public health activist with almost 20 years’ experience organizing involvement of communities in health actions in Zimbabwe. Having joined the organisation at its inception in early 1998, he has risen through the ranks from a Field Officer, Health Education Officer and Programme Manager.

He is the immediate past Deputy-Chairperson of the Public Health Advisory Board in Zimbabwe, a member of the National Steering Committee on Results Based Financing (RBF), a National Maternal Deaths Surveillance and Response (MDSR) Committee Member, and National Steering Committee Member for the Reproductive Maternal Neonatal Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH-A).

Professor Mamadou Samba is Associate Lecturer in Public Health and Health Economics and a researcher at Houphouet– Boigny University in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. In addition to his academic duties, Prof. Samba holds several administrative functions. He is also the Director General of Health for the Ivory Coast Ministry of Health. Prior to this role, he was the Director of Forward Planning, Evaluation and Health Information for a decade and established several strategic documents including the National Health Development Plans 2012–2015 and 2016–2020 and the health financing strategic paper towards universal health coverage. He also led the drafting of the 2010 and 2015 reports on the MDGs in Health.

Mr Subandi is the Deputy Minister at the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning (BAPPENAS), where he also serves as Government Focal Person for the SUN Movement Indonesia since 2015. He is responsible for planning and budgeting national development, in the areas of health, nutrition, child protection, women’s empowerment, education, research and technology, religion, family planning, sport and culture. He works closely with all local government to align the national development planning and also coordinate monitoring and evaluation of all programs implemented with all ministries and other agencies on a regular basis.

Professor Anthony Scott is a Professor of Vaccine Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow. He trained in clinical infectious diseases and in epidemiology before moving to Kilifi, Kenya in 1993 to work as a Wellcome Trust Training Fellow. He has spent most of the last 20 years in Kenya, studying pneumococcal disease and pneumonia in children and adults. He has run a series of phase IV vaccine studies evaluating the impact of vaccines against Hib and pneumococcus with a variety of endpoints including clinical and radiologically-confirmed pneumonia. In addition to his research, Professor Scott has developed a surveillance network for invasive bacterial diseases in East Africa (Netspear) and co-directs the Kilifi Health and Demographic Surveillance System. He frequently works with WHO and GAVI on vaccine preventable diseases and with the Ministry of Health in Kenya on the evaluation of a pneumococcal vaccine.

Susan Shepherd is a general pediatrician with the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA). She has 15 years experience working in humanitarian settings, primarily in West and Central Africa.

Michel Sidibé is currently the Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali. A long-standing champion of a people-centred approach to health and development and a strong advocate for social justice, Sidibé was the second Executive Director of UNAIDS, serving from January 2009 until May 2019. He held the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Sidibé’s passion for advancing global health began in his native Mali, where he took up the cause of the nomadic Tuareg people. His tireless efforts to improve their health and welfare evolved into a role as a country director for the international development federation Terre des Hommes. Since those early days, Sidibé has spent more than 25 years in public service.

Gemma Tarafa holds a PhD in Molecular Biology at the Universitat de Barcelona and post-doctorate degree at the Yale University. She was a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Oncology, professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), and a public health researcher and Sub director of the Research Group on Health Inequalities (GREDS-EMCONET) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Dr. Lisine Tuyisenge has been a Senior Consultant Paediatrician for more than 10 years and is currently the Director of Medical Services in the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), the biggest public teaching hospital in Rwanda. She has been the Head of the Paediatric and Child Health Department in the same hospital and is a clinical Associate Professor at the University of Rwanda, College of Medicine and Health Sciences.  She was the General Secretary of the Rwanda Paediatric Association (RPA) for the past 13 years and was elected recently as the Chair.  Dr. Tuyisenge coordinates several successful paediatric training programs in Rwanda which have improved the capacity of health professionals at different levels of pediatric care. Dr. Tuyisenge earned her Doctor of General Medicine and Post-Graduate (Paediatrics) degrees from the National University of Rwanda (Butare) Faculty of Medicine and her advanced training in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Neonatology at Sint Peter Hospital in Brussels, Belgium.

Antonio Vila has been the Director General of the “la Caixa” Foundation since 2019. After graduating in 1975 from the University of Barcelona with a degree in Economic Sciences, he then joined the financial banking sector, where he enjoyed a successful career before being appointed DG of “la Caixa” Foundation.
“la Caixa” Foundation was established in the early 20th century, and is based on its strong committment to society and desire to contribute to the improved well-being of individuals by reducing financial exclusion. More than 110 years after its beginnings, “la Caixa” Foundation continues to be the first foundation in Spain, the second in Europe and one of the most important in the world.

Between 1992 and 1996, Manel was responsible for Humanitarian Aid, as well as acting as Manager of the named District 11st of Barcelona in Sarajevo (Bosnia-Hercegovina). For this reason, he received an award: Honorary Citizen of Sarajevo. He also acted as Director of Educational Services, Director of the International Solidarity Area of the Barcelona City Council, Mayor’s Commissioner for International Cooperation, and Director of the International Cooperation in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Manel also served as a member of the Steering Committee of UNHCR.

Maty is an international health specialist with a background in reproductive, maternal and child health and nutrition in Africa. Over the past years, she has focused on strengthening civil society capacity to engage in the Global Financing Facility (GFF) process. As Partnership Manager for the GFF Civil Society Hub, hosted at PAI, Maty is responsible for identifying capacity-building needs and resources in GFF countries, managing partnerships with CSOs and providing technical support. She is instrumental in building and linking up civil society networks across the continuum of care, and helping them develop strategies to contribute to country investment cases. Before joining PAI, Maty was the Africa NGO Focal Point for The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), leading on advocacy and communications around RMNCAH Global initiatives. Maty has also worked on health and nutrition as the West African Program Officer for Terre des Hommes Foundation, and also led funding and business development for Oxfam in the region. Maty holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Information Systems and a Master of Science in International Health from Humboldt University.

Kevin joined Save the Children in September 2016, after spending three years as Executive Director of the Overseas Development Institute. Previously, he held a senior academic role at the Brookings Institution, and acted as an adviser to the UN Special Envoy for Education, before which he spent seven years at the United Nations, as director and lead author of UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report and UNDP’s Human Development Report.

Dr Yadam is currently Acting State Secretary of the Ministry of Health and Director, Department of Monitoring, Evaluation and Internal Auditing Director in Mongolia. She has an extensive political background, although she started her career as a medical doctor at the National Centre for Communicable Diseases. She has a Masters in Public Health and also holds a PhD from the Institute of Medical Genetics, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

Dr Yuma is a Doctor of Medicine, Surgery and Childbirth from the University of Kinshasa. He spent 11 years as Director of the National Blood Transfusion Program (2006 – 2017). Since 2017, Dr Yuma has been the Director of Family Health and specific groups, at the General Secretary of Health and Permanent Secretary (general secretary) of the Ministry of Health since July 2018.

Dr Heather Zar is Professor & Chair of the Department of Paediatrics & Child Health at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital. She is also Director of the SA-MRC Unit on Child & Adolescent Health at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Zar’s work, focused on childhood pneumonia and tuberculosis, has had global impact on strategies for diagnosis, prevention and treatment. A key advocate for child health in Africa and globally, she has served as President of the Pan African Thoracic Society, as President of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, and in an advisory capacity to the WHO and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She received the World Lung Health award from the American Thoracic Society in 2014 and the L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Laureate for Africa/Arabia in 2018.