Leslyn Roseanne Holder is a dedicated healthcare professional with over 35 years of nursing experience across Guyana and the UK. She holds a Master's in Public Health Administration and qualifications in Health Social Care, Leadership Management, and Healthcare Quality. A Registered Nurse since 1999, Leslyn is also the CEO and founder of BY FAITH, a charity supporting hinterland children. Since 2017, she has served as Education Coordinator and Vice President of SAVE Guyana. Additionally, she is a published author and a passionate advocate for public health and education.

Dr. Chester, with her extensive 25 years of healthcare experience, currently serves as the Senior Director of Operations for Employee Health Services at Northwell Health. Her leadership in this role, overseeing operational EHS activities and designing strategic goals, instills confidence in her abilities. She works closely with Northwell Health’s Center for Global Health in Guyana, South America, contributing to the implementation of global health programs. She runs the international Nurse Mentoring Program with Georgetown Public Hospital in Guyana, South America, and Northwell Health Nursing Division in New York. Dr. Chester is a leader of leaders, and her exceptional operations and clinical skills are central to every endeavor she executes. Dr. Chester has successfully led departments in building programs to create excellence. Michelle leads all mergers and acquisitions of new hospitals and ambulatory practices acquired by Northwell from a clinical perspective. Michelle serves as one of the Diversity and Inclusion council members at Northwell Health. Dr. Chester is responsible for delivering occupational health services to Northwell Direct Clients, successfully launching services for JetBlue, Amazon, NY/NJ Port Authority, Estee Lauder, and many other Fortune 500 companies. Globally, Dr. Chester is involved in creating pediatric and maternal medical programs in Uganda and serves as a Lay Eucharistic Minister and the Health Ministry chairperson for the Church of the Transfiguration. Dr. Chester played a pivotal role in Northwell Health’s successful COVID-19 response. Her leadership was evident when she administered the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in the United States and the first Moderna vaccine in New York State. She also launched COVID testing protocols and vaccination services for all Northwell team members and their families. Her recognition with the Premier Businesswomen of Long Island award for 2023 and the presentation of the prestigious Daisy Award to a Caribbean nurse in Guyana in 2023 further underscore her crisis management skills. Dr. Chester is a Board of Trustee Member for Episcopal Health Services in Queens. Michelle's journey to becoming a healthcare leader is marked by her educational achievements and professional affiliations. She completed a Doctor of Nursing Practice at Rutgers University’s School of Nursing, an MSN Family Nurse Practitioner at SUNY Downstate Medical School, and a BSN at SUNY Downstate Medical School. Her commitment to professional development is evident in her membership in the ANCC, ANA, and AORN. Her career progression includes roles such as the Associate Executive Director of Perioperative Services at Northwell Health Island Jewish Medical Center, Director of the operating room at Northwell Health LIJMC, Assistant Director at LIJMC, Family Nurse Practitioner at New York Methodist Hospital, and Director of Surgical Services at New York Methodist Hospital.

Candice Halinski Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Ambulatory As Ambulatory Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Candice brings an extensive background in nursing leadership and a passion for patient-centered care. With a career spanning 20+ years, Candice has served in the capacity of EMT, LPN, RN, Nursing Manager, Nursing Supervisor, NP, Clinical Director, and Clinical AVP. In 20212, she came to Northwell to co-create a care management program for patients with late-stage chronic kidney disease. In 2014, this program was awarded a 2.4 million dollar CMS innovation grant. In her most recent role as Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Candice works to guide the professional practice of clinical professionals across the Ambulatory Network. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine, Hofstra/Northwell health and an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing. Candice holds a Masters of Science in Nursing from StonyBrook University and is a licensed and board-certified Nurse Practitioner. In addition, she holds a Masters of Healthcare Delivery from Dartmouth and a Masters of Business Administration. In her role as Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Candice is dedicated to driving excellence, improving patient outcomes, and advancing the nursing profession.

Aliyah Khan is an administrative professional with over eight years of experience spanning public and private corporations in Guyana. Her expertise lies in project management, strategic planning, and resource management. Currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration at the University of Bedfordshire, she is set to graduate in May 2025, with plans to advance her career by pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH). Aliyah’s career showcases a strong dedication to program coordination and team management, as demonstrated through her roles within the department of Medical Education at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. She currently serves as Program Coordinator for the Center for Global Health – Northwell Health in Guyana, where she contributes to impactful public health initiatives. In addition to her professional achievements, Aliyah holds certifications in logistics and supply chain, graphic design, and event management. Committed to continuous growth, she regularly participates in workshops and conferences on critical topics like mental health. Her collaborative approach, adaptability, and pursuit of excellence continue to drive her success in every endeavor.

Shari is a public health practitioner, innovative strategist, and leader with a myriad of public health experience in community, city, national and multinational organizations. Shari is a doctoral candidate in the Community Health and Health Policy track at the CUNY School of Public Health and Health Policy, with a specialization in Maternal Child Reproductive and Sexual Health. She is particularly interested in global health, sustainable emergency disaster management, social determinants of health, cultural competency, health equity, anti-racism, and school-based sexual and reproductive health education. Shari is the co-founder and Assistant Director for the Center for Global Health at Northwell Health, where she co-leads global health efforts for the entire health system. During her tenure, Shari served as the Chief Procurement Officer and Incident Commander of the South Beach Psychiatric Hospital COVID-19 alternate care site for over a year. Prior to this, Shari served as the Program Manager of the Community Health and Social Medicine (CHASM) Initiatives for Northwell Health, where she managed the Screening, Referral, and Navigation program and Medical-Legal Partnership with Hofstra University across three clinical sites.

Yixuan Zhang is a Master of Public Health student at Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China, with a strong interdisciplinary background that includes engineering and economics. She has a deep interest in Global Health, particularly focusing on health and poverty, maternal and child health, and the intersection of economic policies with health outcomes. Yixuan has collaborated with Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab as a student intern on research related to fiscal space study in Lancet Commission Cancer in the Commonwealth, aiming to explore sustainable health financing solutions. Her previous work includes contributing to the Tsinghua-Lancet Commission Report on Health and Poverty Alleviation in China, where she used data science tools to analyze policy impact and explore the correlation between poverty alleviation programs and national economic systems.

Chenjezo is a Global Health Delivery expert with years of leadership experience providing technical support to Ministries of Health and partner organizations in designing and implementing health care delivery systems in resource-limited settings. He currently serves as a Mental Health Program lead for Partners In Health Sierra Leone where he leads and oversees the strategic planning, designing, and implementation of mental health and psychosocial services to improve access to care. Prior to this role, Chenjezo served as the Mental Health and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) lead for Partners In Health and the Ministry of Health in Malawi, where he developed and scaled up NCDs and mental health care through an integrated model with HIV services. He also served as a project lead for a World Bank funded project to scale up a voluntary male medical circumcision program and as a Nutrition Officer for a Clinton Health Access Initiative supported program in Malawi. He holds a Masters in Global Health Delivery from Harvard Medical School

Dr. Lubna Hossain is a medically trained public health researcher and currently working as a Research Investigator at icddr,b, with extensive experience in maternal and child health, health systems strengthening, and implementation research. She has led and contributed to numerous projects, including implementing the Robson Classification System and the WHO-funded immediate Kangaroo Mother Care Implementation Research (iKMC-IR) study. Dr. Hossain is dedicated to bridging the gap between research and policy by strengthening health systems and improving access to quality care. With a strong foundation in evidence-based research, she is committed to developing sustainable solutions to address systemic gaps in healthcare delivery.

Vanessa Short, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at Jefferson College of Nursing. She is a maternal and child health epidemiologist by training with a focus on improving healthcare and health, preventing disease and eliminating health disparities among women and children, especially in vulnerable and underserved populations. Since joining MATER, her work has primarily focused on improving outcomes for mother-infant dyads affected by maternal opioid use disorder (OUD). She is currently the Principal Investigator of a five-year, R18 project sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. She is also the Principal Investigator of a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-funded R03 project. In addition, Dr. Short is involved with global health research and collaborates on several projects aimed at improving perinatal health outcomes in India and other low- to middle-income countries. Dr. Short received her PhD in epidemiology and MPH with a concentration in behavioral and community health sciences from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

Dr. Macharia's research lies at the intersection of computer science-based technologies and global health. His work focuses on a human-centered design approach to design, develop, and prototype digital health interventions aimed at improving the quality of and access to healthcare in resource-limited settings. For over 15 years, he has worked with research groups at Kenyatta National Hospital, the University of Nairobi, and the Ministry of Health in Kenya, designing interventions targeting adolescents and young people. He is also a co-founder of Consulting in Health Informatics, a social enterprise dedicated to scaling up digital health interventions in Kenya and other resource-limited settings. For his PhD work, Dr. Macharia investigated how a human-centered design approach to developing digital interventions could enhance the uptake of adolescent-targeted tools to better meet users' needs. In this project, he aimed to provide culturally appropriate reproductive health information to adolescents aged 15-18. For his postdoctoral research, he explored how user privacy and confidentiality can improve the usability and user experience of digital health interventions targeting adolescents and young people. The goal of their web-based digital health intervention was to provide adolescent users with a virtual "safe" space where they can interact and learn from each other about what works for them in HIV prevention, care, and treatment. Dr. Macharia's long-term goal is to transition into an independent global health researcher specializing in context-specific digital health interventions. He aims to leverage artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge information and communication technologies to improve the quality of and access to healthcare in resource-limited settings.

Adane Kebede Tesega, PhD in Public Health, is a dedicated Postdoctoral Fellow focusing on Digital Health Activities with JSI-USAID at the University of Gondar. Since January 2024, he has been leading research on the impact of the information revolution on the quality of maternity care in Ethiopia. Previously, Adane completed a short-term scholar fellowship at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he concentrated on pediatric infectious diseases and nutrition programs. Since 2020, he has served as an Assistant Professor in Public Health and Health Service Management at the University of Gondar, teaching and supervising students while engaging in various research projects. He also holds the position of Deputy Director of the Institute of Public Health at the University of Gondar and serves as the Regional Hub Coordinator for the International Institute of Primary Health Care-Ethiopia. He has published over 35 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, with research interests spanning health systems, maternal and child health, and nutrition. Additionally, Adane has contributed to multiple research projects and actively participates in community service, holding leadership roles in various organizations.

Strategic Health Information Systems Specialist, Partners in Health - Sierra Leone Michael Mhango is a results-driven health information systems expert with over 12 years of experience advancing healthcare outcomes in underserved regions. Currently serving as the Strategic Health Information System Manager at Partners in Health Sierra Leone, Michael leads the design and implementation of innovative health data systems to support national health strategies and improve rural health outcomes. With expertise in monitoring and evaluation (M&E), data management, and strategic program leadership, Michael has collaborated with global organizations, including USAID, CDC, and the World Bank, to strengthen health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. His work has contributed to significant advancements in national health indicators through evidence-based decision-making and capacity-building initiatives. Michael holds an MBA and a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and is currently pursuing studies in Masters in Data Science to further enhance his ability to design and implement data-driven solutions for healthcare challenges. He is a junior researcher, with publications addressing barriers to universal health coverage, chronic disease management, and hepatitis B treatment in Sierra Leone. Michael was a Global Health Corps Fellow (https://ghcorps.org/author/michael-mhango/) and a recipient of the Tony Elumelu Foundation Entrepreneurship Award 2019. Passionate about sustainable health solutions, he is committed to leveraging data-driven insights to empower communities and enhance global health equity.

Ayoyemi is a Ph.D. candidate in Systems Engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering, Johns Hopkins University. His research develops simulation, visualization, and AI tools to reduce health disparities and mitigate risks of nutrition-related chronic diseases, particularly obesity and colorectal cancer. Focusing on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and low-resource communities, Ayoyemi applies engineering principles, statistical analysis, and machine learning to tackle complex public health challenges. Through this interdisciplinary approach, he aims to create impactful, data-driven solutions that promote global health equity.

Sheruni Pilapitiya (she/her) is a junior at Stanford University, majoring in Human Biology, with a minor in Medical Anthropology. Her academic goals center addressing health inequalities for lower-income women, working to innovate in the medical field to create accessible interventions and amplify female voices. She is also passionate about Bioethics, and holds experience in Epidemiological, Clinical and Basic Science Research. Ultimately, she hopes to work in reproductive healthcare, offering interdisciplinary approaches to reimagine our health systems. Beyond her academic goals, Sheruni is involved in all things music, art, and performance related. She looks forward to being in conversation at CUGH, and further discussing key, pressing Global Health topics.

Dr. Shadi Saleh is Founding Director of the Global Health Institute (GHI) at the American University of Beirut (AUB), the first such institute in the Middle East and North Africa region, and the Non-governmental Organizations’ Initiative (NGOi). In addition, he is a Professor of Health Systems and Financing. Previously, he served as an Associate Vice President for Health Affairs and as the Chairman of the Department of Health Management at Policy at AUB; and as a Professor of Health Systems at the State University of New York. Dr. Saleh’s areas of expertise are in health system strengthening and financing, digital health adoption and evaluation and economic evaluations of health system interventions, esp in low-resource and fragile settings. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and commissioned reports, including publications in the Lancet, American Journal of Public Health and Medical Care among others. Dr. Saleh served as an elected board member of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health; He is also a Head of Delegation with the M8 Alliance. Dr. Saleh served as an appointed member of the National Emergency Social Protection Project and the Committee on Universal Health Coverage with the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon. He co-led the Health Systems and Rebuilding Thematic Group in the Lancet Commission on Syria. Dr. Saleh also serves as a World Bank, WHO and UN advisor for health care financing policy and system strengthening projects. In 2022, he was awarded the Velji Award for Global Health Leadership. Shadi Saleh holds a PhD in Health Policy (minor in health care finance) from the University of Iowa and a Masters of Public Health (health services administration) and a BS from AUB.

Kanyike Andrew Marvin is a Ugandan medical doctor with a bachelor's degree in medicine and surgery. He is a first-year PhD student at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, and the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Research Unit in Entebbe, Uganda. Kanyike is also an implementation scientist and a fellow at the HIV, Infectious Disease, and Global Health Implementation Research Institute (HIGH IRI) at Washington University in St. Louis. Additionally, he serves as the research director at Communities for Childbirth International (CCI), a community-based organization in Jinja, Eastern Uganda. He leads the non-communicable diseases (NCD) initiative at Way Forward Youth Africa Limited. Dr. Kanyike is an early-career researcher with three years of experience and has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles. His research interests focus on implementation research and non-communicable diseases, particularly diabetes mellitus, hypertension management, and HIV and maternal-child health. Beyond his research work, Dr. Kanyike is passionate about civic leadership. He is a co-founder and the general secretary of Healtorch Foundation Uganda, a non-profit health organization.

Dr Hawa Malechi is an obstetrician Gynaecologist and senior lecturer with the University for Development Studies in Tamale the northern region of Ghana. She is a women's health advocate and the chairperson of Medical Women's Association of Ghana in the northern region. She is a champion of cervical cancer prevention in northern Ghana and instrumental in the setting up of cervical cancer screening and training in the region. She is a multiple award winning doctor from her days in Medical school and as a doctor.

Bethrand Brian Odume, MBBS, MPH, MWACP (Fam Med) joined KNCV International in November 2019 as the Country Representative in Nigeria before becoming the pioneer Executive Director of KNCV Nigeria in January 2020. He is also the Chief of Party USAID TB LON Regions 1 & 2 project, a five-year USAID funded project that is supporting comprehensive TB care and treatment in 14 states in Nigeria. The overall project target is to detect, treat and notify 437,895 TB cases within the five-year period of implementation across 14 states namely: Bauchi, Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Nasarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Anambra, Akwa-Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Imo, and Rivers state. KNCV Nigeria since transition as an indigenous entity from KNCV International has expanded its portfolio with more funding from USAID and Global fund – a consortium partner in USAID ACE 6 project, Glovax project implementation in 10 states and GF C-PMM Project in 7 states and GF IMPACT project in 36 states and FCT. He also leads KNCV Nigeria vision for research and innovation that is now being driven by the newly established KNCV Nigeria Center for Research and Innovation in Disease control (CRID). Bethrand is a Public Health Practitioner with long-standing extensive experience in both government and private health sector managing and implementing varied public health programs in Nigeria with a focus on TB, TB/HIV, HIV Prevention, Care and Treatment, Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD), and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). He started his career as a TB program Officer with the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Program (NTBLCP), Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria before joining the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At US CDC, Bethrand led key implementation science research in the areas of TB, TB/HIV, and TB infection control that informed key improvement in program delivery and services. His work at CDC earned him many international awards, including Excellence in Program Delivery International and Excellence in Public Health Protection by US CDC Director of Global Health DGHT. He is equally a Public Health researcher with over 35 publications in peer reviewed journals. He is Vice Chair of the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases IUATLD (the UNION) African Region, a founding member of the Nigeria STOP TB Partnership, and currently the first Executive Vice Chair. He is married to Linda with three boys.

Leila Taj, MD, graduated from Tehran University of Medical Sciences and began her research career at the Iran HIV Research Center, initially as a research fellow and later as a research manager. Her work has primarily focused on HIV prevention interventions among key populations at risk for HIV, HIV self-testing, and improving retention and adherence to HIV treatment.In September 2022, Dr. Taj joined the Institute for Global Health Sciences (IGHS) at UCSF as a research scholar, where she continues her work in global health research. Currently, she serves as a Project Policy Analyst at IGHS and a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at San Francisco General Hospital.

Ms. Nour El Arnaout serves as the Associate Director of the Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut. She spearheaded the establishment of the Institute’s Digital Health Program in 2018 and has since overseen the design and implementation of large-scale digital health initiatives. Her work has primarily focused on underserved and vulnerable refugee populations in fragile and resource-limited settings. Nour has published extensively about digital health interventions implemented in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Her research emphasizes gender equity and equitable access to health services. She is a certified project management professional and holds a masters degree in public health with a specialization in health management and policy.

Ayah Ali is an undergraduate student pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech. While pursuing her degree, she has engaged in undergraduate research with the LIGHT (Leading Innovation in Global Health Technologies) Collaborative, collaborating with interdisciplinary and transnational researchers in exploring the expansion of accessible additive manufacturing infrastructure for clinical systems in low-resource settings. She is a recipient of the Fralin Undergraduate Research Fellowship and is the president of the Arab American Association of Engineers and Architects at Virginia Tech. Ayah’s research interests revolve around collaborative innovation at the intersections of engineering, public health, sustainability, and additive manufacturing. Beyond this research, Ayah enjoys exploring the convergence of engineering with her interests in writing, music, and visual art.

Sara Baumann is an Assistant Professor in Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, where she is the Founder and Director of the Global Women’s Health Research (GLOWHER) collective. Her primary research interests encompass three cross-cutting domains: 1) the innovative application of participatory, arts-based, and visual research methodologies; 2) gender and reproductive health, and 3) mental health. Her research using arts-based and embodied tools is characterized by a commitment to community-engaged methods, a transformative research paradigm, and is guided by principles of design justice. Dr. Baumann has over 15 years of experience conducting research and programming in health and development in South Asia, with a current focus on Nepal. Her work at the intersection of public health and filmmaking has been featured on diverse media platforms, from NPR to Glamour Magazine, and her films have been screened at the Smithsonian Institute, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Dr. Tracy Rabin is an associate professor of medicine (general internal medicine) and the director of the Office of Global Health in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She co-directs the Global Health Ethics Program at the Yale Institute for Global Health and is Graduate Medical Education Director for Global and Community Health Education at Yale New Haven Health. She is also Clinical Professor of Nursing at the Yale School of Nursing. Since 2011, she has served as the Yale co-director of the Makerere University-Yale University (MUYU) Collaboration, a bi-directional clinical education capacity building collaboration based in Kampala, Uganda; and since 2017, she has served as the Yale director of collaborative relationships with clinical partners in rural Tennessee and with Indian Health Service sites in Arizona and New Mexico. Dr. Rabin received her BA in Ethics Studies from the College of William and Mary, her MS in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She completed her clinical training in the Yale Combined Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program and served as a Chief Resident for Global Health in the Yale Department of Internal Medicine prior to joining the Yale faculty. Her current areas of interest include global health workforce education, the promotion of ethical and equitable global health academic partnerships, ethical challenges related to short-term clinical work in resource-limited settings, and patient-centered diabetes care and education.

Rondi Kauffmann, MD, MPH, FACS, FCS(ECSA) is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Physiological Sciences from UCLA, and completed her MD/MPH degrees at the University of Minnesota. She is board certified in General Surgery (residency: Vanderbilt University Medical Center) and Complex Surgical Oncology (fellowship: City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center). Her clinical expertise is in the care of patients with melanoma, soft tissue malignancies, and breast cancer. She is the Surgical Director of Vanderbilt's Center for Experiential Learning and Assessment, Associate Program Director for the general surgery residency program, Director of the Vanderbilt Global Health Equity and Access Leadership in Surgery program, Vice Chair for Global Surgery in the Section of Surgical Sciences, and directs Vanderbilt International Surgery's collaborative efforts with AIC Kijabe Hospital in Kijabe, Kenya. Her research efforts focus on global surgery and global surgical education. She lives with her husband and three children on a farm in Burns, TN.

Margaret is a UCSF Medical Student and Research Assistant for the Center for Health Equity in Surgery and Anesthesia (CHESA) at UCSF. She is passionate about anesthesiology and medical education with an overarching focus on advancing health equity. Currently, she is leading a project focused on identifying pathways to enhance equity in global health exchanges for physicians from LMICs.

James C. Hudspeth, MD, is a board-certified hospitalist at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and a clinical associate professor of medicine in the Department of General Internal Medicine at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Hudspeth is an experienced hospitalist and medical educator with a focus on graduate medical education, faculty development, global health, hospital operations, and health equity. He has served as a medical director or associate program director since 2016, which included coordinating floor teams during COVID-19 surges. Since his residency, Dr. Hudspeth's clinical work has been focused on urban marginalized populations and strengthening international educational systems.

Michelle Arteaga, MS, MHA is a founding member of the Division of Global Health Equity (GHE) Leadership Council in the Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine at Stanford and currently serves as Global Engagement Programs Manager. She pioneered a Rwandan resident bidirectional program in 2017 which has evolved into the Global Health Professional Exchange and Equity Program (GH-PEEP) for hosting international academic partners in the department. She earned a BA in both Global Studies and Political Science from UC Santa Barbara, a Master’s in Health Care Administration from California State University, East Bay, and a Master of Science in Global Health from Northwestern University. She created and taught a course on Global Health Care Management to the administrative staff at University of Zimbabwe, College of Health Sciences (UZCHS). As Co-Director of the Global Health Equity Trainee Pathway in Stanford Anesthesia, she partners with faculty to develop the curriculum, lecture series, and international rotations. Michelle has previous experience managing quality improvement projects related to patient safety reporting, improving efficiency in the operating room, health equity, environmental sustainability, and physician wellness. Her current goals include working with other institutions on pathways for short-term anesthesiology training in California for International Medical Graduates (IMGs) and creating 'glocal' networks in perioperative health.

Dr Tan Maw Pin is a Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Universiti Malaya. After completing her undergraduate medical training at the University of Nottingham and her core medical training at Nottingham City Hospital, Prof Tan obtained a National Training Number in Geriatric Medicine at Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, where she also undertook two years of full-time research training at the Institute of Ageing and Health, Newcastle University. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia Long-Term Research Grant Scheme funded project, TrAnsforming CoGnitivE Frailty into Later-lifE Self-Sufficiency (AGELESS), and is the immediate past President of the Malaysian Society of Geriatric Medicine.

Shukanto Das is a third-year PhD student in Global Health at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, UK. Through his research, Shukanto is developing the SHIFT-SHARE, a strategic implementation framework designed to optimise the planning and deployment of the healthcare workforce in resource-limited settings via task shifting and task sharing. With over six years of experience in strengthening pre-hospital and community-based healthcare systems in India, Das has worked with the American Heart Association, the Lifeline Foundation, and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of India to train first responders and community workers in emergency care. His work increasingly focuses on creating long-term care systems, ensuring that task shifting strategies enhance community-led and home-based support. At the Lifeline Foundation, he contributed to the Home Health Aide course in Gujarat, India, which builds geriatric care capacity by training unemployed youth in urban cities, providing them with livelihoods, and standardising home-based care practices. Das has presented on community health system strengthening, task shifting, and pre-hospital care at global conferences, including a TEDx talk, where he spoke about his intervention of training 40% of his city’s population in first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Das is a visiting faculty member at two universities in India. He is also a member of the Trainee Advisory Committee (TAC) at the CUGH. He holds an MSc in Public Health with a focus on Health Services Management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and an MSc in Cell and Molecular Biology from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India.

Barbara Kamholz, MD, is a psychiatrist who completed a fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.  She retired from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco in 2019 to work in Nepal.  She has  extensive experience as a consultation psychiatrist in the VA system for most of her career.   As a result of that, she has subspecialized in delirium, having helped to establish the American Delirium Society and having been engaged with the European Delirium Association from its inception.  Since 2015 she has been core faculty with the new Global Mental Health Fellowship at UCSF, which has sites in Nepal and the Navajo Nation.  At present she is developing geriatrics programs at Kathmandu University in Nepal, in collaboration with the Workforce/Capacity Building committee of CUGH and WHO Nepal.  She was co-chair of the APPI committee of CUGH from 2021-2023.  

Dr. Yesim Tozan’s research centers on health decision science and priority setting, and explores the costs and cost-effectiveness of health care interventions using decision analytic models and the issues of health care resource allocation in low- and middle-income countries. Her main focus has been infectious disease prevention and control with an emphasis on dengue and malaria. Dr. Tozan is currently leading a health economics work package in a European Union-funded research project on dengue surveillance and control with field sites in Sri Lanka and Thailand. She is also leading a prospective multi-center study on the cost of dengue illness in international travelers utilizing a network of travel clinics in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Australia. Most recently, she has been working on economic evaluation of artemisinin-based combination therapies for the treatment of uncomplicated childhood malaria using data from multi-site randomized clinical trials in Africa and Asia. Dr. Tozan was a task force associate for the UN Millennium Project’s Task Force on HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Access to Essential Medicines and was lead author of the malaria task force report entitled “Coming to grips with malaria in the new millennium.”

Samuel Adjorlolo (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Mental Health and the Head of Department of Mental Health Nursing, University of Ghana. He holds a PhD in Applied Behavioral Sciences, Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Clinical Psychology, Master of Science (MSc) degree in Telemedicine and e-health and Bachelor of Arts degree in Nursing and Psychology. As a research scientist with a strong multi-disciplinary training and expertise in health sciences, psychology, mental health, research integrity and, implementation research, Dr. Adjorlolo’ research focuses on vulnerable and underserved populations, including adolescents and women. He has advanced the science of intersection of multiple vulnerabilities such as mental health and infectious diseases, gender, climate change, pregnancy, migration and poverty from Ghanaian perspectives. Dr. Adjorlolo has published his research findings in national and international peer-reviewed journals and presented at major conferences. His research has been funded by local and international organizations, including CIHR, WHO-Alliance, Anesvad Foundation, MRF. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and co-edited the African mental health and criminal justice system book, published by Palgrave Macmillan. He was a fellow of the ACHIEVE training program at Washington University at st Louis. He is a Fellow of the POSSIBLE-Africa Fellowship program by Science for Africa Foundation. Dr. Adjorlolo features on major news outlets in Ghana on mental health and related topics.

Tara McCrimmon is a DrPH candidate in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Her research focuses on HIV prevention and treatment, including access to services among marginalized populations, the impacts of health and social policies on healthcare access, structural interventions, and implementation science. Tara has worked in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for over 15 years. As a Fogarty Global Health Scholar from 2023-2024, she designed and led a multimethod study assessing the multilevel barriers to implementing HIV prevention education and testing services among youth in Tajikistan. Tara holds an MPH from Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, an MIA from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a BA from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Nhial T. Tutlam is an assistant professor and associate director for research at the International Center for Child Health (ICHAD) based at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. His research centers on the mental health impact of war trauma among youth from conflict affected families resettled as refugees in the U.S. and those still residing in refugee camps in Sub-Saharan Africa with the aim of developing and testing culturally congruent community-based interventions to address the myriad of mental health challenges in this vulnerable population. Dr. Tutlam is currently leading a study funded by the NIH focused on addressing HIV risk and mental health among refugee youth in Uganda and another study leveraging the ACHIEVE training program to recruit and train refugee youth to become researchers. Additionally, as part of his NIMH-funded Research Career Development Award (K01), Dr. Tutlam is currently conducting a study to adapt and test a combination intervention to address emotional and behavioral health challenges related to intergenerational trauma among adolescents born in the U.S. to parents resettled as refugee in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. Dr. Tutlam’s research is motivated and informed by his own lived experience as someone who experienced displacement due to conflict.

Dr. Sasha Hernandez is a global health OB/GYN clinician, researcher, and program implementer with more than 15 years of experience working in low- and-middle-income countries (LMICs) across Latin America and Africa. Having lived extensively in-country, she brings a practical, on-the-ground perspective to improving women's health through clinical work, research, and public health programs. She holds a degree in medical anthropology from Barnard College of Columbia University and graduated with honors in research from Weill Cornell Medical College, where she focused on global health. She completed her residency at NYU where she served as Chief Resident. She also completed an NIH Fogarty Launching Future Leaders in Global Health Research Training Program (LAUNCH), an implementation science research fellowship. In her work, she applies implementation science principles to develop and scale interventions that improve maternal and reproductive health, aiming to overcome systemic barriers and contribute to greater global health equity with a current focus on addressing the cervical cancer burden in Africa. At NYULH, Dr. Hernandez is family planning provider at NYU Brooklyn and the Associate Director of the Division of Women’s & Community Health and actively engaged in multiple studies in NYC, Ghana, and Kenya.

Amelia Meyer, is a Research Program Manager specializing in One Health at Stanford University, where she co-leads the campus Plastic and Health Working Group and collaborates with the LaBeaud Lab to develop applied solutions for preventing environmentally mediated infectious diseases. Rooted in a commitment to sustainability and systems thinking, Amelia designs science-driven, tactical solutions that integrate global and local scales, bridging disciplines to advance innovative ecological approaches that enhance both human and environmental health. As a creative and interdisciplinary environmental scientist, Amelia focuses on developing holistic, quantifiable strategies for sustainable agriculture, climate change mitigation, and ecosystem restoration. She previously served as Senior Program Officer for Nature Metrics at the World Wildlife Fund and as a Research Scientist for the Disease Ecology in a Changing World Initiative at Stanford. Amelia holds a BA in Geography, a BS in Environmental Science, and a dual MSc in Environmental Science.

Phil Landrigan is a pediatrician, public health physician and epidemiologist. His research uses the tools of epidemiology to elucidate connections between toxic chemicals and human health, especially the health of infants and children.  Phil is particularly interested in understanding how toxic chemicals including plastics injure the developing brains and nervous systems of children and in translating this knowledge into public policy to protect health. He has contributed to the US government's decision to remove lead from paint and gasoline and led a study in the 1990s at the National Academy of Sciences on children’s unique susceptibilities to pesticides that catalyzed fundamental revamping of US pesticide policy. From 2015-2017 he co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Pollution & Health, which reported that pollution causes 9 million deaths annually and is an existential threat to planetary health. 

Desiree LaBeaud is a leading researcher in field epidemiology with over fifteen years of experience in infectious diseases, focusing on pediatric infections, climate change, child health, tropical medicine, and advanced immunology. She is the Principal Investigator of NIAID R01 awards studying DENV and CHIKV transmission in Kenya and yellow fever virus in Brazil. Additionally, she launched a nonprofit organization HERI-Kenya to improve public health and environmental conditions in Kenya. One of the core aims of research and community activities in HERI-Kenya is to reduce plastic waste. She is also co-director of the Sean N. Parker Center Stanford Climate Health and Equity Task Force and a leader in the Stanford Human and Planetary Health Group, she integrates planetary health into research and teaching. 

Dr. Thompson is a professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing with a joint appointment in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurses. She is a member of Emory’s Network for Evaluation and Implementation Sciences at Emory University (NEISE) and a member of the Emory Climate Research Initiative which brings together faculty with diverse expertise to advance climate-related research and curricula across the Emory campus. Her areas of research and education are focused on household air pollution, climate change, and implementation science. Her research expertise is in the conduct of household air pollution stove intervention trials, which has led to her current focus on implementing strategies to reduce women’s exposure to air pollution from the burning of household plastic in indoor cooking and outdoor trash fires. She is currently conducting a village-level randomized controlled trial in rural Guatemala with Xinca Indigenous communities.

Dr. Samuel is resourceful and skilled in project planning, implementation, community dialogue, and awareness-creation activities. His project management insight over the years is immeasurable. With his experience in directing and strategically monitoring activities at the regional, state, local government, facility, and community levels, his managerial and leadership skills are unquantifiable. A passionate, dependable, and energetic public health practitioner with over 12 years of clinical and programmatic experience in the fields of TB, TBHIV, Tropical diseases (Malaria, Viral Hemorrhagic Fever), and Neglected Tropical Diseases (Leprosy, Buruli Ulcer, etc). Samuel is highly skilled in strategic planning, project implementation and review, monitoring and evaluation, team building, public health education, budgeting and costing, data management, and disease surveillance. Samuel is a team player, and a leading manager, communicates skillfully, is culturally competent, and can function independently and seamlessly in fast-paced settings.

Dr. Yuguang Liu is an Assistant Professor and Associate Consultant in the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Immunology at Mayo Clinic. She is also affiliated with the Microbiomics Program, Center for Individualized Medicine. Trained as an electrical engineer, Yuguang Liu’s research interests focus on developing microfluidic technologies for various applications, from basic and translational research in medicine to the exploration of the limits of life on extraterrestrial bodies. She has expertise in developing microfluidic devices and biosensors for rapid disease diagnosis, screening and therapeutic monitoring.

Gerilovych A.P. was born in Kharkiv (04-01-1981). - Since 2002 – veterinarian (graduated from Kharkov State Zooveterinary Academy) and post-graduate student (2002-2005). - From October to December 2005 – junior researcher. - 2005-2022 - Head of molecular diagnostics laboratory (since 2015 – Department for molecular diagnostics in NSC IECVM). - 2012-2022 - Deputy Director for Research in NSC IECVM - 2022-2024 – Director’s adviser for foreign cooperation/Senior Researcher in SSRILDVSE - Since 2022 - I-TECH/UW consultant - Since 2024 – founder and Director general of One Health Scientific and Research Institute, PSI - PhD – 2005, scientific degree of Senior Researcher – 2007, since 2011 – Sc. Dr. (Dr. Hab.) - Professor (2015), Corresponding Member of NAAS (2016) - 2014-2022 - Editor-in-Chief of Journal for Veterinary Medicine, Biotechnology and Biosafety - Since October 2022 - Editor-in-Chief of One Health Journal (OHI and SSRILDVSE) - State Award in Sciences and Techniques of Ukraine (2009), - Award of Government of Ukraine for innovative developments (2017) Prof Dr Gerilovych is author and co-author of 20 diagnostic kits registered in Ukraine, 28 methodic guidelines, 38 patents of Ukraine, over 300 papers and abstracts, devoted to molecular diagnostics, epidemiology

Olabamiji Jamiu Olayinka is a medical professional with degrees in medical laboratory science. He is currently the laboratory team lead and new tools focal person on the USAID TB LON project for the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, He has saved as Principal Investigator (PI) for some novel studies in diagnostics with over 15 years of work experience in TB/HIV diagnosis and research in public health settings, health system strengthening and donor-funded projects implementation.

Adenike is a passionate public health advocate with a strong focus on maternal and child health, infectious diseases, and health equity. With extensive experience in public health research and program implementation, Adenike has contributed to numerous initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes in underserved communities. Currently pursuing advanced studies in public health, she is dedicated to addressing the intersection of health disparities and disease prevention through evidence-based solutions. Adenike's work reflects her commitment to empowering communities and advancing global health.

Dr. Assem Gebreal is a first-generation Medical Doctor (MD) at Alexandria University, passionate about Research, Public health, and youth development. He has four years of experience in managing projects, including clinical research, leading and coordinating multinational teams both in-person and virtually. In 2022, as the youngest board member, he co-founded the Global Researcher Club (GRC) –a global non-profit research network– to empower youth in tackling medical research and climate change challenges through research, training, and capacity building. As a clinical researcher, Assem has worked on numerous projects encompassing preventive medicine, oncology, children's vaccination, infectious diseases, and climate change, both locally and internationally. His efforts in research and awareness were recognized as the delegate of Egypt in COY18, HLPF, FHF, and awardee of the Egypt Scholars Student Award (ESSA) 2023. Dr. Assem Gebreal advocates for a future where everyone can live healthily everywhere, working on youth-focused initiatives, research, and awareness for sustainable development.

I am public health physician with over 10 years of progressive experience in Public Health Program Design, Implementation and Management with a sound technical and programmatic understanding of the delivery of high-quality infectious diseases services including HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and TB/HIV. Currently, I am the State Team Lead for the TB-LON 3 Project at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), where I work to provide technical/programmatic support and leadership to the state team, service providers as well as other stakeholders on TB and TB/HIV service implementation under the Project in Lagos State.

Mustafa Rfat is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. As a refugee with disabilities, his lived experience informs his scholarship and commitment to advancing equity for refugees and people with disabilities. Specifically, his research explores employment, healthcare, education, and related programs to empower refugees and immigrants with disabilities. His work has an international focus, contributing to research on educational equity in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mustafa also collaborates with scholars in Turkey to address the unique needs of individuals with disabilities and refugees living in Turkey. His interdisciplinary approach combines social work, public policy, and community-based participatory research to shape policies that promote inclusion and social justice.

Bonnielin Swenor is the Endowed Professor of Disability Health and Justice at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing with joint appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Wilmer Eye Institute and Departments of Epidemiology and Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is the founding director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, which uses data-driven approaches to shift the paradigm from ‘living with a disability’ to ‘thriving with a disability’. Motivated by her personal experience with disability, her work focuses on advancing health equity for people with disabilities, promoting disability inclusion and accessibility in research, and developing evidence-based and disability-inclusive policies. Dr. Swenor has provided advice and expertise to multiple organizations and agencies, including the World Health Organization, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Governors Association. Her work has been published in leading academic journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Lancet, and has been featured in multiple news outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and TIME magazine. Dr. Swenor also has a track record of translating research into policy change, as she played a pivotal role in efforts that led the NIH to designate people with disabilities as a health disparity population.

Dr. Franz Castro obtained his medical degree from the University of Panama and his Masters in Public Health in Quantitative Methods at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed his postdoctoral research fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and School of Nursing. As a Research Associate at the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research Center, his work focuses on examining health and societal disparities affecting people with disabilities, particularly those living at the intersection of disability and race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health.

Dr. Jennifer Arnold is a pediatrician, neonatologist, and expert in healthcare simulation at Boston Children’s Hospital. Her unique perspective on medicine has been shaped by the various ways she has engaged with the field: as a pediatric and adult patient, cancer survivor, mother, and doctor. 

A native of St. Petersburg, FL, Arnold received her undergraduate degrees in biology and psychology from the University of Miami. She completed her medical degree at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 2000 and attended a pediatric residency program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 2003. Arnold was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral scholar at the University of Pittsburgh’s Safar Center for Resuscitative Medicine from 2006 to 2007. During her fellowship in neonatology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Magee-Women's Hospital, she also pursued a Master of Science in medical education, graduating in 2009. 

A founding director of the simulation centers at both Texas Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, Dr. Arnold has a passion for innovating the application of healthcare simulation as a patient safety tool. She is currently the executive director for the Immersive Design Systems at Boston Children’s Hospital, the primary pediatric teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. She is also an attending physician in the Bone Health Center and Newborn Medicine Division at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is the host of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Answers Parentcast, a podcast focused on helping parents raise healthy and happy kids. 

Dr. Arnold is an internationally known speaker, published NYT best-selling author (Life is Short, No Pun Intended and Think Big), and recipient of awards for innovation in medical education and patient-care. She has spoken both nationally and internationally on healthcare simulation and has made inspirational speeches on overcoming obstacles as an individual with a disability. 

Dr. Arnold’s passion is to advocate for pediatric healthcare and raising awareness for individuals with disabilities. It is this passion that led her to a career in medicine and to focus her media efforts in this effort. Dr. Arnold has a rare type of dwarfism called Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Type Strudwick (which involved more than 30 orthopedic surgeries). She is a 10-year cancer survivor. Not only does she have a disability and has personally overcome extraordinary physical and health obstacles, but she is the mother of two kids with medical complexities, both with skeletal dysplasia. With her husband, Bill Klein, and their two children, they were featured from 2009 to 2019 on TLC’s docuseries “The Little Couple,” an unscripted program that provided a window into the family’s personal and professional lives. The show’s popularity helped to break down barriers and educate viewers about people with disabilities.

Lauren Swan-Potras, MS (she/her) is drawn to the intersection of storytelling and public health, believing that how public health practitioners communicate is as important as what they communicate. Lauren is the Managing Editor of the Journal of Health Communication, and a graduate of the Health Communication for Social Change program at CUNY, School of Public Health and Health Policy. Lauren has worked with the oral history nonprofits, as well as various New York based theater companies in both creative and administrative capacities. She is currently the Secretariat for the Advancing Research in Immunization Services (ARISe) Network Coordinating Center as well as Secretariat for the Council for Quality Health Communication. Lauren received her BFA from New York University, where she studied traditional and non-traditional theater and storytelling. Her love of storytelling brought her to public health to explore and implement effective storytelling and other communication strategies in support of improving health access, equity, and quality information.

Ben Johnson is Chief Editor of Nature Health, a new peer-reviewed journal covering all aspects of public, global and population health from the Nature Portfolio, due to launch in January 2026. In his 14-year career in publishing, Ben has been an Editor at BMC and Nature Medicine as well as Head of Communities and Engagement for Springer Nature (where he launched the Nature Portfolio Instagram account). Ben trained as a virologist, has a PhD on influenza virus from Public Health England and the University of Reading, UK, and a postdoc on smallpox vaccines from Imperial College London.

Dr. Ken Rabin, based in Warsaw Poland, has more than fifty years of experience in public affairs, marketing communications, and education, primarily in healthcare. In addition to his current role at CUNY SPH, he is special projects editor of the Journal of Health Communication and senior counselor to Alfa Communications in Warsaw.  Since 2019 Ken has collaborated with Dr. Scott Ratzan, Prof. Jeffrey Lazarus, and others on several international and US academic studies and editorials on vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 communications and immunization issues. His past clients include Johnson and Johnson (for whom he helped develop the Campaign for Nursing’s Future), Sanofi, Merck, L’oreal, UNESCO, PhRMA and IFPMA. His campaigns have won a Silver Anvil, Gold Quill, and the Big Apple Award of the New York PRSA.He was executive vice president of international healthcare at Ruder Finn in Washington, London, and Paris, managing director of Burson-Marsteller’s worldwide healthcare practice, chairman of InterScience (a global healthcare PR company later acquired by 3BCom/Medicus), executive vice president of healthcare at Hill & Knowlton, and director of public affairs at Squibb (now BMS). Prior to working in the corporate sector, Ken was associate professor and director of the graduate public relations program at American University in Washington, a communications specialist at Meharry Medical College, and a USIA foreign service information officer in Africa.He has a BA (honors) degree from Cornell, MA degrees from Yale and the University of North Carolina, and a PhD in higher education administration from the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.  He is married to Prof. Anna Wysocka-Rabin of NCBJ Swierk and has two children from his marriage to the Late Renee Efland Rabin.

Dr. Ratzan has three decades of pioneering accomplishments in the U.S. and globally in health communication, health literacy, and strategic diplomacy.  He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.   Dr. Ratzan co-directs the Masters Program in Health Communication for Social Change at CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) and serves as their first Distinguished Lecture. 

He currently co-chairs the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All and serves as a Senior Fellow for U.S. Council for International Business Foundation.  He leads the coordinating center for the ARISe Network – Advancing Research in Immunization Services -  based at CUNY SPH/NYU Prevention Research Center with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He also serves as a co-lead of communication efforts with the Pandemic Response Institute, an initiative with ICAP at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health and CUNY SPH.  

Dr. Ratzan recently was a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School.  

Since early in his career, he has been committed to advancing innovation and health equity.   He co-authored the definition of health literacy adopted by HHS and integrated in the U.S. Affordable Care Act. He also has served as Co-Chair of the UN Secretary General’s Every Woman Every Child Innovation Working Group and served on the CDC’s Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Disease.  He has worked in multiple sectors with Johnson & Johnson, ABInBev and USAID in Brussels, New York and Washington DC.   

Prof. Ratzan teaches on-line courses including Multisector Engagement for Sustainable Health based on the Guiding Principles he developed as Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.  He also holds adjunct professorial appointments Tufts University School of Medicine, and the University of St Andrews School of Medicine.  His books include Vaccine Communication in a Pandemic: Strengthening Vaccine Literacy, Restoring Trust and Engaging Communities to Foster Vaccine Confidence and Uptake, The Mad Cow Crisis: Health and the Public Good, Attaining Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities,  AIDS: Effective Health Communication for the 90s, and Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream.    

He has been published extensively in the field of health communication and policy including articles related to vaccine literacy and communication in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, JAMA, Nature Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, and the National Academies of Medicine Perspectives.  He has written articles and offered expertise including in the BMJ, Washington Post, STAT News, New York Times, and Financial Times and also in broadcast including BBC World News, Sky News, MSNBC and others.

Dr. Ratzan has an M.D. from the University of Southern California, an M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School, and an M.A. in Communication from Emerson College. 

Dr. Rhonda Sealey-Thomas, a national of Antigua and Barbuda, received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of the West Indies in 1993, a Master of Public Health in 2005, and a Doctorate in Public Health from the Mona campus, Jamaica in 2020.

Dr. Sealey-Thomas commenced her journey as a Medical Officer of Health for the Ministry of Health in Antigua and Barbuda, supervising a broad spectrum of healthcare professionals from 2000 to 2004. Ascending to a pivotal role, she served as the Chief Medical Officer from 2005 to 2023, where she acted as the primary advisor on paramount public health matters, chaired multiple national health committees, and represented the government on both regional and international platforms.

Dr. Sealey-Thomas began her collaboration with PAHO in 2004, taking the role of Associate Consultant in the Non-communicable Diseases Unit based in Washington, D.C. She contributed to shaping the regional approach to challenges such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. She has been an active participant in a number of PAHO and WHO governance meetings, including the Executive Committee, Directing Council, and World Health Assembly. Her involvement with PAHO further extended as a member of its working group focused on crafting a Health Agenda for the Americas during 2005-2006 and 2016-2017. Additionally, Dr. Sealey-Thomas was part of PAHO's advisory group aimed at propelling the Noncommunicable Disease Agenda in the Caribbean.

Dr. Sealey-Thomas served as the Chair of PAHO’s Regional Validation Committee, working towards eradicating Mother to Child Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis, a position that she held until the date of this appointment.

Dr. Mikus comes to GHTC from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she most recently served as senior policy advisor for the Global Health Center. She brings extensive experience in public policy, partnership building and program management in the global health sector from her two decades spent serving the U.S. government in various capacities, both in Washington, D.C., and abroad. 

Prior to her current role, Dr. Mikus served as the CDC deputy country director in Zambia and the Zambia country coordinator for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). She has also held positions in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Foreign Assistance, where she led foreign assistance reform efforts, and the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, first as a PEPFAR congressional liaison and later as PEPFAR country lead for South Africa, Tanzania, Haiti, Guyana, Mozambique and Zambia. Dr. Mikus first started her career in government at the U.S. Department of Commerce helping to negotiate free trade agreements for pharmaceuticals and biotechnology as a Presidential Management Fellow. 

“We are thrilled to welcome Kristie to GHTC. She’s a skilled and passionate leader with a comprehensive understanding of policy dynamics from her governmental roles, coupled with her firsthand experiences in countries that partner with the U.S. in global health initiatives,” stated Heather Ignatius, chief of external affairs at PATH, where the GHTC secretariat is based, and leader of the executive search team. “Kristie’s unique background, which includes actively working alongside these nations, positions her perfectly for cultivating collaborative relationships with diverse stakeholders, both within and outside of government. Her depth of experience and dedication to advancing innovation for global health makes her an outstanding choice to lead the coalition into its next chapter.” 

“I’ve had the opportunity get to know the GHTC community from my time within government, and I have seen firsthand how this coalition is a trusted source of expertise for U.S. and global policymakers and a powerful voice for the role of technology in advancing global health. I am honored and excited to take the helm of such a well-respected and dynamic organization and look forward to working with the coalition’s members and partners to continue to accelerate innovation to save lives worldwide,” said Dr. Mikus. 

Dr. Mikus will succeed former Executive Director Jamie Bay Nishi, who stepped down in December after leading the coalition through a period of significant growth and evolution over the past seven years. Under Dr. Mikus’ leadership, GHTC will continue to work to advance policies and funding to accelerate the development of vaccines, drugs and other technologies that improve global health. 

Nancy Knight, MD Chief Science and Programs Officer As The Task Force for Global Health’s first Chief Science and Programs Officer, Dr. Nancy Knight helps foster cross-program collaboration and partnership opportunities. Prior to joining The Task Force, Dr. Knight served a distinguished 22-year career in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps as a Rear Admiral, Lower Half, and Assistant Surgeon General, most recently working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). At the CDC, Dr. Knight held leadership positions in three African countries, including CDC Associate Director for Clinical Programs for PEPFAR in Nigeria, CDC Country Director in Nigeria, Program Director for CDC’s Division of Global HIV and TB in Kenya, and CDC Country Director in South Africa. In 2017, Dr. Knight became Director of CDC’s Division of Global Health Protection, and later served in the Office of the Director for CDC’s Global Health Center, focused on health security. Dr. Knight then served as Director for Emerging Biological Threats during a one-year assignment in the National Security Council. Dr. Knight holds a BA in Biology and Psychology from Washington University, an MD from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine at Chapel Hill, and completed her residency training in Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, where she also served as Chief Resident.

Ben Lopman, PhD, MSc, is a Professor of Epidemiology, Global Health, and Environmental Health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. His research focuses on vaccines for enteric and respiratory pathogens, particularly diarrheal diseases caused by rotavirus and norovirus. His team conducts field studies and uses statistical analysis together with dynamic mathematical modeling to address policy-relevant public health questions. He is the Principal Investigator of multiple NIH, NSF, CDC, WHO, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation grants and has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications. Before joining Emory in 2016, Dr. Lopman served as an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Division of Viral Diseases, leading programs on enteric viruses and vaccine epidemiology. He earned his undergraduate degree in Microbiology from the University of Florida, followed by a Master’s degree from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a PhD while working at the UK’s Health Protection Agency, and a post-doc at Imperial College London. From 2007 to 2009, he was a faculty member at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Lopman directs the Emory Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Training Hub (CIDMATH), part of CDC’s national InsightNet, and co-directs the Summer Institute in Statistics and Modeling in Infectious Diseases (SISMID) and the Emory Vaccinology Training Program (VTP). He is an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Wilbur Lam, MD, PhD, is a professor and W. Paul Bowers Research Chair in the Department of Pediatrics and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Lam serves as Associate Dean of Innovation for Emory University School of Medicine, Co-Director for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta's Pediatric Technology Center, and the inaugural Vice Provost for Entrepreneurship for Emory University. He is also a principal investigator of the NIH-funded Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies, which is part of the NIH’s Point-of-Care Technologies Research Network and served as the Test Verification Center of the NIH RADx initiative for COVID-19 diagnostic testing. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and an inductee of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

A clinical psychologist and Haiti native, Dr. Gilberte (“Gigi”) Bastien currently serves as the Associate Director for the Office of Global Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine and is Assistant Professor within MSM’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Bastien’s research and clinical interests focus on the intersection of culture and mental health with the aim of improving accessibility, acceptability, and efficacy of mental health services for underserved populations. Dr. Bastien’s complementary interests in disaster mental health and global mental health capacity building were largely influenced by her involvement in the mental health response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.During her stint as a Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) health policy fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine, Dr. Bastien gained invaluable training in health leadership and the use of effective strategies for advancing policy solutions to mental health and broader health disparities both domestically and globally. This training was brought to bear in completing an NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellowship project in collaboration with the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program in Liberia. Specifically, this project focused on understanding mental health and resilience in Ebola affected communities in Liberia. Dr. Bastien’s experiences during the Fogarty fellowship further strengthened her interest in leveraging large-scale emergencies as a pathway to addressing pre-existing mental health disparities in LMICs and other resource constrained settings.

Dr. Afom T. Andom is currently working as Chief Medical Officer for Partners In Health in Lesotho. He is a global health expert with extensive experience in clinical and public health systems in sub-Saharan African countries including Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, and the kingdom of Lesotho. Dr. Afom has been leading implementation of various health programs including primary care, health system strengthening, HIV and Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis treatment and care.  Prior to joining Partners In Health, Dr. Afom Andom worked with Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Lesotho as a District Technical Advisor for HIV and TB programs under a USAID funded project where Lesotho started implementation of   HIV test and treatment strategy.Dr. Andom has led different research projects on TB, Health System Strengthening and Maternal and Child Health and has published and co-authored several articles in peer reviewed journals.  Dr. Andom is a member of various Technical Working Groups in Lesotho and internationally where his contributions are on how to improve health systems, medical oxygen ecosystems and community health programs. Dr. Afom Andom is a graduate from the Orotta School of Medicine in Eritrea and holds a Master’s degree of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery from Harvard University, and a Diploma in HIV Medicine from Colleague of Medicine South Africa. 

Dr. Juliet Sekandi is a physician-scientist trained in epidemiology, health services research, and global health. She is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Global Health Institute in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. For the last 20 years she has conducted clinical and community-based research on Tuberculosis (TB) in Uganda. Specifically, her earlier research efforts were focused on evaluating strategies for community active case finding of TB and TB/HIV to improve case detection in Uganda. She also studied the diagnostic pathways of TB patients to understand health seeking delays in poor urban communities in Uganda. In last 5 years, Dr. Sekandi has expanded her research work to new areas including digital technologies (mHealth) to improve TB treatment adherence, application of artificial intelligence to enhance implementation of digital technologies, and examining ethical issues related to the use of digital technologies in public health research and post-TB morbidity among survivors of TB. Dr. Sekandi applies the social determinants of health framework in her research program. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in global health at the University of Georgia. Dr. Sekandi received her medical degree from Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, a Master of Science degree from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio and a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of Georgia.

Dr. Paula Davis-Olwell is A Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Georgia, and coordinator of educational programs in the Global Health Institute. She is trained as both a demographer and social scientist with expertise in public health nutrition and medical anthropology. Her research on infant feeding in Uganda developed an observational methodology for measuring mothers’ implementation of exclusive breastfeeding. Dr. Davis-Olwell has over 10 years experience conducting research on infant feeding practices and maternal and child health in Africa (Uganda and Ghana). She was on the faculty of Population Studies at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and she has collaborated with faculty at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Dr. Davis-Olwell earned her Ph.D. in Public Health and Anthropology from Johns Hopkins University and her MA in Anthropology from the University of Alabama. Before joining University of Georgia she held faculty positions in Africana Studies at University of Pittsburgh and at Brown University where she developed courses on health disparities and the history of public health taught from a perspective of social studies of science and technology. She currently teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in global health that emphasize the social determinants of health, including: global health policy, food systems and global health, refugee and immigrant health, and maternal and child health. Her recent research activities have focused on the interface of culture and ethics in global health and on the health impacts of food acculturation (adopting Western Diet) among refugee and immigrant populations.

Dr. Zhuo (Adam) Chen is Professor and DrPH Program Coordinator, Department of Health Policy and Management, University of Georgia (UGA), USA; Visiting Chair Professor of Health Economics and Director (0.2FTE), Centre for Health Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Dr. Chen leads the Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Determinants of Health Pre-Seed Team at UGA. He has published more than 140 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals, including Lancet, Journal of Health Economics, Social Science & Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics and M.S. in Statistics from Iowa State University. Before Dr. Chen joined the University of Georgia, he was a senior health economist with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He was a recipient of the CDC Excellence in Social and Behavioral Science Research Award in 2013. Dr. Chen’s current research interests include health economics, social determinants of health, global health, health systems, economics of obesity, mental health, genomics, and economic evaluation.

Jim Lavery is Professor and inaugural Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Global Health Ethics in the Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and Director of the Ph.D. Program in Global Health and Development. He teaches courses in global health ethics and health systems and social justice. His research and writing focus on stakeholder theory, community engagement and organizational learning in global health programs. His work has shown how stakeholder interests, experience and reasoning operate as social determinants of the success of global health programs.

Dr. Sarah Zalwango is the Director of Public Health and Environment, Kampala Capital City Authority in Uganda. She is also a Senior Research Scientist at the Makerere University and the Uganda Society for Health Scientists. In her role as the director of public health, she oversees over 400 staff and the operations of six public health facilities that provide primary care services to a population of over 1.2 million people in Kampala City. She has over 15 years of experience in collaborating with multiple stakeholders in research, health care service regulation or policy design and service delivery. As the leader of public health services, Dr. Zalwango manages the response to epidemics in Kampala City. 

In her role as a research scientist she has devoted over 20 years of her career to investigating tuberculosis in household contacts, transmission dynamics, community active case finding of undiagnosed persons with TB, TB/HIV coinfection, delays in diagnosis and linkage to care. She has served as local PI and co-investigator on several NIH funded grant in Uganda. To-date, she has co-authored over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She currently works to address social determinants of health through the formulation of policies that integrate health and non-health sector approaches into the public service delivery in Kampala City. She plays a key role to foster engagement and support of the Uganda ministry of health, the ministry of transport, the ministry of finance and research scientists to improve public health in the City.

Dr. Zalwango received both her medical degree and Masters in Public Health from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.

Dr. Wendy Ellis is an Assistant Professor in Global Health and the Founding Director of the Center for Community Resilience at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. In 2024, she was appointed the Inaugural Director of the Institute for Racial, Ethnic and Socioeconomic Equity here at GW. The Equity Institute leverages the resources of a premier research university and invests in transformative community partnerships with the goal of eradicating racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequity worldwide. The Center for Community Resilience housed in the School of Public Health seeks to improve the health of communities by enabling cross-sectoral partners to align policy, program and practice to address adverse childhood experiences in the context of adverse community environments — or as Dr. Ellis has coined it "The Pair of ACEs".

Nelson Sewankambo MBChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, LLD (HC) is a Professor Emeritus and a former President of Makerere Medical School, Uganda and a past Principal Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He facilitated the establishment of many collaborations between Makerere University and institutions in both high and low or middle-income countries. He was a member of the research team that for the first time identified and documented the existence of HIV in Uganda in early 80’s (Lancet, 1985). He is one of the founders of the internationally reknown Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), initially known as the Rakai Project which has a longitudinal population Rakai HIV Community Cohort Services (RCCS) for the last 35 years. RHSP has generated research evidence used in global (WHO), regional and national HIV prevention and management policies. He is one of the founders of the world famous 20-year old Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at Makerere University. IDI has very strong HIV prevention, research, management and care programmes for the last 20 years. He was a founder and is a scientific adviser (20+ years) of the Makerere-University Walter Reed Research Institute (MUWRP) and a founding member and Board Chair of the Makerere Joint AIDS Program (MJAP) in Uganda. He has focused on epidemiological and interventional HIV/AIDS research and also contributed to building indigenous research capacity to conduct quality research relevant to the country, region and globally.

Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde (MBChB, Mmed, MScHPE) Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde is the Deputy Executive Director, African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST). She was the Director of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI)) at ACHEST. She is a Radiologist and formerly Head of the Radiology Department at Makerere University in Uganda. She holds an MBChB and an MMed Radiology from Makerere University and a Master’s degree in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She is a Fellow of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), Philadelphia USA and a Fellow in Ultrasound from the Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA. She is the immediate past Secretary General for The Network Towards Unity for Health (TUFH). She is the immediate past President of the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth). She has over 25 years’ experience in Health Professions Education. She has published over 80 publications in Health Professions Education and Radiology.

Dr. Tracy Rabin is an associate professor of medicine (general internal medicine) and the director of the Office of Global Health in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine. She co-directs the Global Health Ethics Program at the Yale Institute for Global Health and is Graduate Medical Education Director for Global and Community Health Education at Yale New Haven Health. She is also Clinical Professor of Nursing at the Yale School of Nursing. Since 2011, she has served as the Yale co-director of the Makerere University-Yale University (MUYU) Collaboration, a bi-directional clinical education capacity building collaboration based in Kampala, Uganda; and since 2017, she has served as the Yale director of collaborative relationships with clinical partners in rural Tennessee and with Indian Health Service sites in Arizona and New Mexico. Dr. Rabin received her BA in Ethics Studies from the College of William and Mary, her MS in Immunology and Infectious Diseases from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and her MD from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. She completed her clinical training in the Yale Combined Medicine/Pediatrics Residency Program and served as a Chief Resident for Global Health in the Yale Department of Internal Medicine prior to joining the Yale faculty. Her current areas of interest include global health workforce education, the promotion of ethical and equitable global health academic partnerships, ethical challenges related to short-term clinical work in resource-limited settings, and patient-centered diabetes care and education.

Judy N. Khanyola is a Registered Nurse and is currently the Chair of the Center for Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Global Health Equity in Rwanda. Judy’s work focusses on equipping the nursing and midwifery profession in Africa to do what it is they were educated and trained to do as qualified health professionals. Previously, she led the strengthening of pre and in service education at 22 schools of nursing and midwifery in six countries in Africa through ICAP at Columbia University as the Regional Nursing Advisor for Africa. Judy was from 2018 to 2021, the Nursing Now Africa Region Representative where she contributed to the campaign to raise the status and profile of nurses in Africa.

Judy serves on the boards of several African convening bodies; AFREhealth, for health professionals’ education, research, and service delivery; AfriPEN, for interprofessional education and collaborative practice and AfroPHC for primary health care. Judy has made it her mission to ensure that the frontline healthcare which the majority of populations in Africa receive and which is delivered by nurses and midwives is expert and compassionate. Judy earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Eastern Africa, her Masters in Advancing Healthcare Practice from the University of Manchester and her Postgraduate Certificate in Nursing Leadership from Duke University. She was awarded the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 2019 Global HIV Award for her work in HIV in Africa.

James C. Hudspeth, MD, is a board-certified hospitalist at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and a clinical associate professor of medicine in the Department of General Internal Medicine at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. Dr. Hudspeth is an experienced hospitalist and medical educator with a focus on graduate medical education, faculty development, global health, hospital operations, and health equity. He has served as a medical director or associate program director since 2016, which included coordinating floor teams during COVID-19 surges. Since his residency, Dr. Hudspeth's clinical work has been focused on urban marginalized populations and strengthening international educational systems.

Saria Hassan, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at the Emory School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health. She is a physician and an implementation scientist with an interest in reducing the inequitable effects of climate change on the health of populations locally and globally. Her work utilizes implementation and systems science approaches to address the needs of people living with chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the setting of climate-related disasters. She currently has an NIH/NHLBI funded career development award working with Federally Qualified Health Centers in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands to strengthen disaster preparedness specific to the needs of persons with NCDs. She has an Environmental Protection Agency grant working with vulnerable communities in Atlanta to address cumulative impact of chemical and non-chemical stressors and climate change on health.  In addition, Dr. Hassan has a funded project in Mozambique working to strengthen health system resilience in the face of cyclones. Dr. Hassan received her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her Med/Peds training at the Yale School of Medicine. She received her MPH from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 

Dr. Rima Pai is a skilled public health professional with extensive global health research, epidemiology, and clinical expertise. She is pursuing a PhD in Global Health and Development at Emory University. She has previously earned a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Global Epidemiology along with a Certificate in Complex Humanitarian Emergencies from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) from Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, India. 

Focusing on chronic disease epidemiology, Dr. Pai's research spans areas such as cardiometabolic interventions and diabetes and obesity-related health outcomes. She particularly emphasizes non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in disaster settings, especially among South Asian populations. Her work aims to improve public health policies and interventions in resource-constrained environments, emphasizing the intersection of global health and chronic disease management.

Dr. Pai’s career includes pivotal roles at leading institutions such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she led data management and epidemiological efforts to enhance immunization systems under the Immunization Agenda 2030. She has also contributed to national HIV/AIDS prevention efforts and worked on significant research projects on chronic diseases, clinical health services, and public health systems. In addition to her role as a Data Manager at CDC, Dr. Pai served as the program leader for the Humanitarian Emergencies Research Team (HERT) within the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch. In this capacity, she led a team of professionals working on critical global health initiatives related to disaster response, recovery, and resilience. Her leadership in this role was essential in shaping strategies for addressing health needs in disaster settings, mainly focusing on the intersection of NCDs and emergency contexts.

Dr. Pai has developed and implemented large-scale research projects throughout her career, collaborated with international teams, and mentored emerging public health professionals. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Pai also advocates for equitable health systems and works diligently to integrate data analytics and evidence-based solutions to tackle the growing burden of NCDs globally. Her ongoing academic and professional endeavors position her as a leader in public health research and a driving force in the global conversation on health resilience in disaster settings.

Dr. Calae Dianne Philippe, MBBS, MPH 

Dr. Philippe is a Senior Medical Officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, The Bahamas with almost 20 years of medical, technical and administrative service. She served as the designated focal point for a Climate Resilient Health System and the Project Coordinator for Climate Change and Health Projects, which included the first Health National Adaptation Plan and the first Green Climate Readiness Proposal under the themes Developing and Strengthening a Climate Resilient Health System. She led the publication of the first Health and Climate Change Country Profile. These groundbreaking climate change and health interventions were supported and conducted in collaboration with, The Office of The Prime Minister, the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center, PAHO/WHO country office, the EU/CARIFORUM project and healthcare providers and communities in Abaco, Grand Bahama and New Providence. During her work in climate change, she also served executive member of the Medical Research and Oversight Committee and the National Stem Cell and Ethics Committees. Teaching and research are two of her passions. She led the submission of the first Climate Change and Health Knowledge Attitude and Practice Survey and the Gender Based Study.  She also served as Director of the Department of Gender and Family Affairs for The Bahamas delegation to the 66th Session of the Commission on the Status of Woman under the priority theme, “Achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies, and programmes.”  She now serves as an affiliate member of Earth Medic/Earth Nurse and a member of the Research for Action on Climate Change and Health Group, which launched the first Climate Research Action Agenda for the Caribbean Small Island Developing States. She has a Medical Degree from the University of the West Indies, Mona Kingston, master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and completed Post-Doctoral Leadership in Adolescent Health Fellowship in Youth Development Prevention Research from the University of Minnesota. She has further qualified herself with the Yale Climate Change and Health Certificate and the Association of Clinical Research Professional, Principal Investigator Certificate. She has also published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, the Journal of Adolescent Health and Medicine, the Lancet Journal of Climate Change and Health and most recently in the PAHO/WHO Journal. She is driven, engaged and believes that together we can do more to engage and empower our youth and communities to employ adaptation and mitigation strategies to develop climate resilient healthy systems and communities in the region. She seeks to become an innovator and premier researcher in The Bahamas, and the world. 

Tatiana Marrufo is a public health researcher at the National Institute of Health (INS) of Mozambique, graduated in Medicine, with master’s in public health and currently PhD fellow in Ecology and Environmental Health. Marrufo has been a researcher for over 12 years, in which she has coordinated the Climate Health and Environment Observation Platform of the National Health Observatory, the Technical Secretariat of the National Health Observatory Unit and ongoing coordination of the Environmental Health Strategic Program, including the Occupational health at INS. She was appointed in 2024 as the Chair of the Resilience and Adaptation sub-group of the Emergency and Response Group of the Ministry of Health.

Dr. C. James Hospedales is a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, with 30 years’ experience in public health in the Caribbean, Latin America, UK, and USA. An honours graduate in medicine from UWI, graduate of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a person of faith, married with three children and three grandchildren. He loves woodwork – Instagram @PapaBoisTT  He was Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency, 2013-2019; Coordinator of NCDs in PAHO/WHO 2006-2012; Director of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre, 1998-2005.In 2020, he founded the EarthMedic and EarthNurse Foundation for Planetary Health to mobilise health professionals to address the climate crisis beginning in the Caribbean.  He serves as:- Chair of the Defeat-NCD Partnership, focused on NCDs in low resource countries. - Climate and Health Advisor, Healthy Caribbean Coalition. - Co-chair, Research for Action on Climate and Health in the Caribbean -  - Project --  published First comprehensive climate and health research agenda for the region- Board member, Global Climate and Health AlliancePublished over 100 articles, policy briefs, book chapters, and reports, and a regular contributor to the G7/G20 on climate and health and NCDs.

Jorge Saavedra, MD, MPH, MSc, is the Executive Director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute and Global Public Health Ambassador for AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), as well as the President of AHF-Mexico. He is a member of the Panel for a Global Public Health Convention (a relevant stakeholder for the WHO Global Pandemic Agreement) and has served as a Global Fund (GF) Board Member representing Latin America & the Caribbean, a former member of the GF Strategy Committee and the Developing Country NGO delegation. He is the Interim Chair of the Board of Trustees of IAPAC (International Association of Providers of AIDS Care), Chair-elect of MPACT (MSM and HIV INGO), and a former panelist of The Independent Panel to Evaluate the Global Response to Ebola, convened by Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Additionally, he was a former member of the Strategy Committee of the Global Fund for AIDS, TB, and Malaria, representing the Developing Country NGOs, and a member of the UNAIDS Global Targets Setting Steering Committee. A Mexican national, Dr. Saavedra earned his Medical Doctor degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and holds two Master's degrees—one in Public Health and another in Health Policy and Management, both from Harvard University. He served as Director General of the National AIDS Program of Mexico (CENSIDA) from 2003 to 2009, was Deputy Director General of Planning and Innovation at the Ministry of Health of Mexico (2001-2003), and was the Founding Director of Mexico City’s Clínica Condesa, the largest HIV clinic in Latin America. His publications primarily focus on AIDS economics, as well as recent works on the global response to Ebola, the global response to SARS-CoV-2, and a Global Public Health Convention for the 21st Century. He also previously served as an advisor to the National Human Rights Commission in Mexico.

Olawale Maiyegun is a Public Policy expert, an independent consultant and Managing Partner at the North-South Consultancy Services LLC. A former Nigerian Ambassador and career Diplomat and former Director, Department of Health Humanitarian and Social Development (formerly Social Affairs), African Union Commission, Addis Ababa. He has over four decades experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy with extensive experience in development work, humanitarian action in conflict areas, and in public and global health security. He conceptualized and led the African Union response to the Ebola outbreak of 2014 in West Africa. He designed and coordinated the establishment of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) as a medium to long term plan for disease surveillance, detection and response in Africa and with a vision to make the Africa CDC, Africa’s foremost Health Agency. The Africa CDC is fully operational and led Africa’s robust response to the recent

COVID-19 pandemic.

Carlos del Rio, MD, is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and Executive Associate Dean for Emory at Grady.  He is also Professor of Global Health in the Department of Global Health and Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. He is also co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and co-PI of the Emory-CDC HIV Clinical Trials Unit and the Emory Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit.

Stefano M. Bertozzi is a professor of health policy and management. He worked previously with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Mexican National Institute of Public Health, UNAIDS, WHO, the World Bank and the Government of Zaire (DRC). He is the editor in chief of Rapid Reviews: COVID-19.

Benjamin Mason Meier is a Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Meier’s interdisciplinary research—at the intersection global health, international law, and public policy—examines rights-based approaches to health. Working collaboratively across the University of North Carolina’s Department of Public Policy and Gillings School of Global Public Health, Dr. Meier has written over one hundred articles on the development, evolution, and application of human rights in global health. His recent global health governance volume, Human Rights in Global Health: Rights-Based Governance in a Globalizing World (OUP 2018), examines the influence of human rights across the health efforts of the United Nations. Drawing from this comparative analysis of international organizations, Dr. Meier has published an academic textbook for the field of health and human rights, Foundations of Global Health & Human Rights (OUP 2020). To advance legal scholarship on contemporary global health issues, he recently launched a quarterly column on Global Health Law in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics and a foundational text on Global Health Law & Policy: Realizing Justice for a Healthier World (OUP 2023). As a contributor to the development of rights-based global health policy, Dr. Meier serves additionally as the Chair of the Global Health Law Consortium, as a Senior Scholar at Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, as the Founding Chair of the American Public Health Association’s Human Rights Forum, and as a consultant to international organizations, national governments, and nongovernmental organizations. Dr. Meier received his B.A. in Biochemistry from Cornell University, his J.D. and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law from Cornell Law School, and his Ph.D. in Sociomedical Sciences from Columbia University.

Zoë Mullan is Editor-in-Chief of the open access journal The Lancet Global Health and Inclusion & Diversity Lead for The Lancet Group. She is an Ex-Officio Board Member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and a Scientific Advisory Board member of the Centre for International Health Protection at the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin. 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 since, variously as a technical editor, section editor, and founding editor of The Lancet Global Health. 

Ben Johnson is Chief Editor of Nature Health, a new peer-reviewed journal covering all aspects of public, global and population health from the Nature Portfolio, due to launch in January 2026. In his 14-year career in publishing, Ben has been an Editor at BMC and Nature Medicine as well as Head of Communities and Engagement for Springer Nature (where he launched the Nature Portfolio Instagram account). Ben trained as a virologist, has a PhD on influenza virus from Public Health England and the University of Reading, UK, and a postdoc on smallpox vaccines from Imperial College London.

Dr Ken Rabin, based in Warsaw Poland, has more than fifty years of experience in public affairs, marketing communications, and education, primarily in healthcare. In addition to his current role at CUNY SPH, he is special projects editor of the Journal of Health Communication and senior counselor to Alfa Communications in Warsaw.  

Since 2019 Ken has collaborated with Dr. Scott Ratzan, Prof. Jeffrey Lazarus, and others on several international and US academic studies and editorials on vaccine hesitancy and COVID-19 communications and immunization issues. His past clients include Johnson and Johnson (for whom he helped develop the Campaign for Nursing’s Future), Sanofi, Merck, L’oreal, UNESCO, PhRMA and IFPMA. His campaigns have won a Silver Anvil, Gold Quill, and the Big Apple Award of the New York PRSA.

He was executive vice president of international healthcare at Ruder Finn in Washington, London, and Paris, managing director of Burson-Marsteller’s worldwide healthcare practice, chairman of InterScience (a global healthcare PR company later acquired by 3BCom/Medicus), executive vice president of healthcare at Hill & Knowlton, and director of public affairs at Squibb (now BMS). Prior to working in the corporate sector, Ken was associate professor and director of the graduate public relations program at American University in Washington, a communications specialist at Meharry Medical College, and a USIA foreign service information officer in Africa.

He has a BA (honors) degree from Cornell, MA degrees from Yale and the University of North Carolina, and a PhD in higher education administration from the George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University.  He is married to Prof. Anna Wysocka-Rabin of NCBJ Swierk and has two children from his marriage to the Late Renee Efland Rabin.   

Julia Robinson is currently the Executive Editor of PLOS Global Public Health, an Open Access journal that addresses deeply entrenched global inequities in public health and makes impactful research visible and accessible for all. Prior to joining PLOS in 2020, she worked with the University of Washington implementing HIV and health systems strengthening programs in many countries, primarily in Cote d’Ivoire. She is also involved with various global health activist organizations.

NAME: Bhattacharya, Shelley B. eRA COMMONS USER NAME (credential, e.g., agency login): SBHATTACHARYA POSITION TITLE: Professor EDUCATION/TRAINING University of California, San Diego; La Jolla, CA  BS 06/1995 Major: Biochemistry, Cell Biology; Minors: Psychology and French Literature Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Tulsa OK  DO 05/2000 Medicine University of Pittsburgh SOM, Pittsburgh PA  Residency 06/2003 Family Medicine New York Institute of Technology, AOA  Fellowship 06/2003 Health Policy Studies University of Pittsburgh SOM, Pittsburgh, PA  MPH 06/2005 Public Health University of Pittsburgh SOM, Pittsburgh, PA  Fellowship  06/2005 Geriatric Medicine

Dr Tan Maw Pin is a Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Universiti Malaya. After completing her undergraduate medical training at the University of Nottingham and her core medical training at Nottingham City Hospital, Prof Tan obtained a National Training Number in Geriatric Medicine at Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, where she also undertook two years of full-time research training at the Institute of Ageing and Health, Newcastle University. She is currently the Principal Investigator of the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia Long-Term Research Grant Scheme funded project, TrAnsforming CoGnitivE Frailty into Later-lifE Self-Sufficiency (AGELESS), and is the immediate past President of the Malaysian Society of Geriatric Medicine.

Cynthia Lamisi Anaba is currently with Imperial College London as a Global Development Fellow in Public Health. She is a Health Systems and Policy Administrator/Researcher and International Health Practitioner with over 15 years of experience in global health systems strengthening, health policy, health service delivery, and management and implementation science research. As a PhD Fellow at KNUST's School of Public Health, her current research focuses on sustainable interventions for non-communicable diseases in rural areas, aligning with CUGH priorities and SDG 3. As Policy Research Coordinator at BasicNeeds Ghana, Cynthia advances mental health initiatives nationwide. She also serves on CUGH's Geriatric Technical Working Group and leads the Hearts of Hope Project, supporting children with special needs. She is also a member of the 2025-2027 Consortium of Universities for Global Health - Trainee Advisory Committee (CUGH-TAC) cohort. Her academic credentials include a Master of Public Policy from the University of Regina, an MSc in International Health from the University of Copenhagen, and a BSc in Health Services Administration from the University of Ghana. Cynthia's expertise spans implementation science research, realist evaluations, and health systems & policy, M&E of programs, global and public health, focusing on equitable and quality health outcomes. She maintains active memberships in prestigious organizations including the Ghana Public Health Association, Africa Evidence Network, and the International Society for Quality in Health Care. Her involvement with the Africa Consortium for Quality Improvement Research and GACD Implementation Science School demonstrates her commitment to advancing healthcare quality and accessibility. Through her work with Ghana Rural Opportunities for Women and the Catholic Health Service Trust - GH, Cynthia continues to champion community well-being and quality healthcare delivery, positioning herself as a key contributor to global health advancement.

Meredith Gartin (PhD Global Health, Arizona State University 2012) is an Associate Professor and Program Director of Global Health Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is also the co-chair of the CUGH Subcommittee of Masters and Undergraduate Degrees in Global Health. Her research is focused on Immigrant and Refugee health.

Caryl E. Waggett, Professor and Chair of Global Health Studies at Allegheny College, is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator (PhD, UC Berkeley).  She teaches and conducts research at the interface of the natural and built environments and the built and social environment, with particular focus on topics such as Lyme disease, re-emergence of malaria in the US, lead poisoning, food security, community design, and planetary health.  She has worked in Biohazard Level 3 labs, conducted field work on three continents, and worked at NASA.  She is the recipient of the Riegelman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Public Health Education and the Velji Global Health Award for Teaching Excellence.  Prof. Waggett is founder and director of Teach Global Health (est 2015) and conducts research and provides training for faculty in the emerging field of global health, sharing innovative and established pedagogical practices for both introductory and advanced global health courses, ethical field engagement, fair trade and fair use partnerships with communities both domestically and abroad for practicums.  She is co-founder of the Global Health Educators Community (GHECo), which hosts a virtual teachers' lounge each month for educators around the globe.  She led the creation of Allegheny College's BS/BA and minor in Global Health and microcredential in Planetary Health.  She collaborates with colleagues around the globe and through a variety of organizations including: the Consortium for Universities of Global Health (CUGH); the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH); the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U); and Planetary Health Alliance.

Oladele (Dele) Ogunseitan holds the title of Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he led the establishment of the Program in Public Health and served as founding Chair of the Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention. He held the title of UC Presidential Chair from 2019 to 2024. He is co-chair of competency subcommittee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. Dele co-leads the Training and Empowerment objective for USAID’s One Health Workforce-Next Generation project in 17 countries across Africa and Southeast Asia.  He directs the Education Center for the University of California Global Health Institute; co-chairs the Education Pillar for the UC Center for Climate, Health and Equity; directs Workforce Development for the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science; and co-chairs the competency subcommittee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. He is an elected fellow of the African Academy of Sciences; American Association for the Advancement of Science; American Academy of Microbiology; and Collegium Ramazzini.

Dr. Amy Moore is a Professor and Assistant Dean for Global Health for the School of Nursing at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. She is a Family Nurse Practitioner, delivering care in the areas of family, women’s and correctional health for men. She has precepted APRN graduate students in countless hours in both U.S. clinics and abroad.

Dr. Moore has a passion for global health, providing hundreds of students’ opportunities to develop global mindedness, encourage global citizenship, while reinforcing global health competencies. She has been honored to serve on the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) Competency and Academic Partnership Program Initiative committees where she has worked with other members around the world in writing and updating global health competencies, and matching mentors with mentees who have common interests.

Professional Accolades

Great 25 Nurses for the South Plains Region of Texas, Great 25 Nurses for the South Plains
Excellence in Interprofessional Teamwork, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, School of Nursing
President's Award for Excellence in Interprofessional Education, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Innovation Award, Global Health, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Member of Phi Kappa Phi, TNPA, AANP, STTI
CUGH - Competency Committee: Competency Author
CUGH - Mentorship Member and Co-Chair

Kathryn H. Jacobsen, PhD, MPH, is Professor of Health Studies and holds the William E. Cooper Distinguished University Chair at the University of Richmond (Virginia, USA). Her research focuses on the population health transitions that occur with globalization, socioeconomic development, and environmental change. She has authored more than 200 scientific articles and two widely used textbooks, Introduction to Global Health and Introduction to Health Research Methods. Within CUGH, she co-coordinated the processes that led to the development of the Global Health Learning Objectives (GHLOs, or “glows”) and the Planetary Health Learning Objectives (PHLOs, or “flows”) and she is the co-founder of the Global Health Educators Community (GHECo, like “gecko”).

Muktar Aliyu, MD, DrPH, MPH is Professor of Medicine and Health Policy at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC). He also holds the Endowed Directorship in Global Health at VUMC. As Director of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health he oversees Vanderbilt’s numerous global research, training, and service programs in some 20-plus countries across the globe. He is board-certified in Public Health & General Preventive Medicine and Occupational Medicine. His research interests are in strengthening health systems and preventing comorbidities in people living with HIV in resource-limited settings (280+ publications). He is principal investigator of several research and training grants funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Xin She is a Global Health pediatrician with 17 years of experience working in low-resource communities. She speaks 5 languages and is committed to creating interdisciplinary solutions for all vulnerable children to reach their full potential. She completed her medical and public health training at Albert Einstein (Yeshiva), Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities. She has published on youth mental health epidemiology and prevention, early childhood development, health inequity and malnutrition in global settings. She has presented nationally and internationally on Global Health, mental health, and professional development. She has collaborated with multidisciplinary partners in inner city US, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, DR Congo and China. She has mentored more than 100 students and researchers globally. She co-chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics national education workgroup for early career physicians. She has been awarded two Fulbright grants for her work in China and Mexico, and was a representative for the national women physicians in Wellness, Equity and Leadership.

Kaylee Paulsgrove is a third-year medical student with a background as a former speech-language pathologist specializing in cleft and craniofacial differences. With over a decade of experience in collaborative program development, she has worked extensively with Partners in African Cleft Training (PACT) on team care building in sub-Saharan Africa. Kaylee is planning to pursue a career in obstetrics and gynecology, with a particular focus on women’s and infant health in global health contexts.

Hannah Stewart is a PhD student at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston’s School of Public Health where she focuses her research on the lived experiences of mental health concerns and substance use issues. Prior to beginning her doctoral training, Ms. Stewart completed an MPH in Global Health Leadership from the University of Southern California. As a person with lived experience, Ms. Stewart is committed to using her research to center the rights and experiences of her larger community and is particularly invested in research topics and methodologies aligned with those values, including lived experience engagement, participatory action/research, and survivor-led research. Ms. Stewart owes a debt of gratitude to the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movements that preceded her and strives to do work that honors their legacy.

Dr. Martin is a physician who, since September 2012, has served as the founding Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). Between 1993-2011, Dr. Martin served as a Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons. He held portfolios in foreign affairs, health, the environment, defense  and international development. He has been on many diplomatic missions in areas in crisis around the world but particularly across Africa and worked as a physician on the Mozambique border during their civil war. He has spent many years volunteering on conservation efforts in  South Africa and is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.

Jimmy Kolker serves part time as Senior Advisor to the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State. Ambassador Kolker had a 30 year diplomatic career with the U.S. Department of State, serving as the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda (2002-2005) and to Burkina Faso (1999-2002). His last fulltime post, 2011-2017 was Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Amb Kolker represented the United States at World Health Organization governing bodies; was directly involved in the U.S. response to Ebola and Zika; and helped develop the Global Health Security Agenda. From 2005-2007, he was Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator in the Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, leading implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Amb. Kolker was Deputy Chief of Mission at U.S. embassies in Denmark and Botswana and won awards for political reporting at earlier posts in the UK, Sweden, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. After retiring from State, in 2007, Amb. Kolker was Chief of the AIDS Section and Associate Director of Programs at UNICEF’s New York headquarters. His board and advisory board memberships include Last Mile Health, Augusta Victoria Hospital (East Jerusalem), American Diplomacy Publishers, Building Tomorrow, MANA Nutrition, the G4 Surgery Alliance, Global HOPE (pediatric cancer) and the Firelight Foundation. The Cambridge Univserity Press textbook Diplomatic Tradecraft, published March 2024, includes his chapter Health and Science Diplomacy. In 2019, Amb. Kolker received an honorary doctorate from his alma mater Carleton College. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School and a B.A. magna cum laude from Carleton. He was a Thomas J. Watson Foundation Fellow (1970-1971). He speaks French, Swedish, and Portuguese.

A longtime global health advocate, Dr. Somesh Kumar is an optimist, a global health leader, and a public health physician with over two decades of experience advancing public health and developing innovative health programs across multiple countries in Asia and Africa.

A medical graduate from Kolkata, India, Dr Somesh did his MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his PhD at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

Over his career spanning over two decades across multiple UN and international organizations, he has fostered multi-sectoral partnerships with governments, private sector leaders, NGOs, academicians, and professional institutions while driving innovative, high-impact interventions to deliver scalable, sustainable solutions that bridge care disparities and enhance public health outcomes in underserved and marginalized communities worldwide.

Dr. Somesh leads the Health Horizons Unit at Jhpiego’s Technical Leadership and Innovations office in Baltimore, US. Here, he provides visionary guidance for designing and implementing pioneering approaches and solutions for frontier priorities in global health. This includes work on Women’s Health, Future-ready Health Systems, Women’s Cancers (Breast and Cervical), Technology and Advanced Analytics (AI/ML), Life Course Immunization, and more.

Dr. Somesh is a prolific contributor to international peer-reviewed journals and a reviewer for multiple publications. He is also an active member of several global technical advisory groups and committees.

He envisions creating transformative value within the healthcare ecosystem, aiming to bring healthcare closer to users, enabling them to access services when and where they need them.

Catherine Machalaba is the inaugural Planetary Health Scientist under The Nature Conservancy’s Human Dimensions Science Team. In this role, she is excited to make health-positive conservation interventions more visible to accelerate progress toward TNC’s conservation, climate and people goals.

Catherine serves on the One Health High-Level Expert Panel advising the Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, World Health Organization and World Organisation for Animal Health in their collaborative work. She is also active in the American Public Health Association and the IUCN’s expert Commissions. She holds a master's in public health from Dartmouth Medical School and a PhD in environmental and planetary health sciences from the City University of New York School of Public Health.

Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde (MBChB, Mmed, MScHPE) Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde is the Deputy Executive Director, African Centre for Global Health and Social Transformation (ACHEST). She was the Director of the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI)) at ACHEST. She is a Radiologist and formerly Head of the Radiology Department at Makerere University in Uganda. She holds an MBChB and an MMed Radiology from Makerere University and a Master’s degree in Health Professions Education from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She is a Fellow of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), Philadelphia USA and a Fellow in Ultrasound from the Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA. She is the immediate past Secretary General for The Network Towards Unity for Health (TUFH). She is the immediate past President of the African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth). She has over 25 years’ experience in Health Professions Education. She has published over 80 publications in Health Professions Education and Radiology.

Prof. Peter Berman (M.Sc, Ph.D) is a health economist with almost fifty years of experience in research, policy analysis and development, and training and education in global health. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia where he had previously been Professor and Director from 2019-21. He is also Adjunct Professor of Global Health at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health where he was on faculty for several decades, lastly as

Professor until 2019. He was the founding faculty director of Harvard Chan’s Doctor of Public Health degree and HSPH’s International Health Systems Program. 

He is also currently affliated as Adjunct Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in New Delhi, India.

Recent research has focused on factors affecting government decision-making in response to public health crises. Much of this work appears in Effective Pandemic Response: Linking

Evidence, Intervention, Politics, Organization, and Governance -- A World Scientific Publications Reference Set (3 Volumes), 2024, and related journal publications. 

Other noteworthy publications include Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity (Roberts, et al, Oxford University Press, 3 rd edition, 2018), Tracking

Resources for Primary Health Care: A Framework and Practices in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Berman and Wang eds., World Scientific, 2020); co-editor of the Guide to the Production of National Health Accounts (World Bank, World Health Organization, and USAID,

2003), and co-editor of Berman and Khan, Paying for India’s Health Care (Sage, 1993).

Zabir Hasan, MD, PhD ’19, MPH, MBBS, studies health policy and systems to strengthen health equity, global health, and health systems in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr. Hansoti is an Associate Professor in emergency medicine, infectious diseases and international health at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). She is the Global Health Security technical director for the USAID RISE project overseeing health systems strengthening in across 12 countries in Africa and Asia. She is Associate Director for Academic Programs at Center for Global Health at Johns Hopkins and is director for the JHU WHO Collaborating Center for Emergency, Critical and Operative care. She is Co-PI with Dr. Sara Bennett for a CDC-funded grant that applies to organizational management principals to National Public Health Institutes (NPHI) in Global Health Security (GHS) priority countries, to strengthen public health capacity for pandemic response.

Dr. Hailu Dhufera is a physician and public health expert with extensive experience in health system design, health financing, and policy. He holds a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and is a Research Associate and Instructor at Harvard, where he teaches the Global Health Practicum course, focusing on translating evidence into practice.

With a deep commitment to strengthening public health institutions, Dr. Dhufera has supported Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health in shaping its public health strategies and is collaborating in the efforts to establish a DrPH program in Ethiopia, aiming to enhance leadership and evidence-based decision-making within the country's health systems.

Dr. Dhufera’s work bridges academia, policy, and practice, emphasizing the critical role universities play in bolstering public health system capacities globally.

Quentin Eichbaum was born and raised in Namibia and South Africa. He initially studied law at the University of Cape Town and then completed his MD, MPH, PhD and postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston followed by residency and fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is currently associate professor of Pathology, Microbiology and immunology and associate professor of Medical Education and Administration at Vanderbilt University where he also directs the a fellowship in pathology as well as the Vanderbilt Pathology Program in Global Health and the Vanderbilt Pathology Education Research Group. He serves on numerous national and international global health education and pathology committees, including at ASCP, ASFA, AABB, and chairs the newly established Global Transfusion Forum (GTF) of the AABB. He chairs the Education Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) (the largest academic global health organization in the world with 30 00 members and 157 academic institutions) and serves on the CUGH Board of Directors. He co-founded the Consortium of New Sub-Sahara African Medical Schools (CONSAMS) and is extensively involved in health professional education and clinical medicine in several African countries.

Rosemary Jolly is the Sparks Chair of Literature and Human Rights at the Pennsylvania State University.  She has co-founded two rape crisis clinics in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and has worked on rolling gender-based violence prevention into HIV prevention programmes.  She is author, most recently, of The Effluent Eye: Narratives for Decolonial Right-making (Minnesota UP, 2024).

Denis Regnier is the Lead Faculty for Global Health Equity and Social Medicine and an Assistant Professor at the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. From 2020 to 2024, Regnier served as the Head of Humanities and Social Sciences at UGHE, where he led initiatives integrating the social sciences and medical humanities into global health education. His work centers on the intersections of inequality, health, global health delivery, and social justice, with a particular focus on rural and underserved communities. Regnier has a PhD in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and extensive research and teaching experience in Madagascar, French Polynesia and Rwanda. He is the author of Slavery and Essentialism in Madagascar: Ethnography, History, Cognition (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of Family Violence and Social Change in the Pacific Islands (Routledge, 2023) and Tensions et Modernités dans le Pacifique Insulaire: Relations Postcoloniales et Conflits Épistémiques (Maison des Sciences de l’Homme du Pacifique, forthcoming). With a strong background in interdisciplinary pedagogy and field-based research, Regnier’s contribution to medical education seeks to better address the structural determinants of health. His current scholarship and teaching emphasize community-centered approaches and the role of social science in advancing health equity.

Melissa is Senior Director of National Government Relations and Multicultural Affairs for Pfizer, Inc. Melissa has twenty-nine years of lobbying and alliance development experience on the state and federal levels. Melissa currently lobbies in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Puerto Rico. Additionally, Melissa works nationally to build multicultural coalitions to advocate for greater access to healthcare and pharmaceuticals. She co-chairs Pfizer’s Multicultural Health Equity Collective, “MHEC”. The MHEC is a cooperative of Pfizer colleagues and US-based organizations focused on achieving health equity across ethnic groups and other underrepresented communities facing significant health disparities. Prior to joining Pfizer in 1998, Melissa worked as General Counsel for the Georgia Department of Medical Assistance, a multi-billion-dollar Medicaid agency. As General Counsel, she concentrated on health care regulation and compliance, program evaluation, and the financing of various health care delivery systems for Medicaid recipients. An alumnus of Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Melissa received her B.A. degree in English/Pre-Law, summa cum laude. She received her J.D. degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. and her MBA from the University of Georgia. Melissa serves on the Board of Trustees of Stillman College. Some awards/honors Melissa has received include:  2024 National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators BBA chair  2022 National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators BBA Award  2022 Healthcare Businesswomen's Association (HBA) Rising Star  2021 Pfizer Global Inclusive Leader Award  2021 NOBEL Corporate Champion Award  DeKalb County Board of Commissioners’ Certificate for Outstanding Service and Lasting Contribution  2018 – Honorary Member, National Black Nurses Association – one of only two people to ever receive this honor  2014 Corporate Leadership Award – National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators  2011 – Named one of Georgia’s Most Powerful and Influential Attorney, Women Looking Ahead Magazine  Georgia State Medical Association Award - 2018

Usha Ramakrishnan, PhD, is the Chair & Distinguished Richard N. Hubert Professor of the Hubert Department of Global Health in The Rollins School of Public Health, and Graduate Faculty member of the Doctoral Programs in a) Nutrition and Health Sciences (NHS) and b) Global Health and Development, Laney Graduate School, at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. She is a leading expert in global maternal and child nutrition and health and has authored over 230 research articles in peer-reviewed professional journals, 19 book chapters, and, edited 4 Books, Monographs and Proceedings. Dr. Ramakrishnan has designed and led large randomized controlled trials (RCT) that test nutrient interventions during pregnancy and early childhood, and also participated in prospective longitudinal studies that examine pregnancy outcomes such as low birth weight, preterm birth and subsequent child growth and development. She has examined the effects of multiple micronutrient (MM) malnutrition during pregnancy, lactation, and early childhood, and more recently completed a large RCT of the effects of weekly pre-conception multiple micronutrient (MM) supplements on maternal and child health outcome in Vietnam (PRECONCEPT). Her current research projects also include examining the effects of omega-3 fatty acids, especially docosahexanoic acid (DHA), during pregnancy on child health, growth and development. She was the PI of a large NIH-funded research project in collaboration with the National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico, that examined the effects of prenatal DHA supplements on infant development (POSGRAD), and has followed up this cohort through 11 y of age. She has also led and participated in several collaborations with non-governmental organizations and research institutions based in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Europe, and also serves on several expert review panels and has provided technical support for various projects in her field of expertise over the years.

Dr. Rosalind Gregory-Bass is an associate professor and chair in the Environmental and Health Sciences Department. She is also the director of the Health Careers Program at Spelman College. She completed her undergraduate education at Spelman graduating cum laude with a bachelor of science degree in biology in 1992.

Interested in musculoskeletal anatomy and physiology, she attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, becoming the first African-American woman to receive her master’s degree for the department in 1994.

While in graduate school, Dr. Gregory-Bass developed an interest in not only the basic science perspective of musculoskeletal anatomy and physiology, but desired a clinical perspective as well. She was accepted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and received her M.D. in 1999.

She completed an internal medicine internship at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Eastern Virginia Medical School. In her last year of residency, she became the department’s first African-American chief resident. Never losing site of her first two loves, research and teaching, she began a post-doctoral research fellowship at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Her research focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms regulating ovarian cancer growth and development. Her basic science and clinical research interests to date focus on women’s health and development of pipeline programs that foster biomedical graduate and professional educational opportunities for women of color. In addition to her role as a professor in the Environmental and Health Sciences Program, she also serves as the director of the Health Careers Program.

A clinical psychologist and Haiti native, Dr. Gilberte (“Gigi”) Bastien currently serves as the Associate Director for the Office of Global Health Equity at Morehouse School of Medicine and is Assistant Professor within MSM’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Bastien’s research and clinical interests focus on the intersection of culture and mental health with the aim of improving accessibility, acceptability, and efficacy of mental health services for underserved populations. Dr. Bastien’s complementary interests in disaster mental health and global mental health capacity building were largely influenced by her involvement in the mental health response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.During her stint as a Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) health policy fellow at Morehouse School of Medicine, Dr. Bastien gained invaluable training in health leadership and the use of effective strategies for advancing policy solutions to mental health and broader health disparities both domestically and globally. This training was brought to bear in completing an NIH Fogarty Global Health Fellowship project in collaboration with the Carter Center’s Mental Health Program in Liberia. Specifically, this project focused on understanding mental health and resilience in Ebola affected communities in Liberia. Dr. Bastien’s experiences during the Fogarty fellowship further strengthened her interest in leveraging large-scale emergencies as a pathway to addressing pre-existing mental health disparities in LMICs and other resource constrained settings.

Darlita Moyé, is the Administrative Director & Leadership Manager of Clark Atlanta University's Mandela Washington Fellowship for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Her expertise spans International Programs, Educational Psychology, Adult Education, and Leadership, with a strong background in international training, curriculum development, and instructional design for cross-cultural audiences. She oversees program logistics and the common leadership curriculum, ensuring impactful leadership development.She is the former Department Chair of the Morris Brown College Adult Education Department and currently serves as the President of the African Heritage Studies Association. Beyond her professional roles, Darlita is deeply committed to community service, actively volunteering with various organizations, including Parents Educating Parents & Professionals (PEPP, Inc.), the Atlanta Community Food Bank, Metro Urban Garden, and more.As a consultant with The Place for Natural Connections, she supports professionals, parents, educators, and community members through consulting, coaching, and training services. By fostering strong connections, promoting culturally grounded practices, and addressing intergenerational challenges, she helps individuals and organizations access the resources and tools they need to achieve meaningful growth and lasting impact in infant mental health and early childhood development.Darlita holds an Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership and a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Human Development with a specialization in Educational Psychology.

Kari Brossard Stoos is a dedicated microbiologist and public health professional with expertise spanning antibiotic resistance, zoonotic and infectious disease transmission (including environmental bacteriophage interactions), and One Health principles. Kari's research portfolio includes studying the health of wild mantled howler monkeys in Costa Rica, with a focus on the intersection of wildlife and human health. Her work also investigates the presence of antibiotic resistance genes found in gut bacteria of wild and domestic animals, emphasizing the environmental and ecological dimensions of public health challenges. Kari’s research and work also extends outside the laboratory and field laboratory settings. She is certified by the American Lung Association as an asthma management educator. With this certification, Kari mentors Ithaca College undergraduate students as they deliver asthma management programming to children living with asthma in the Ithaca City School District. She is also actively involved in global health operations and is a member of the Global Health Operations Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (GHOC, CUGH) that is working to understand, and address challenges regarding the development and delivery of global health programs. In addition to her research, Kari is passionate about promoting and developing health and conservation programs for women and girls. She is committed to advancing initiatives that improve health outcomes globally, with a focus on empowering women and girls to create lasting, community-driven change. Driven by a passion for improving health across species, ecosystems, and communities, Kari works to bridge science, education, and advocacy for a healthier and more equitable world.

Dr. Helova is a faculty in the Department of Health Policy and Organization and a Deputy Director of the Sparkman Center for Global Health (SCGH) in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Her research focuses on global health, implementation science and research practice, health system strengthening and resilience, capacity building, operations, maternal-child health issues, mental health, and HIV & AIDS globally. Dr. Helova's work aims to identify optimal and feasible strategies with the aim of translation and implementation of research findings into practice, clinical tools, and policy recommendations in low-resource settings domestically and globally through the engagement of policymakers, community, and other key stakeholders. Dr. Helova is also committed to teaching of global health classes, global health practice, training, and capacity building in various vulnerable settings. Within CUGH, Dr. Helova serves as a co-chair of the Global Health Operations Committee and serves on the Executive Planning Committee for CUGH 2025.

Dr. Hansoti is an Associate Professor in emergency medicine, infectious diseases and international health at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). She is the Global Health Security technical director for the USAID RISE project overseeing health systems strengthening in across 12 countries in Africa and Asia. She is Associate Director for Academic Programs at Center for Global Health at Johns Hopkins and is director for the JHU WHO Collaborating Center for Emergency, Critical and Operative care. She is Co-PI with Dr. Sara Bennett for a CDC-funded grant that applies to organizational management principals to National Public Health Institutes (NPHI) in Global Health Security (GHS) priority countries, to strengthen public health capacity for pandemic response.

Biraj Man Karmacharya is the Administrative Director and the Director of Public Health/Community Programs at Dhulikhel Hospital (DH) and Associate Professor at the Department of Public Health at Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences (KUSMS).He obtained MBBS (2003) from Kathmandu University; MS (Tropical Medicine, 2006) from Mahidol University, Thailand; PhD (Epidemiology, 2015) as a Fulbright Science and Technology awardee, and MPH (Global Health, 2017) from the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. He was also the founding co-director of Nepal Studies Initiative at the Jackson School of International Studies at University of Washington.He founded and has been leading the Department of Community Programs/Public Health at DH since 2006, through which he is engaged in developing and setting up innovative community-based health and integrated health and development programs in Nepal. He has also been instrumental in advancing public health training and research in Nepal leading the pioneering programs MScPH (Epidemiology and Global Health) and lately the PhD Program in Public Health at KUSMS. His research interests span across non-communicable diseases, climate change and health, and health systems and policies. 

Liza Kimbo is the Senior Specialist for Private Sector Service Delivery in the Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health, Technical Advice and Partnerships department at The Global Fund. She has over 20 years of experience in senior leadership positions focused on for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare programs in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and other Horn of Africa countries. She has led sexual reproductive health and rights service and advocacy programs for the African region. Her research interests lie in maternal and child health, focusing on adolescent sexual reproductive health and integrated healthcare services. Liza holds a DrPH in maternal and child health (University of Alabama at Birmingham), an MBA (United States International University), and an MSc in Health Systems Management (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).

Dr Adil Hussain Haider is a proud AKU Alumni, from the MBBS Class of 1998 after which he attained a Master in Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a practicing Trauma and Acute Care surgeon who completed his residency training in General Surgery at New York Medical College/Westchester Medical Center and fellowship training in Surgical Critical Care (2005-6) and Trauma and Acute Care Surgery (2006-7) at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

Upon completion of his training, he joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins Medicine where he was a widely acclaimed trauma surgeon with a joint appointment in their School of Public Health. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2010 and became Director of the Center for Surgery Trials and Outcomes Research in 2011. In 2014, Dr Haider moved to Boston to become the Kessler Director of the Center for Surgery and Public Health, a joint initiative between Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.

A renowned international expert in healthcare access and disparities, Dr Haider has over 350 peer-reviewed publications to his credit, in addition to numerous book chapters and other publications. He is recognised for introducing several novel methods of studying surgical outcomes and advancing the science of surgical health services research. Through his career, Dr Haider has been a Principal Investigator on extramurally funded research grants of over $20 million USD.

He has served as a visiting professor at more than 30 internationally celebrated universities and has held numerous leadership positions in medical and surgical societies including serving as the President of the Association for Academic Surgery. Dr Haider has received more than 20 major awards, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honour (2017), one of the most prestigious honours given to civilians in the United States for “promoting racial harmony and tolerance”, the Diversity Leadership Award from Johns Hopkins University (2014), and the Joan L. and Julius H. Jacobson II Promising Investigator Award from the American College of Surgeons for clinical research (2013). He also continues to serve as the Deputy Editor of JAMA Surgery, the #1 scientific journal in the field. 

In 2019, Dr Haider became the Dean of his alma mater, the AKU Medical College, where he was also presented with the Kanji Jamal Family Endowed Chair. After moving back to Pakistan, he was appointed as the Chairman of the National Medical and Dental Academic Board of the Pakistan Medical Commission. Dr Haider also serves as an active member of the Prime Minister’s National Task Force on Health that has a broad mandate to reform health delivery and health education across all sectors in Pakistan.

Nelson Sewankambo MBChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, LLD (HC) is a Professor Emeritus and a former President of Makerere Medical School, Uganda and a past Principal Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He facilitated the establishment of many collaborations between Makerere University and institutions in both high and low or middle-income countries. He was a member of the research team that for the first time identified and documented the existence of HIV in Uganda in early 80’s (Lancet, 1985). He is one of the founders of the internationally reknown Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), initially known as the Rakai Project which has a longitudinal population Rakai HIV Community Cohort Services (RCCS) for the last 35 years. RHSP has generated research evidence used in global (WHO), regional and national HIV prevention and management policies. He is one of the founders of the world famous 20-year old Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at Makerere University. IDI has very strong HIV prevention, research, management and care programmes for the last 20 years. He was a founder and is a scientific adviser (20+ years) of the Makerere-University Walter Reed Research Institute (MUWRP) and a founding member and Board Chair of the Makerere Joint AIDS Program (MJAP) in Uganda. He has focused on epidemiological and interventional HIV/AIDS research and also contributed to building indigenous research capacity to conduct quality research relevant to the country, region and globally.

Bruce Compton is senior director of global health for the Catholic Health Association  of the United States. He is based in the association's St. Louis office. Mr. Compton is  responsible for assisting and supporting CHA-member organizations in their outreach  activities in the developing world. His duties include facilitating collaboration among  CHA-member organizations and others, seeking to enhance the impact of international  ministries. Additionally, he is responsible for education regarding international outreach  issues and encouraging CHA members' participation in various activities of international  ministry. 

Mr. Compton lived in Haiti from 2000 to 2002, and he continued to work in support of  health missions in the developing world after he returned to the U.S. He did so in his  capacity as founding president and chief executive of Springfield, Ill.–based Hospital  Sisters Mission Outreach, a ministry organization bringing surplus medical supplies from  

Midwest hospitals to medical missions in the developing world.

Christian Acemah leads the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (UNAS) as Executive Director. His career features extensive experience in global health and the sciences. He directed strategy and program development for the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Africa Program. At UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, he worked as the research and policy officer in the CEO’s office. His work with the Lutheran World Federation/Department for World Service involved HIV/AIDS advocacy, monitoring, and evaluation within their Sudan-Uganda program. He has conducted development economics research for a World Bank Vice President and development anthropology research at Georgetown University. He serves on the board of the International Network on Government Science Advice-Africa (INGSA-Africa) and the Irish Global Health Network (IGHN). He previously served on the board of the International Health Partnership+, a joint World Bank and World Health Organization initiative, where he chaired the Civil Society Indicator Committee of the World Bank. His academic background includes degrees in Liberal Arts (Mathematics and Philosophy) from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, International Affairs and Economics from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and a Doctorate in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. He also holds a graduate certificate in Refugees and Humanitarian Crises and is an internationally certified corporate governance professional through the Chartered Governance Institute of the UK and Ireland.

Shailendra (Shailey) Prasad, MD MPH FAAFP is the Associate Vice President for Global and Rural Health at the University of Minnesota. He is the Carlson Chair of Global Health and the Executive Director of the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility at the University of Minnesota, Professor and Vice-Chair of Education at the Dept of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Minnesota, Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health, and a Fellow at the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. He is also an honorary visiting professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt, at Institut Pertanian Bogor, Indonesia, and at Udayana University, Denpasar, Indonesia. He has been inducted into the Academy of Excellence in the Scholarship of Education at the University of Minnesota.Dr. Prasad was the co-director of the Rothenberger Leadership Academy, a cohort-based leadership training program at the University of Minnesota 2019-2022. He is the co-lead of the CDC funded National Resource Center for Refugees, Immigrants and Migrants (NRC RIM) and the NIH/Fogarty funded Northern Pacific Global Health consortium. Dr. Prasad has worked in underserved areas including rural areas for 3 decades as a clinician, has conducted health services research and has been engaged in education across disciplines. He has been part of the Rural Health Research Center at the University of Minnesota. He is on the steering committees of the Advocacy for Global Health Partnerships and the Global Engagement Network for Primary Health Care (GEN-PHC). He has also been involved in academic department strengthening and mentorship training across various universities. He can be contacted at shailey@umn.edu

Dr. Godfred Boateng is an Assistant Professor at the School of Global Health, Director of the Global and Environmental Health Lab, a Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism, and a faculty fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research at York University, Toronto Canada. Dr. Boateng is an expert in the design and application of culturally relevant scalable methodologies to study the multidimensional factors and processes that shape health and health equity across spatial scales (household, community, institutional, national), and how they can be promoted and sustained. His research program is transdisciplinary and focuses on resource insecurity, health, and sustainable livelihoods; the socio-ecological determinants of cardiometabolic conditions in aging adults; social inequity in health systems; quantitative data analysis methods and survey scale development; and COVID-19 related health effects. Dr. Boateng’s research in these areas have been critical in transforming the understanding of the key social and structural determinants of health among vulnerable populations, including women, infants, children, and older adults

As an 'Einstein Visa' recipient and National Interest Waiver beneficiary (top 1%), I represent a unique convergence of clinical excellence, technological innovation, and healthcare entrepreneurship. Faculty Alumnus at MD Anderson Cancer Center's Division of Diagnostic Imaging and Brain Tumor Center, I've consistently worked at the intersection of cutting-edge medical science and transformative healthcare technologies. I currently serve as International Liaison for The American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine while advising leading healthcare innovation companies including Redesign Health, H7 BioCapital, and MDisrupt. My expertise spans AI-driven medical imaging, brain-computer interfaces, digital health platforms, and next-generation telemedicine solutions. As Editor for NeuroTechX Content Lab and Review Board Member for Telehealth and Medicine Today, I'm actively shaping the discourse around emerging healthcare technologies. My ongoing work includes participating in groundbreaking initiatives like the 2024 NeuroTech Course and BCI & Neurotechnology Spring School, while serving on multiple strategic committees for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. As Venture Fellow at Laconia Capital Group and a judge for the Digital Health Hub Foundation's Annual Awards, I evaluate and guide the next generation of healthcare innovations. Through Shree Advisory & Consulting, I drive healthcare transformation by bridging clinical expertise, technological innovation, and entrepreneurial execution. My commitment to advancing global healthcare is demonstrated through extensive committee work, policy advocacy, and leadership in initiatives spanning AI, digital health, and neurotechnology. I'm particularly excited about the vision of accelerating healthcare innovation through interdisciplinary collaboration. My background in clinical medicine, AI, global health policy, and entrepreneurship positions me to contribute meaningfully to discussions about shaping the future of healthcare delivery and global health.

Dr. Muelenaer earned a BS in Biology from Virginia Tech, her MD at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and MPH at Virginia Tech.  She completed pediatric residency at William Beaumont Army Medical Center and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.  She has served on faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University and University of Virginia, and Visiting Associate Professor, Paediatrics/Child Health, Busitema University-Uganda. She is a military veteran, serving for 20 years in the Army Medical Corps.  She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases Society of America. She is elected representative for Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine to the Virginia Tech Commission on Outreach and International Affairs.

Dr Muelenaer founded and led the Pediatric Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Clinic, Carilion Medical Center for Children, Roanoke, Virginia.  She co-founded Virginia Tech’s TEAM Malawi (Technology-Education-Advocacy-Medicine) transdisciplinary collaboration, based on community-wellness model of healthcare, designed to meet challenges of resource-limited environments through community-based participatory research/design/education.  

She is core faculty for VT TEAM Malawi’s research program, LIGHT (Leading Innovation in Global Health Technology) addressing the UN SDGs.

Dr. Abdulhalik Workicho Bushra is an experienced evidence-to-policy expert and researcher with a robust academic and professional background in public health. Based in Addis Ababa, Dr. Abdulhalik serves as the Evidence to Policy Specialist for the Fenot project, a collaborative project between Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Ministry of Health, Ethiopia. He brings several years of teaching and research experience in various areas of public health importance, including but not limited to Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, and Communicable Diseases. In his work at Fenot, Dr. Abdulhalik supports the evidence to policy activities at the Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Lead Executive Office of the Ministry of Health. He coordinates and works with the Research Advisory Council (RAC) to build the culture of evidence-informed decision-making. He also supports research projects conducted by Fenot in formulating questions, data collection, research analysis, publication, and knowledge translation. Before joining Fenot, Dr. Abdulhalik worked with Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy as a research manager for a multisectoral nutrition and WASH project in Ethiopia. He also served as innovation lead at HaSET Maternal and Child Health Research Program and assistant professor of Epidemiology at Jimma University in Ethiopia. Since recently, his work focuses on health systems strengthening, evidence-based policymaking, and addressing inequities in healthcare delivery. Dr. Abdulhalik holds advanced degrees in public health, complemented by extensive fieldwork in Ethiopia, where he has led studies on health service accessibility, maternal and child health, and disease prevention. By bridging research and practice, Dr. Abdulhalik strives to contibute to the designing of innovative health interventions and the establishment of resilient healthcare systems, with a particular focus on maternal child and adolescent health programs. Dr. Abdulhalik envisions leveraging his expertise to align local health advancements with global health initiatives. He is deeply committed to fostering a safe, sustainable environment for all by addressing social determinants of health, advocating for equity, and promoting climate-resilient health systems. Through collaboration with global stakeholders, Dr. Abdulhalik aims to create transformative solutions that prioritize health equity and environmental sustainability on a global scale.

Hi! I’m Avanthi Puvvala, a first-year medical student at Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine. I hold a Bachelor of Science in Global Health and have a strong interest in the intersection of climate and health, particularly its impact on cardiovascular care and surgical outcomes. My email is apuvvala2021@health.fau.edu. Feel free to reach out! I would love to connect with others in the amazing field of global health!

Angela Makule is a passionate medical student at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, pursuing her Doctor of Medicine degree. Her interests span in global health, particularly the rising challenges of non-communicable diseases and the effects of climate change on health. Alongside her academic journey, Angela has taken on leadership roles within student-led associations, demonstrating her commitment to fostering change. Through her hands-on experience in community projects and global health courses she is enriching her knowledge in these areas and honing her skills in public health aiming to make a positive impact in the future of medicine and health in general.

Shivani Chowdhry is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), specializing in public health and environmental policy with special focus on developing countries. Her research focuses on the socioeconomic determinants of mental health and the health effects of air pollution in India. Before beginning her doctoral studies, she worked at the International Growth Centre’s New Delhi Office where she served as the economics editor for a prominent policy blog in India.

Mark Ansermino is a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Executive Medical Director for Global Health at British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital, Vancouver Canada. I lead an interdisciplinary research team of engineers and clinicians who develop and evaluate novel technical solutions (devices and innovative AI applications) to improve women's and children's health outcomes worldwide. As a team, we combine science and engineering to create cutting-edge technology that uses clinical data, automation, AI and smart physical sensors to improve outcomes. Our focus is on extracting important data features from devices and using predictive and machine learning models based on large population datasets to provide accessible decision-making support at all levels of healthcare in every area of the world.

Dr. Celi is the principal investigator behind the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) and its offsprings, MIMIC-CXR, MIMIC-ED, MIMIC-ECHO, and MIMIC-ECG. With close to 100k users worldwide, an open codebase, and close to 10k publications in Google Scholar, the datasets have undoubtedly shaped the course of machine learning in healthcare in the United States and beyond. His group has written 3 open-access textbooks: “Secondary Analysis of Electronic Health Records” in 2016, “Global Health Informatics: Principles of eHealth and mHealth to Improve Quality of Care” in 2017, and “Leveraging Data Science for Global Health” in 2020. The first has been downloaded over 1.7 million times and translated into Mandarin, Spanish, Korean and Portuguese. The group has created two open online courses, “Global Health Informatics'' and “Collaborative Data Science for Healthcare”. Finally, in partnership with hospitals, universities and professional societies across the globe, Dr. Celi and his team have organized over 50 datathons in 22 countries, bringing together students, clinicians, researchers, and engineers to leverage data routinely collected in the process of care.

Agnes Kiragga leads the Data Science Program at the African Population Health Research Council in Nairobi, Kenya. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in utilizing diverse data, including African longitudinal population cohorts. She leads the Data Science Without Borders (DSWB) multi-country project, Implementation Network for Sharing Population Information from Research Entities (INSPIRE) network and spearheads data management and analytics cores for multi-country research projects. Her work aims to apply data science tools to real-world and longitudinal data generated in Africa. Dr. Kiragga strongly advocates building capacity in data systems, sharing and governance, data harmonization, and the application of artificial Intelligence for effective decision-making in public health and livelihoods in Africa.

Barbara J. Evans is Professor of Law and Stephen C. O’Connell Chair at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and holds a joint appointment as Professor of Engineering and Glenn and Deborah Renwick Faculty Fellow in AI and Ethics at UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Her work focuses on AI/ML clinical decision support software for use in clinical health care settings as part of the ethics and legal studies teams for the NIH Bridge to Artificial Intelligence Patient-Focused CHoRUS for Equitable AI project and the NIH Artificial Intelligence Passport for Biomedical Research (AIPassportBMR) project. She is an elected member hof the American Law Institute, a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and was named a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar in Bioethics for 2010-2013. Before coming to academia, she was a partner in the international regulatory practice of a large New York law firm and is admitted to the practice of law in New York and Texas. She holds a BS in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, an MS & PhD from Stanford University, a JD from Yale Law School, an LLM in Health Law from the University of Houston Law Center, and she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Ethics at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Rishikesan (Rishi) Kamaleswaran is an Associate Professor at in the Department of Surgery and Department of Anesthesiology at the Duke University School of Medicine, with secondary appointments in Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering in the Pratt School of Engineering. He was previously an Associate Professor at the Emory University in the Department of Biomedical Informatics.He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Canada. Prior to joining Duke, he was Co-Director of the Informatics Core at the Georgia CTSA.His current research interests include severe sepsis detection and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. His contribution areas include AI/ML model infrastructure, clinical big data, real-time event stream processing, data analysis and information systems design. He has been funded by the NIH and other industry and private foundations to advance research in those fields.

Professor Emilia Virginia R. I. Noormahomed is, at present, a Full Professor of Human Parasitology at the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique, since 1994 and invited Professor at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), Infectious Disease Division in US since 2010.

Since early days, she is committed in buildup research capacity and scaling up training of health professionals within the country and across the continent having participated as a founding member of several associations such as the Cysticercosis Working Group for East and South Africa (CWGESA) created in 2002, the Mozambique Institute for Health Education and Research (MIHER), a Research Support Center Created thanks to the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) in 2011 with the aim to reinvigorated research development in Mozambique. She is also the founding member of the African Forum for Health Professional Education (AFREhealth) created in 2016, the biggest African organization in Africa for Health Professionals education and research development.

Moreover, within the country she was appointed Dean at the UEM Faculty of Medicine (2002-2006) and Vice Chancellor at the Lurio University (2015-2017). Combined altogether and thanks to her leadership skills she was able to create and coordinate several post graduate programs in several areas of Global Health and lead a multidisciplinary team of researchers with long track record of international publications.

Ruth Nduati is a Professor of Paediatrics at the School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, University of Nairobi. She is a Paediatrician and Epidemiologist who has taught at the University of Nairobi for many years.  Her major achievement is her contribution to the understanding of the epidemiology and biology of breast milk transmission of HIV and in integration of prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV in resource constrained settings.

Professor Miliard Derbew, MD, FRCS, FCS-ECSA, FACS is a passionate medical educator, surgeon, and global health leader, dedicated to improving the capacity of medical and academic systems. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the health and education systems, having served as a medical doctor, hospital administrator and clinic owner, professor, dean, university vice president and researcher, and global health activist. He currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and Consultant Pediatric Surgeon at King Faisal Hospital Rwanda. Previously, he served as Professor of Pediatric Surgery at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, a department he founded to ensure the continuation of surgical education for the next generation. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, and a Founding Fellow of College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). Professor Derbew has served in prominent leadership roles, including as an Executive Board Member of Lifebox, Vice President of Alliance for Surgery and Anesthesia Prevalence, COSECSA President and Vice President, and resident of the Surgical Society of Ethiopia. He has published over 70 peer reviewed scientific articles and is a distinguished member of several professional associations, including the Surgical Society of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Medical Association, and the Pediatric Society of Ethiopia. Professor Derbew holds an M.D. and post-graduate degree in surgery from Addis Ababa University, as well as training in pediatric surgery from Tel Aviv University, Israel, and University of Toronto, Canada.

Matchecane Cossa received is Thoracic surgeon who received his M.D. from Eduardo Mondlane University 20 years ago, and he is a faculty at the cardiovascular and thoracic surgery service at Maputo Central Hospital. And he has been at the Ministry of health of Mozambique for the past 10 years as the Director of the National Program of Surgery with responsibilities of managing surgical workforce, medical supplies, and the development of surgical infrastructure. He started practicing Medicine in a 100-bed rural hospital in Niassa Province (the poorest province of Mozambique), where he gained experience in hospital management as the director of this health facility during a period of 3,5 years.Through his position at the Ministry of health, he has been involved in global surgery programs, working together with UCSD (University of California San Diego) colleagues. And thanks to this collaboration, eight (8) years ago he earned a Glocal fellowship at the University of California Global Health Institute (UCGHI), GloCal Health Fellowship program 2015-2016, measuring surgical care in Mozambique using WHO (World Health Organization) indicators for surgery. It was a national wild survey during a 6-month period.He is also involved in research and teaching. He is a teacher at the Faculty of Medicine at Eduardo Mondlane University and a mentor for undergraduate students and residents at Maputo Central Hospital. His teaching responsibilities includes leading the first thoracic surgery training program for residents in Mozambique.He has just earned a post-graduation degree on oncological Surgery at IPO (Portuguese institute of oncology) in Portugal.As a general thoracic surgeon working at Maputo Central Hospital, he basically does chest surgery, from lung recessions to esophagectomy, due to infectious diseases (tuberculosis and aspergilomas) and cancer. He has a special interest in esophageal cancer surgery. Almost half of his clinical research collaboration is in this field. He is doing a PhD training in esophageal Cancer at Abel Salazar Biomedical Science Institute in Porto, Portugal. The purpose is to end this training developing a National Program to prevent and control Esophageal Cancer in Mozambique.Recently he has been working with the Utstein metrics group on global surgery metrics. The lancet commission surgical indicators, recently updated by this Utstein group consensus is the focus of the National Program of Surgery of Mozambique. These metrics will allow us to evaluate the status of Mozambique Surgery and bring it in to National Agenda.

Regina Daniel Miambo is a Veterinary Doctor and an Assistant Lecturer in Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases at Eduardo Mondlane University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in Mozambique. Her research focuses on zoonotic and neglected tropical diseases. She is also a Junior Faculty member at the Mozambique Institute for Health and Research and a postdoctoral Glocal Health Fellow at the University of California, San Diego.

Woutrina Smith leads the multicampus UCGHI Planetary Health Center of Expertise and has been part of the UCD School of Veterinary Medicine’s One Health Institute since its inception. Originally from Alaska, Dr. Smith studied at Pomona College in Los Angeles, at School for Field Studies in Australia, and at UC Davis on her way to becoming a Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. Dr. Smith has One Health research projects in Africa and Asia, as well as in California, where multidisciplinary teams work together to solve complex population and planetary health problems in innovative ways. Dr. Smith has received funding from diverse sources including the National Institutes of Health, the US Agency for International Development, the US Department of Defense, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support her research and training endeavors.

Dr. Carlos A. Faerron Guzmán is a global health professional passionate about education and committed to health equity, addressing complexity, and emphasizing values in shaping a better world. As an educator, he fosters an environment of collaborative learning and knowledge exchange that empowers communities and individuals. He serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore Graduate School, Director of the InterAmerican Center for Global Health in Costa Rica, and Senior Advisor of the Planetary Health Alliance at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Faerron also holds adjunct positions at Northwestern University and Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Catherine Machalaba is the inaugural Planetary Health Scientist under The Nature Conservancy’s Human Dimensions Science Team. In this role, she is excited to make health-positive conservation interventions more visible to accelerate progress toward TNC’s conservation, climate and people goals.Catherine serves on the One Health High-Level Expert Panel advising the Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Environment Programme, World Health Organization and World Organisation for Animal Health in their collaborative work. She is also active in the American Public Health Association and the IUCN’s expert Commissions. She holds a master's in public health from Dartmouth Medical School and a PhD in environmental and planetary health sciences from the City University of New York School of Public Health.

A graduate in veterinary medicine with a specialization in public health from the French National School of Veterinary Services, Cedric COLMAR has developed extensive expertise in animal health, public health, and food safety policies at national, European, and international levels. Early in his career, he worked as a consultant, assessing the socio-economic impact of public policies, providing technical expertise to private laboratories, and developing quality management systems for the agrifood sector. Cedric COLMAR later served as a scientific expert at the French National Agency for Veterinary Medicines (ANSES-ANMV), contributing to national pharmacovigilance and representing France as a European expert within the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This role offered valuable experience in EU decision-making, negotiation processes, and international representation, including chairing a working group. Committed to public service and international engagement, Cedric COLMAR became a Veterinary Public Health Inspector for the French Ministry of Agriculture and Food, with roles spanning health inspection leadership and European and international health affairs. To deepen his knowledge in global governance and diplomacy, Cedric COLMAR completed an intensive Master's program in international governance and diplomacy at Sciences Po Paris, focusing on advocating for the "One Health" approach in global health policies. Since January 2023, Cedric COLMAR has been serving as Director of Partnerships, International, and European Affairs at VetAgro Sup, contributing to the institution's strategic development and international collaborations. In 2025, he was also elected Vice-Chair of the FrOGH network, gathering French-speaking academic actors in Global Health and One Health.

Dr. Helova is a faculty in the Department of Health Policy and Organization and a Deputy Director of the Sparkman Center for Global Health (SCGH) in the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). Her research focuses on global health, implementation science and research practice, health system strengthening and resilience, capacity building, operations, maternal-child health issues, mental health, and HIV & AIDS globally. Dr. Helova's work aims to identify optimal and feasible strategies with the aim of translation and implementation of research findings into practice, clinical tools, and policy recommendations in low-resource settings domestically and globally through the engagement of policymakers, community, and other key stakeholders. Dr. Helova is also committed to teaching of global health classes, global health practice, training, and capacity building in various vulnerable settings. Within CUGH, Dr. Helova serves as a co-chair of the Global Health Operations Committee and serves on the Executive Planning Committee for CUGH 2025.

Dr Yodi Mahendradhata is Dean and Professor in Health Policy and Management at the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. He leads the South East Asia Regional Training Center for Health Research, supported by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). Dr Mahendradhata is a member of the Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Global Steering Group. He is Scientific Advisory Board member of the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium and member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group of Experts on NCD-related Research and Innovation. His research interests are knowledge translation, implementation science, tropical medicine, health policy and management. Dr Mahendradhata was a Humboldt scholar at Heidelberg University, Germany. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles published in high impact journals. Dr Mahendradhata serves as Editorial Board member for PLoS Global Public Health, Frontiers in Tropical Diseases and BMC Health Services Research.

Dr. Malabika Sarker is a Professor of Practice of behavioral and social science at Brown School of Public Health, Brown University, USA.  Professor Sarker is an implementation researcher and a mixed-method expert. She is a physician with a Master's in Public Health from Harvard University, the USA, and a Doctorate in Public Health from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. In her 34-year public health career, she spent ten years implementing community-based programs at BRAC, the world's largest NGO. She teaches Global Health and implementation science courses to graduate students at Brown University. She has 24 years of teaching experience across four continents (North America, Europe, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa) and supervised 50+ Master’s and co-supervised 10 + Doctoral students. In her career, she has mentored 100+ junior researchers. Prof Sarker has extensive research experience in Sub-Saharan Africa and Bangladesh. She has published 146 peer-reviewed articles and six book chapters.  Her Global presence spans across the continents. She is one of the directors of the Board at CUGH (Consortium of Universities in Global Health), an international advisory board member of The Lancet Global Health, an Evaluation Advisory Committee Member of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, National Institute of Health Research UK, Chair of the Advisory Board of the HRP Alliance for Research Capacity Strengthening (RCS) and editorial board member Implementation Science Communications Journal. She previously served as a board member for Measurement USA, the World Federation Public Health Association, and the Medical Research Council UK. Prof Sarker was awarded the “Heroines of Health” global award in 2018. Before joining Brown SPH, Prof. Sarker was the Associate Dean & Professor of BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh. Prof. Sarker founded the Institute Review Board (IRB) and the Center of Excellence of Science of Implementation & Scale-Up (SISU) at BRAC JPGSPH and led it for six years.

David Peters, MD, MPH, DrPH, FACPM, FCAHS, is a health systems specialist who has made significant contributions to health in low- and middle-income countries. His innovations in health policy & system research and implementation science have supported major reforms across Africa and Asia. His collaborative approach in pioneering sector-wide approaches (SWAps) and developing the first nationwide Balanced Scorecard on health have transformed healthcare delivery and improved health outcomes. Peters’ data-driven approach was pivotal to supporting strategies to address the Ebola epidemic in Liberia. He has also contributed extensively in global health boards, including at the World Health Organization, in efforts to promote health equity globally.

Dr. Thomas Quinn is Professor of Medicine and Pathology in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Professor of International Health, Epidemiology, and Immunology and Molecular Microbiology in The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is the founding Director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Global Health. He is currently a NIH Scientist Emeritus and the former Associate Director of International Research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 2004 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academies of Science and served as Chair of the Academy’s Board on Global Health. He is a member of the Association of American Physicians and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has been an Advisor/Consultant on HIV and STDs to the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is an author of over 1000 publications on HIV, STIs, and infectious diseases. He is the recipient of multiple awards including an honorary Doctoral Degree in Science from the University of Manitoba School of Medicine and the NIH Director’s award for outstanding science and achievement.

Nelson Sewankambo MBChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, LLD (HC) is a Professor Emeritus and a former President of Makerere Medical School, Uganda and a past Principal Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He facilitated the establishment of many collaborations between Makerere University and institutions in both high and low or middle-income countries. He was a member of the research team that for the first time identified and documented the existence of HIV in Uganda in early 80’s (Lancet, 1985). He is one of the founders of the internationally reknown Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), initially known as the Rakai Project which has a longitudinal population Rakai HIV Community Cohort Services (RCCS) for the last 35 years. RHSP has generated research evidence used in global (WHO), regional and national HIV prevention and management policies. He is one of the founders of the world famous 20-year old Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at Makerere University. IDI has very strong HIV prevention, research, management and care programmes for the last 20 years. He was a founder and is a scientific adviser (20+ years) of the Makerere-University Walter Reed Research Institute (MUWRP) and a founding member and Board Chair of the Makerere Joint AIDS Program (MJAP) in Uganda. He has focused on epidemiological and interventional HIV/AIDS research and also contributed to building indigenous research capacity to conduct quality research relevant to the country, region and globally.

Judd L Walson, MD, MPH is the Robert E. Black Chair of the Department of International Health and a Professor of International Health, Medicine and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Walson has extensive experience conducting research to define approaches to improve childhood survival, growth and development. His primary research focus is understanding pathways to reduce mortality among acutely ill children in low and middle-income settings. In addition, he has experience with public health programming, policy development, product development and clinical practice. Dr. Walson has significant experience in strategic planning and analysis, having worked with many large organizations, industry partners and private foundations to inform evidence-based decisions and programming and he has served as a strategic and clinical consultant for industry and non-profit organizations. Dr. Walson also has designed and implemented multiple large multi-country clinical trials and observational studies in collaboration with governments, industry, nongovernmental organizations and academic partners in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, including in Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, India, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Uganda.

Dr. Obasanjo earned her PhD in Epidemiology from Cornell University and a Masters from University of California, Davis. She obtained a Doctor of Veterinary degree from University of Ibadan before coming to the US for graduate school. She worked in Clinical Research as a Project Manager in the US in the 1990’s and then moved back to Nigeria where she was Commissioner for Health in Ogun State from 2003 to 2007, then a Senator from 2007 to 2011. Her research focus includes the impact of women’s leadership on health outcomes for countries, the effect of Community Health Workers (CHW) on health outcomes in low-income communities, and health policy in African countries. She currently has a research project in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa examining ways to improve community health in rural areas and she recently completed work on a grant examining CHW impact in Richmond, Virginia. She has given lectures across the globe and has over twenty-five scientific publications. She has also written for international foreign policy journals. Before joining UMB, Dr. Obasanjo was a tenured Associate Professor at William and Mary University in Virginia.

Tatiane Moraes is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Institute of Social Medicine, Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). She holds a degree in Ecology, a master's, and a Ph.D. in Public Health from Fiocruz, as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (USP). She was also a visiting scientist in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. She is a member of various research groups, including the Climate and Health Observatory and the Solidarity Research Network on Public Policies. Her research focuses on the health sector's adaptation to climate change and other environmental transformations. Additionally, she is engaged in projects exploring the intersection of social, environmental, and macropolitical determinants of health and their impacts on population health, with a particular emphasis on epidemiological surveillance, infectious diseases, and public health emergencies.

Dr Bouclaous is an Associate Professor and Director of Student Affairs at the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon. She teaches social medicine, global health, and nutrition in the MD program. Her research focuses on the determinants of health and health inequities among host and refugee populations. She has a number of peer-reviewed publications and ongoing projects on health literacy, collective trauma, access to care, disability, and sexual assault among other topics. She is a review editor for Frontiers, editorial board member of Critical Public Health, guest editor for International Health Trends and Perspectives, and peer reviewer for several top-tier academic journals. She is a member of the Research Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, and a member of the Standing Committee on Research Standards of the International Health Literacy Association. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Lebanese Medical Students’ International Committee, and heads LAU’s Medical Students’ Association Advisory Council. She supports both organizations in planning and executing awareness campaigns and free medical outreach days for the most vulnerable in society. Prior to joining LAU, she gained extensive experience in healthcare management. Dr Bouclaous holds a PhD in Development Studies, a Master of Public Health, and a Master of Nutrition. Contact: carmel.bouclaous@lau.edu.lb

Dr. Olubukola Christianah Omobowale is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and a Consultant Community Physician at the University College Hospital Ibadan, Nigeria 

She holds a medical degree (MBBS), an MPH, and is pursuing a Ph.D. at the same University of Ibadan. She is a member of the National Postgraduate Medical College in Nigeria (NPMCN) and a Fellow of the Faculty of Community Health at the West African College of Physicians (WACP). 

Dr. Omobowale is a global health researcher, a global mental health advocate, an adolescent health specialist, and a women's health expert. Dr. Omobowale's research interests include the development and evaluation of community-based rehabilitation interventions for vulnerable groups (women, girls, children, the elderly, and those with mental health conditions) within their communities as well as linking them with available community resources. As she draws on the lived experiences of vulnerable populations to design these interventions, she employs epidemiological models like community participatory methods, coproduction, community resource mapping, and community engagement to promote community health in Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. Her two current projects are focused on providing Community Based Rehabilitation and Psychosocial Support Interventions for people living with mental health conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa SUCCEED Africa and the Ending Child Marriage in Nigeria through Community-led media series project ENCASE.  Dr. Omobowale has presented her work at local and international conferences with articles published in peer reviewed journals. Dr. Omobowale is a member of several learned societies including the Global Network on Mental Health and Child Marriage, Child Marriage Research to Action Network (CRANK), Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (RSTMH), and a member of the Research Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health.

Susan Michaels-Strasser, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN Senior Director, Human Resources for Health (HRH) Development Dr. Strasser is a public health professional with over 25 years of experience in nursing and public health. She is the senior director for Human Resources for Health (HRH) Development, providing leadership, guidance and direction for the development, implementation, and assessment of programs to develop human resources for health across ICAP’s portfolio of programs. This work focuses on improving acute and chronic health care as well as management and mitigation of disease outbreaks. She is the Principal Investigator for CDC, Global Fund, GAVI, Tow Foundation and Resolve to Save Lives funded programs in South Africa, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Zambia. She has served at senior management and training levels at various locations throughout Southern Africa. Her areas of expertise include pediatric care and support, nurse training, and use of point of care diagnostics. She is a pediatric nurse practitioner, a member of the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society for Nurses, a member of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Strasser holds a MPH and MSc in nursing from Yale University and a PhD in public health from the University of Cape Town.

Amy Elizabeth Barrera is a Senior Technical Advisor in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for the Resilient Health Services Team at Resolve to Save Lives. With15 years of experience in epidemic response, health systems strengthening, and implementation science, E-beth has worked across a variety of global settings and has extensive expertise in IPC program development and preparedness experience – all with a focus on keeping frontline healthcare workers safe. Throughout their career, E-beth has held key roles in organizations such as Partners In Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2010, she served as a Technical Advisor for IPC in Multi-drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) programs at Partners In Health, later becoming the Director of IPC during the 2014-2016 West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone. During the COVID-19 pandemic, E-beth worked with the WHO AFRO branch in Brazzaville, Congo, where she developed rapid IPC guidelines, tools, and training materials for healthcare workers in response to the global health crisis. In 2020, E-beth joined Resolve to Save Lives, where she provided technical guidance on IPC to promote frontline healthcare worker safety in 10 African nations. During this time, E-beth played a key role in securing national IPC budgets for two countries through policy and advocacy efforts. Additionally, she facilitated the implementation of the “Epidemic-ready Primary Healthcare,” an innovative initiative that ensures primary healthcare workers are equipped to rapidly detect, protect, and treat suspected cases of priority pathogens while maintaining essential health services. E-beth earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Public Health from Emory University, where she studied Anthropology and Global Health. She also holds a Doctoral degree and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania.

Allison P Squires, Ph.D., FAAN, RN, is a professor and the Director of the Global Consortium of Nursing and Midwifery Studies, or GCNMS. The GCNMS is an 82-country research consortium collaborating on research capacity-building projects in nursing and midwifery globally. The consortium's current research study is examining the long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the nursing and midwifery workforces globally to understand how to improve global pandemic response implementation protocols for the largest frontline workforce cadre. Domestically, her research focuses on improving immigrant and refugee health outcomes with a special interest in addressing inequities in health outcomes resulting from language discordance during a healthcare encounter. For both, she is an expert in contextual considerations of global health care services implementation. Prof. Squires has consulted with the Migration Policy Institute and the World Bank on nursing and health workforce issues and produced several major policy analyses with their teams. A prolific writer, Squires has authored over 200 publications, including 140+ in peer-reviewed journals. She serves as an associate editor of the top-ranked International Journal of Nursing Studies since 2012. She was the 2019–2020 Distinguished Nurse Scholar in Residence for the National Academy of Medicine where she worked on the consensus study "Future of Nursing 2020–2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Equity". In 2023, she received the Outstanding Mentor Award from the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues interest group of Academy Health. Prior to entering academia full-time, Squires worked as a staff nurse in solid organ transplant and as a staff educator for 11 years in the U.S. healthcare system. Her practice has since shifted largely to community-based nursing roles as a volunteer. Prof. Squires received her Ph.D. at Yale University, MSN at Duquesne University, and BSN with a minor in Latin American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Health Outcomes Research at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her primary appointment at the Rory Meyers College of Nursing at NYU, she holds affiliated faculty appointments/affiliations with the Department of General Internal Medicine at the Grossman School of Medicine, the Center for Latin American Studies, and the Center for Drug Use and HIV Research.

Gavin Yamey is the Hymowitz Family Professor of Global Health, Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy, and Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health based in the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI). Dr Yamey is Associate Director for Policy at DGHI. He is on the core faculty of the Duke Margolis Institute for Health Policy and affiliate faculty of Duke Science and Society. He leads the global health track in the Duke Global Policy (DGP) Program in Geneva. Core Faculty Member, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy

David Watkins is a physician-scientist in the Departments of Medicine at the University of Washington and University of Cape Town, and he is a senior researcher with the Disease Control Priorities Network, and his scientific interest is in priority setting for health in low- and middle-income countries, with a particular interest on prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. 

Dr. Watkins is a contributor to volumes 5, 7, and 9 of DCP3. He is the lead author of chapters in volume 5 on structural heart diseases and extended cost-effectiveness analysis of CVD policies, and he is a co-author of the overview and burden of disease chapters. He is a the lead author of chapters on volume 7 on burden of disease and economic evidence. Finally, he is the lead author of two synthesis chapters in volume 9 that deal with intersectoral health priorities and essential universal health coverage.

Dr. Watkins received a bachelor of science from Rhodes College and a doctor of medicine from Duke University before moving to the University of Washington in Seattle, where he completed a residency in internal medicine, an MPH through the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and a research fellowship in health economics with the Disease Control Priorities Network.

Justina O. Seyi-Olajide, MBBS, FWACS, FACS, is a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Nigeria. She trained at Ahmadu Bello University and Lagos University Teaching Hospital, earning the Alinta Nwako Prize for the best graduating paediatric surgical trainee in West Africa. She is deeply committed to advancing global health initiatives and improving access to equitable, high-quality surgical care in LMICs, particularly for children.

She played a key role in developing and implementing Nigeria’s National Surgical, Obstetric, Anaesthesia, and Nursing Plan (NSOANP), the first to prioritize children’s surgery and perioperative nursing. She now chairs the committee revising the plan for its second edition. She has published extensively on paediatric and global surgery, co-edited the very successful book, Pediatric Surgery: A Comprehensive Textbook for Africa, serves as Assistant Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the West African College of Surgeons, and has contributed to developing educational and training programs for the West African College of Surgeons.

Dr. Seyi-Olajide is a Commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health. She was a key facilitator for the Africa Surgical Initiative 2030 project, which led to the Dakar Declaration on strengthening surgical, obstetric, and anaesthesia healthcare systems in Africa by 2030. She currently serves on the executive committee of the Pan African Surgical Healthcare Forum and is a board member of the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery. She remains dedicated to mentoring and inspiring the next generation of global health and global surgery practitioners.

Wenhui Mao is an Assistant Director of Program at Duke Global Health Innovation Center, Senior Policy Associate at the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health and Instructor of Global Health at Duke Global Health Institute, Duke University. Wenhui received PhD training in Health Economics from Fudan University, China, and has a decade experiences in health policy research in low- and middle-income countries. Her current interests include 1) the impact of health policy through policy analysis and economic evaluation; 2) health financing, including both external and domestic financing; and 3) access to health products. Wenhui has published over 120 academic articles, policy briefs, working papers and blogs and serves as Commissioner of The Lancet Commission on Investing in Health, and the Research Committee of CUGH.

Olusoji Adeyi, MD, MBA, DrPH, is the President of Resilient Health Systems in Washington DC and a Senior Associate at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, “Global Health in Practice: Investing Amidst Pandemics, Denial of Evidence, and Neo-dependency.” Dr. Adeyi has had a distinguished career in global health and development, with professional and leadership positions at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, and Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. At the World Bank, Dr. Adeyi served as Director of the Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice, and Senior Advisor for Human Development, among other leadership responsibilities across the world. He was the founding Director of the Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria (AMFm) at the Global Fund. He has led initiatives on global and regional health policies, strategies, and programs; authored many papers and books on health policy and systems; and co-led multiple partnerships and commissions in health. Dr. Adeyi serves on several global health commissions and high-level advisory groups on policy and strategy.

Professor Prabhat Jha is a University Professor at the University of Toronto, Endowed Professor in Global Health and Epidemiology and Canada Research Chair at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the founding Director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael's Hospital.

Professor Jha is the lead investigator of the Million Death Study in India, which quantifies the causes of premature mortality in over 3 million homes from 1998 to current. His publications on tobacco control have enabled a global treaty now signed by over 180 countries. He founded the Statistical Alliance for Vital Events, which focuses on reliable measurement of premature mortality worldwide.

Earlier, Professor Jha served in senior roles at the World Health Organization and the World Bank. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2012. Professor Jha holds an M.D. from the University of Manitoba and a D.Phil. from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Eduardo González-Pier serves as Senior Technical Director of Health Financing at Palladium and Deputy Director for Health Finance of the USAID-sponsored PROPEL Health project. As an economist with more than 25 years of experience in the health and social security sectors, he has contributed to the development of health policy in Mexico, including major reforms. His current work focuses on providing sound evidence and analysis to inform policymaking and promote the development of mechanisms and tools to improve health system performance across several low- and middle-income countries. He is also a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. Former appointments include serving as Deputy Minister of Health of Mexico, Executive President of the Mexican Health Foundation, and Finance Director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security. Eduardo holds a PhD in economics from The University of Chicago.

Dr. Charurat, Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Public Health, is the Global Director of the Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity (Ciheb) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. His research focuses on maternal-infant HIV transmission, key and vulnerable populations, implementation science, HIV surveillance, and infectious disease transmission dynamics. Dr. Charurat has mentored many researchers from low- and middle-income countries who are in important positions in their universities or governments in making their fights against HIV and other infectious diseases. He is currently PI of a NIH Fogarty International Center's Launching Future Leaders in Global Health Research Training Program that support training of fellows and scholars across 24 institutions in 20 countries. He serves on numerous national and international committees including appointment to several NIH Review Panels, the World Bank-funded Center of Excellence in Public Health and Maternal-child Health, and the International AIDS Society. Dr. Charurat has authored more than 190 peer-reviewed articles and serves as PI for over $200 million in grant funding for research and training from the NIH, CDC, PEPFAR, and the WHO. He and his team have established vibrant centers of excellence in Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Tanzania, and Malawi that conduct public health implementation and clinical research in infectious diseases and cancer control.

Dr. Janet M. Turan is a Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Organization at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health and Senior Advisor in the UAB Sparkman Center for Global Health. Dr. Turan is a social and behavioral scientist with research interests in the areas of sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention and treatment in low-resource settings. Her research includes qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies to address HIV-related stigma; as well as intersectional stigma related to poverty, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, substance use, and reproductive choices; in settings including Kenya and the southern United States.

Karla is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI) and under the mentorship of Dr. Steve Taylor and Dr. Wendy Prudhomme-O’Meara. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California, Davis and joins DGHI as a recent Fogarty Fellow having been based in Uganda in 2023 working with trypanosomiasis, a vector-borne parasite. Her current work in the Taylor Lab focuses on better understanding the transmission of malaria parasites between hosts from western Kenya field sites. Her objectives in the Taylor Lab consist of conceptualizing, innovating, and implementing data-driven approaches to malaria vaccine design as well as fostering healthy and fruitful relationships with stakeholders on the ground.

Dr. SHAMEKA POETRY THOMAS, PhD is a research faculty and provost scholar on the tenure track at The Ohio State University’s College of Medicine in the Department of Biomedical Education and Anatomy’s Center for Bioethics. Her research focuses on global bioethics, noninvasive prenatal testing, reproductive genetics, sickle cell disease, and advancing health equity among Black and African populations. She completed fellowships at the Fogarty International Global Health Fellowship at Harvard University, School of Public Health and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship intramural at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) / National Human Genomics Research Institute (NHGRI). Dr. Thomas is the founder and developer of the SICKLE CELL WOMEN & GIRLS (S.W.A.G.) Research Lab, which initially formed from her research project as a HBNU-Fogarty Global Health Fellow (2022-23). The SWAG Research Lab builds upon her prior data collection at the Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics, where she lived abroad in Ghana, West Africa for 12 consecutive months. Her research objectives are thus specifically geared toward the intersection of sickle cell and reproductive health, as it relates bridging the gaps for women with sickle cell as they navigate reproductive genetic technology and reproductive decision-making. Currently, Dr. Thomas serves as the vice-president for Beyond Global Health Organization, an editor for Springer Nature’s Maternal and Child Health Journal, and  a medical advisory board member for the National Sickle Cell Reproductive Health Education Directive.  

Alex Kayongo is a Fogarty-trained research scientist in the Department of Immunology and Molecular Biology at Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He received his training in Medicine and Surgery from Makerere University College of Health Sciences in Kampala. His desire to understand the biological basis of disease, encouraged him to join the Sutton lab at Yale School of Medicine as a Post-Grad fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine, in 2015, where he investigated Host genetic factors facilitating HIV control. He later returned to Makerere University, to pursue a Master of Science degree in Immunology, continuing with his HIV cure project, as his master’s dissertation. During the second year of his Master’s training, Alex was awarded a prestigious UJMT Fogarty Global Health Research Fellowship under mentorship of Professor William Checkley from Johns Hopkins University and Associate Professor Trishul Siddharthan from University of Miami, where he investigated HIV-associated Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) among rural Ugandan communities. Despite subtle differences in the prevalence of COPD among HIV+ versus HIV- individuals, the disease was much severe among the HIV+ group. Alex wanted to understand biologic basis of this observation, focusing on the role of airway microbiome in mediating such difference. Using this preliminary data, Alex secured a highly competitive early career fellowship from GSK to profile airway microbiome in HIV-associated COPD using 16S rRNA sequencing. He showed that unique microbiome signatures associate with HIV-COPD co-morbidity. Alex further investigated how such microbial signatures impact airway mucosal immune functioning in the setting of HIV and COPD, utilizing a well-characterized longitudinal cohort, his team has built over the years. To acquire skills in advanced Immunology as part of his PhD training, Alex travelled back to the USA in January 2020, joining the Salgame Lab at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey as a Visiting Fellow for two years under mentorship of Professor Padmini Salgame and then came back to Uganda, completing his PhD thesis in 2024. Using knowledge acquired from the Salgame Lab, Alex secured funding from EDCTP in November 2021 and R21 from NIH in July 2022 to investigate the role played by microbiome in driving Th17-mediated inflammation among HIV-infected individuals in rural Uganda using induced sputum (for EDCTP grant) and broncho-alveolar lavage (R21 NIH grant) respectively.  To-date, Alex has established a niche in the field of HIV-COPD immunobiology. He is testing a novel chronic airway inflammation model as a platform to immune-phenotype airway microbiome to aid in identifying novel immune-protective and inflammatory signatures associated with COPD and HIV, which will be validated in separate cohorts. He has established a negative pressure biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) sputum induction lab in Nakaseke district of Uganda and leads the airway-microbiome immune crosstalk group at Makerere University College of Health Sciences, providing mentorship to three immunology fellows and two bioinformatics fellow. 

Madhushree is a general surgery resident at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She completed medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in 2021 and has been dedicated to global surgery efforts throughout her medical education. She is a Fogarty Global Health Fellow for the INSIGHT consortium and has been working alongside the pediatric general surgery team at Kamuzu Central Hospital Lilongwe, Malawi since August 2021. Her fellowship project is centered around development of post-operative care pathways using telephone follow-up. Dr. Zope's additional research interests include implementation of health information management systems and developing research capacity in low-resource settings.

Dr.Anita Kabarambi is a first-year doctoral student in the Public Health program at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. She is a medical doctor by training, with a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery(MBChB) from Makerere University and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the University of London. She has over a decade of research experience working with teams in Uganda in areas of HIV epidemiology and intervention studies focusing on HIV prevention, including Oral PrEP, HIV vaccine trials, and microbicides. She previously worked as a scientist at the Medical Research Council/Uganda Virus Research Institute and the LSHTM Uganda Research Unit before becoming the research director of the International Center for Child Health and Development’s (ICHAD) field offices in Uganda. In this role, she oversaw the planning and implementation of multiple NIH-funded studies.Her research interests are focused on Adolescent Health, specifically HIV prevention andtreatment outcomes, HPV vaccination uptake, and implementation of science methods.

Dr. Macharia's research lies at the intersection of computer science-based technologies and global health. His work focuses on a human-centered design approach to design, develop, and prototype digital health interventions aimed at improving the quality of and access to healthcare in resource-limited settings. For over 15 years, he has worked with research groups at Kenyatta National Hospital, the University of Nairobi, and the Ministry of Health in Kenya, designing interventions targeting adolescents and young people. He is also a co-founder of Consulting in Health Informatics, a social enterprise dedicated to scaling up digital health interventions in Kenya and other resource-limited settings. For his PhD work, Dr. Macharia investigated how a human-centered design approach to developing digital interventions could enhance the uptake of adolescent-targeted tools to better meet users' needs. In this project, he aimed to provide culturally appropriate reproductive health information to adolescents aged 15-18. For his postdoctoral research, he explored how user privacy and confidentiality can improve the usability and user experience of digital health interventions targeting adolescents and young people. The goal of their web-based digital health intervention was to provide adolescent users with a virtual "safe" space where they can interact and learn from each other about what works for them in HIV prevention, care, and treatment. Dr. Macharia's long-term goal is to transition into an independent global health researcher specializing in context-specific digital health interventions. He aims to leverage artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge information and communication technologies to improve the quality of and access to healthcare in resource-limited settings.

Dr. Anthony Kayiira is a Ugandan specialized in Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility. Having completed his Medical Degree and Residency in Uganda by 2016, Dr. Kayiira advanced his expertise in clinical embryology at St Cross College, University of Oxford by end of 2018, focusing on fertility preservation in children and adolescents. He then obtained board certification from the American College of Embryology in 2020.  Dr. Kayiira secured a global health research fellowship with the NPGH consortium for 2021-2022. During this fellowship, Dr. Kayiira initiated the URHSPY project, aimed at understanding reproductive health among survivors of pediatric and young adult cancers in low-income settings. This pioneering work led to the first situational analysis of oncofertility among childhood and adolescent cancer survivors in Uganda. Currently, Dr. Kayiira is developing a K43 award protocol utilizing the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to establish oncofertility services for young cancer survivors in low-resource settings.

Dr. Deus Bazira is a global health practitioner with more than 28 years of experience and field working experience in more than 20 countries spanning academia, public policy and healthcare delivery. He is the co-founder and Director of the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact within the Georgetown University Medical Center, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and serves as the Inaugural Director of Georgetown University Global Health Institute. He leads a inter-disciplinary team working to strengthen health systems and solve intractable public health challenges through implementation science, data science, behavioral science and epidemiological research. In addition, Dr. Bazira’s work includes optimizing interface between primary health care and health security to ensure health systems resilience, program and financial sustainability.

Katherine Marshall has worked for some five decades on international development, with a focus on issues facing the world’s poorest countries. She is a senior fellow at Georgetown's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Professor of the Practice of Development, Conflict, and Religion in the School of Foreign Service. Her long career with the World Bank (1971-2006) involved a wide range of leadership assignments, many focused on Africa. From 2000-2006 her mandate covered ethics, values, and faith in development work,as counselor to the World Bank’s President. She was Country Director in the World Bank’s Africa region, first for the Sahel region, then Southern Africa. She then led the Bank's work on social policy and governance during the East Asia crisis years. She worked extensively on Eastern Africa and Latin America. As a long time manager she was involved in many task forces and issues, among them exercises addressing leadership issues, conflict resolution, the role of women, and issues for values and ethics. Ms. Marshall has been closely engaged in the creation and development of the World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD) and is its Executive Director. She serves or has served on the Boards of several NGOs and advisory groups, including AVINA Americas, UNA-NCA, The International Shinto Foundation, the Niwano Peace Prize International Selection Committee, and the Opus Prize Foundation. She was part of the founding members of IDEA (International Development Ethics Association) and is part of the International Anti-Corruption Advisory Conference (IACC) advisory council. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She served as a core group member of the Council of 100, an initiative of the World Economic Forum to advance understanding between the Islamic World and the West. She was a Trustee of Princeton University (2003-9). She co-moderated the Fes Forum which is part of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music from its inception. She speaks and publishes widely on issues for international development. Ms. Marshall's daughter is a physician in in family practice, following service in the Peace Corps. Her son is working as a software engineer.

Amna Qayyum is a historian specializing in gender, health, and global governance. She serves as the Research Program Director at Georgetown University's Global Health Institute. Her research focuses on the impact of reproductive politics on public policy, global governance, and community experiences in the Global South. Qayyum's book project, Pakistan and the Rise of Global Reproductive Governance, examines how reproductive health and rights in Muslim South Asia are influenced by authoritarian governance and racialized global development. She has received multiple awards and fellowships, including the 2021 Pirzada Prize in Pakistan Studies and support from institutions like the ACLS and SHAFR. Previously, Qayyum was a Fellow at Brookings and held a postdoctoral appointment at Yale's Jackson School of Global Affairs. She has served on expert working groups convened by the New America Foundation and Pakistan's National Security Division, advising on gender, health, and human security. As an educator, she has worked with refugee and university learners through Princeton's Global History Lab. She holds a doctoral degree from Princeton University.

Rev. Dr. Nate Smith serves as Executive Pastor at Trinity Anglican Church in Atlanta and has completed graduate studies in theology and biblical studies. He has also had a wide-ranging career in clinical medicine and public health, including work in Kenya, Arkansas, and at the CDC.

I am a multilingual Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Head of Community Outreach at the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and the founding director of the Holistic Families Lab (HFL) at the same institution. The primary goals of the HFL are to utilize innovative ethnographic and integrative medicine approaches to explore and address unique stress responses among marginalized families, women, and children, providing transformative solutions through science, education, community services, and advocacy, both domestically and globally. I serve as the Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI on several NIH-funded and pilot research projects, including the Realist Women (NHLBI -1K01HL175286-01), the Haitian Well-Being, Nurturing Moms, ESSENTIAL, and Cocooned Moms (NINR/NIMHD-1R41NR021628-01) Studies. My academic work, research, and initiatives have led to over 80 peer-reviewed and lay publications. Findings from my studies have provided unique insights into the role of chronic stress and trauma on poor health outcomes among mother-offspring dyads and immigrants and how psychological resilience may buffer and protect against poor sleep and overall health outcomes. As an expert in generational trauma and intersectional stress, I contributed to the collective volume Psychological Legacy of Slavery: Essays on Trauma, Healing, and The Living Past, which was named one of the best academic books of 2022 by Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. My work has been featured in prestigious journals and media outlets, including The American Psychologist, Circulation, JAMA Network, MedPage Today, CNN, The Washington Post, Forbes, Democracy Now, USA Today, Ici-Radio Canada, and Radio France Internationale -RFI.

Dr. Sujata Sapkota is a Nepali researcher with expertise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs), health systems, and pharmacy research, with a strong focus on qualitative and participatory methods. A registered pharmacist, she currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Manmohan Memorial Institute of Health Sciences in Nepal. She is an NIH Fogarty Fellow (2024-2025) under the INSIGHT Consortium, affiliated with Dhulikhel Hospital-Kathmandu University Hospital in Nepal and the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the USA.Sujata completed her PhD from The University of Sydney, Australia, through an Australia Awards Scholarship, and recently completed a postdoctoral research training under a UKRI/MRC-funded health system project led by The University of Sheffield, UK. She is trained in implementation science and research methodologies through the TRIEN-Nepal project, funded by the NHLBI, USA; and actively participates in various implementation science initiatives aimed at enhancing NCD management, health systems, and pharmacy practices in Nepal.

Alessia (she/her) is an undergraduate research assistant at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She is working towards completing her B.A. in International Relations at UBC. Supervised by Dr. Veena Sriram, professor at SPPGA and Canada Research Chair in Global Health Policy, she has contributed to research on the Indian Medical Association's role in policy processes, comparative studies of provincial Covid-19 policies in Canada, and equity in emergency care workforces. Alessia is currently a co-op student in a junior international relations policy advisor position at the Métis National Council, the National Indigenous Organization representing the Métis Nation in Canada at the national and international levels. Through her work and community engagements, Alessia has cultivated interests in the fields of global health policy, Indigenous Peoples' health, women's and gender-diverse people's health, and planetary health.

Sofia Gruskin directs the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH). She is a Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Law , Professor of Preventive Medicine and Chief of the Disease Prevention, Policy and Global Health Division at the Keck School of Medicine; Professor of Law and Preventive Medicine at the Gould School of Law; and an affiliate faculty member with the Spatial Sciences Institute at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Within USC, she is highly engaged in university service, including serving as a member of the USC Academic Senate Executive Board, and primary convener of the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration. Gruskin was awarded USC’s highest academic honor, a Distinguished Professorship, in March 2024.Gruskin currently sits on numerous international boards and committees, including the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board; the Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health; the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Population Registers, Ethics and Human Rights; and the Lancet Commission on Health and Human Rights. Professor Gruskin has published extensively, including several books, training manuals and edited journal volumes, and more than 200 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics. She is an associate editor for Global Public Health, on the editorial advisory board for Revue Internationale des Études du Développement, and a trustee of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters. Previously, she served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health and editor-in-chief for Health and Human Rights, both for over a decade.A pioneer in bringing together multidisciplinary approaches to global health, Gruskin’s work — which ranges from global policy to the grassroots level — has been instrumental in developing the conceptual, methodological and empirical links between health and human rights. With a long-standing focus on HIV, sexual and reproductive health, child and adolescent health, gender-based violence, non-communicable disease, and health systems, Gruskin’s work also seeks to address the manifestations of inequalities in a range of new areas, including sustainability, climate change, and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 and other emerging pandemics.

Joseph Amon is the Director of the Center for Public Health and Human Rights and Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to his appointment in October 2024, Amon was the Director of the Office of Global Health and Clinical Professor at the Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health. Trained in molecular parasitology, he has worked for a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organizations. During his ten-year tenure at Human Rights Watch he founded programs on human rights and health, disability and the environment. Amon was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Health and Human Rights in November 2023. From 2019-2023, he was the Journal’s Senior Editor.

Dr. MacCarthy is the inaugural holder of the Magic City LGBTQ Health Studies Endowed Chair at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. She has more than 15 years experience in applying systematic mixed-methods research to address sexual and gender minority health and wellbeing in the US and internationally. Dr. MacCarthy completed her masters and doctoral studies at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and postdoctoral training with the Brown University-affiliated Miriam Hospital Immunology Center. Dr. MacCarthy’s research utilizes both quantitative and qualitative methods to examine individual, programmatic and policy related aspects of accessing services across diverse contexts, with special attention to the US South. At UAB she also serves as the Center Director for the Study of Sexual and Gender Health and the Co-Director of the Center for AIDS Research. She has over 100 peer-reviewed articles and has also published her work in high readership venues such as Scientific American, US News & World Report, The New Yorker.

Seemab Mehmood is an MBBS candidate at Fatima Jinnah Medical University in Lahore, Pakistan. She is the Chair of the Trainee Advisory Committee and a Board Member of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. She is also the serving President of International Federation of Medical Students Association (Pakistan) and a Core Team Member of the World Federation of Public Health Associations for Evidence building on Public Health Emergency Preparedness. She is a leading youth voice from the Global South on the pressing global health challenges, advocating for meaningful youth engagements and increase global health youth governance dialogues.

Bethany Van Kampen Saravia is a Senior Legal and Policy Advisor for Ipas US where she leads their US programming on policy and advocacy, with a focus on human rights. Prior to joining Ipas, she worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice and as a legislative fellow in the office of Senator Barbara Boxer (CA).  She received her law degree and Master of Social Work from Tulane University, where she co-founded and served as president of If/When/How and was a member of the Tulane Domestic Violence Law Clinic and the Legislative and Administrative Advocacy Clinic. Prior to graduate school, Bethany served in the Peace Corps in Costa Rica. 

Salma Abdalla, a Sudanese medical doctor, is an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Public Health. She was the Director of the Rockefeller-Boston University 3-D Commission on Determinants of health, Data science, and Decision making. She also served as a secretariat member for the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research focuses on understanding how microsocial forces shape the health of the population. In particular, she studies how data on the social, economic, and commercial determinants can be used to inform decision-making on population health in different contexts. She also studies the effects of trauma on global population mental health. She has published over 80 scientific journal articles, co-authored 9 reports and policy briefs, and co-authored 9 book chapters.

Nason Maani is a Lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh’s Global Health Policy Unit, in the School of Social and Political Science. His research focuses on the commercial determinants of health, seeking to describe the mechanisms through which commercial actors affect health inequalities, knowledge and public discourse. He is co-editor, with Sandro Galea and Mark Petticrew, of the Oxford University Press textbook “the Commercial Determinants of Health”, and the host of Money Power Health, a podcast series discussing the social and commercial forces that shape health. He is a Commonwealth Fund Senior Harkness Fellow, and a Deputy Director of the Local Health, Global Profits Research theme in the UK Research and Innovation Population Health Improvement Network.

Monika Kosinska is global Head of Economic and Commercial Determinants for the World Health Organization. This is a cross-cutting function to shape WHO’s approach to this new area of work, coordinate work across the organization and with external partners, and develop WHO technical and policy tools to build capacities to govern for the economic and commercial determinants of health. Previously she was Programme Manager for Governance for Health for the WHO Regional Office for Europe, where she supported Member States to strengthen improved intersectoral governance for health and well-being for all. She also held the position of Regional Focal Point for Healthy Cities, leading the WHO European Healthy Cities Network, encompassing 1500 municipalities in the European Region.

Before joining the WHO she was appointed Secretary General of the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) in 2007, where she led the  development of new approaches for public health governance in the European Union context, such as improved accountability mechanisms for public-private and civic engagement; public health engagement in economic governance; and participatory governance for health.  She was appointed to the High-Level Group on Administrative Burdens in 2012 advising the European Commission on public health impacts of revisions to EU law, and appointed public health representative in the Expert group to advise European Commission on EU-US trade talks during the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) in 2013.

She chaired the EU Health Policy Forum from 2008-2014, which provided strategic input to the European Commission, explicating addressing the meta-challenges for health and well-being. She was Chair of the Action for Global Health network from 2008-2010 and of the Civil Society Contact Group from 2010 until 2014, which is the largest umbrella network of civil society globally.

Previously she worked in the private sector internationally, as well as for the UK Department of Health and National Health Service. She started her career in local government, working for the metropolitan municipality of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.

Eric Crosbie is a political scientist who examines commercial determinants of health and public health policy. His research focuses on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and examines how commercial industries (tobacco, food and beverage, alcohol, pharmaceutical and fossil fuel) are a key driver of the NCD epidemic and how they influence public health regulations.

Crosbie's research is local in analyzing smoke-free environments and sugar-sweetened beverage taxation regulations in the U.S. as well as global in examining tobacco and nutrition packaging and labeling policies and the impact of trade on health. Crosbie has both local and international experience collaborating with health organizations and health advocates to educate and disseminate academic research findings to policymakers, including publishing research in Spanish to reach wider audiences. Crosbie also works with undergraduate and graduate students to publish and present research. Overall his research is multi-disciplinary combining elements of public health, political science, international relations, economics, law and business to examine public health policy both locally and globally.

My research experiences include evaluating state-level policies and treatment programs and studying socioeconomic determinants across multiple health care settings at domestic and international levels. For instance, much of my work uses administrative data, such as Medicaid claims, HIV/AIDS registries, national surveys, and state treatment registries, to examine treatment and other healthcare utilization patterns among individuals with substance use disorder (SUD), HIV/AIDS, and severe mental illnesses.

Woong-Han Kim, MD, PhD, is a professor of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at Seoul National University College of Medicine and the chairman of the Korean Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He also serves as the director of Seoul National University's JW LEE Center for Global Medicine, which is dedicated to global health research, education, and social contributions, following the late Dr. Jong-wook Lee's (1945-2006) motto, "Do What You Think Is Right." Additionally, he is an active member of the National Academy of Medicine of Korea. His research interests include global health, global surgery, appropriate technology, health systems research, and implementation research.

Dr. Narimon Islamov is a distinguished cardiac surgeon in Uzbekistan. Under the guidance of Prof Woong-Han Kim for 14 years, Dr. Islamov honed his surgical expertise. His commitment to cardiac care in Uzbekistan is evident in his monumental achievement of establishing a dedicated cardiac team. This team, under his leadership, now successfully performs over 1,000 surgeries annually. Dr. Islamov's dedication to his field and his nation has firmly positioned him as a pillar in the cardiac care community of Uzbekistan.

Jayoung Park, PhD, is a Research Professor at the JW LEE Center for Global Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine. With a decade of experience in health workforce capacity-building, she specializes in interprofessional teamwork and implementation science. She has led training programs for medical teams across Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Nepal, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Iraq.

Jinju Lee is a researcher at the JW LEE Center for Global Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, with a background in biomedical science. Specializing in global surgery, Jinju Lee's work focuses on advancing cardiac surgery education programs in low- and middle-income countries. Jinju Lee has played a key role in planning and operating healthcare capacity-building initiatives, including the development of a triangular cooperation training model involving Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and South Korea. Jinju Lee's research emphasizes hands-on, field-based approaches to strengthening surgical practices and advancing sustainable solutions in regions with limited access to advanced medical care.

Dr. Joan B. Soriano is a medical epidemiologist and works at the Dept of Respiratory Medicine of Hospital Universitario de la Princesa, where he is Honorary Professor of Medicine at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, in Madrid, and he is also Associate Professor of Medicine at Universitat de les Illes Balears, in Palma de Mallorca, both in Spain. He has 500+ publications in PubMed and 10+ book chapters in the fields of clinical epidemiology and treatment of respiratory and tobacco-related disease, and a SCOPUS Hirsh index of 102 with more than ninety thousand individual citations. In May 2011 he received the Josep Trueta Award for scientific and medical achievements, in 2014 he was appointed Foundational Fellow of the ERS and Fellow of Chest, and in 2022 received the NeumoMadrid Award for his Scientific and Research Career. Just like many other, since February 2020 Joan suffered a “covidization” of his research. Up to July 2021, he served as Senior Consultant of the COVID-19 Clinical Management Team, at the headquarters of the World Health Organization, based in Geneva, Switzerland, helping with the updates of COVID-19 WHO’s Clinical Guidelines and defining Long COVID. Currently he is a Consultant for chronic respiratory disease for WHO-Europe in Copenhagen, Denmark. Beyond a life-long interest in asthma, COPD and tobacco control research, Joan is active in COVID-19-related research, leading several research studies and clinical trials on Long Covid.

Dr. Esteban Ortiz-Prado is an esteemed medical professional and researcher whose career spans diverse fields of clinical practice, research, public health, and science communication. He earned his medical degree in Ecuador before securing a prestigious NIH-funded scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Medical Science in Canada, specializing in hypoxia physiology. During his academic journey, he received advanced training in high-altitude and underwater physiology and clinical investigation, attending renowned institutions in the United States and Canada. Upon returning to Ecuador, Dr. Ortiz-Prado worked as a medical resident at the country’s largest publicly funded specialized hospital, where he actively participated in clinical research initiatives. In 2012, he was appointed Senior Scientific Advisor to Ecuador's Minister of Higher Education and Science, where he contributed to shaping biomedical public policies and fostering clinical and biomedical research advancements. From 2013 to 2015, he served as the Research and Development Manager at Enfarma EP, Ecuador's state-funded pharmaceutical company. In this capacity, he spearheaded over 30 R&D projects, including leading clinical trials for Ecuador's first locally developed vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, and Hib. His work also included comprehensive analyses of the pharmaceutical market, culminating in a widely recognized publication and the first book on the regional pharmaceutical industry in Ecuador. In 2015, Dr. Ortiz-Prado joined the faculty at Universidad de las Américas (UDLA) in Quito, where he founded the One Health Global Research Group, a center dedicated to studying emerging, re-emerging, and zoonotic diseases. Under his leadership, the group has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles, earning national and international recognition. He became the first PhD candidate in Ecuador to complete a Doctoral Program in Biomedicine from Universitat de Barcelona, focusing on tropical medicine. Additionally, he was awarded the highly competitive Chevening Scholarship to pursue a Master’s in Global Health at the University of Southampton in the UK. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Ortiz-Prado emerged as Ecuador’s leading scientific voice, publishing over 65 articles on COVID-19 and becoming one of Latin America's top 20 most prolific researchers on the disease. He gained widespread recognition as a trusted health communicator, hosting a prime-time TV health program and a radio show to educate the public about preventive measures and health promotion. Dr. Ortiz-Prado has authored over 160 scientific publications and three books, while actively collaborating on nationally and internationally funded research projects. In 2024, he joined PAHO's Health Emergencies Department (PHE) as an international consultant, contributing to global health efforts. As an international speaker, he continues to advocate for evidence-based health policies and practices worldwide. His outstanding contributions exemplify his commitment to advancing public health, fostering scientific discovery, and promoting health education

Dr. Ana Palacio is clinical investigator at the University of Miami and the Geriatric Research Education Center at the Miami Va Healthcare System. She developed and co-directs the Chronic Multisymptom Illness/Long COVID clinic at the Miami VA. She has over 20 years of clinical experience conducting clinical research and is the current Director of the University of Miami Public Health Policy Lab. She currently is the PI on a large observational Long COVID study evaluating the clinical trajectory and phenotypic characteristics of the condition among patients in South Florida.

Ziyad Al-Aly, M.D. is a physician-scientist; he directs the Clinical Epidemiology Center and serves as the Chief of Research and Development Service at the VA Saint Louis Health Care System. He is also a senior clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in Saint Louis. He has several research interests including pharmacoepidemiology, environmental epidemiology, global health, and most recently short- and long-term effects of COVID-19 on health outcomes. Dr. Al-Aly led work which provided systematic characterization of the post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (also called Long Covid) and subsequently characterization of the increased risks of cardiovascular disease, neurologic disorders, diabetes, dyslipidemia, kidney disease, and gastrointestinal disorders following SARS-CoV-2 infection. His laboratory was the first to produce evidence characterizing the effects of vaccines on Long Covid, the health consequences of repeated infections with SARS-CoV-2, and the effect of antivirals on the short- and long-term outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Dr. Al-Aly's lab also led seminal work in environmental epidemiology – characterizing the health effects of air pollution on obesity, diabetes, kidney disease and early mortality. His lab produced significant work in pharmacoepidemiology particularly in comparative effectiveness and safety of antihyperglycemics and characterizing risks of commonly used medications. Dr. Al-Aly was listed on TIME100 health – TIME’s list of 100 individuals who most influenced global health in 2024.

Dr. Shamim Nabuuma: A Multifaceted Leader Bridging the Digital Divide in African Healthcare Transforming Rural Healthcare Access with AI and Telemedicine Dr. Shamim Nabuuma, a Ugandan medical doctor with a master's degree in digital health, is a remarkable innovator and social entrepreneur at the forefront of tackling critical healthcare issues in Africa, particularly for rural and marginalized populations. Her work emphasizes bridging the digital divide to ensure equitable access to comprehensive healthcare services. A)Focus on Rural Healthcare Delivery: Dr. Shamim's organizations directly address the challenges faced by rural communities. Chil Femtech Center, established as Chil Artificial Intelligence Lab, utilizes cutting-edge technology to deliver accessible healthcare solutions. Hub-and-Spoke Model for Expanded Care: Expanding beyond its initial focus on early detection of cervical and breast cancer, Chil Femtech Center now offers a broader range of telemedicine services through its huband- spoke model. This model connects rural clinics with specialists in urban centers. Patients can receive consultations and diagnoses for various health concerns, all from the comfort of their local clinic. B)Empowering Marginalized Groups: Solerchil Technologies, co-founded by Dr. Shamim, tackles food insecurity,another major health concern in rural areas, by providing solar-powered cold rooms for rent to farmers. This empowers these communities to reduce food spoilage, increase profits, and improve overall health outcomes. C). Dr. Shamim's leadership extends beyond Enterpreuership . She serves on the global stage as Africa's representative on the Commonwealth Youth Council Executive Committee, fostering connections between young African entrepreneurs and potential investors. D)Award-Winning Recognition: Dr. Shamim's dedication has been recognized through numerous prestigious awards, including the Takeda Young Entrepreneur Award, the Young African Entrepreneur Award (both in 2018), and the highly coveted Forbes Woman Africa Youth Icon Award in 2023. Adding to this impressive list, she was selected as one of the inaugural class of Bloomberg New Economy Catalysts in 2021. This recognition highlights her work's potential to create a more equitable and sustainable future. A Beacon of Inspiration: Dr. Shamim Nabuuma's story is one of exceptional innovation, social responsibility, and unwavering commitment to empowering rural and marginalized communities across Africa. Her unique blend of medical expertise, digital health knowledge, and a passion for social impact positions her as a transformative leader and an inspiration for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs worldwide.

As an 'Einstein Visa' recipient and National Interest Waiver beneficiary (top 1%), I represent a unique convergence of clinical excellence, technological innovation, and healthcare entrepreneurship. Faculty Alumnus at MD Anderson Cancer Center's Division of Diagnostic Imaging and Brain Tumor Center, I've consistently worked at the intersection of cutting-edge medical science and transformative healthcare technologies. I currently serve as International Liaison for The American Board of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine while advising leading healthcare innovation companies including Redesign Health, H7 BioCapital, and MDisrupt. My expertise spans AI-driven medical imaging, brain-computer interfaces, digital health platforms, and next-generation telemedicine solutions. As Editor for NeuroTechX Content Lab and Review Board Member for Telehealth and Medicine Today, I'm actively shaping the discourse around emerging healthcare technologies. My ongoing work includes participating in groundbreaking initiatives like the 2024 NeuroTech Course and BCI & Neurotechnology Spring School, while serving on multiple strategic committees for the Consortium of Universities for Global Health. As Venture Fellow at Laconia Capital Group and a judge for the Digital Health Hub Foundation's Annual Awards, I evaluate and guide the next generation of healthcare innovations. Through Shree Advisory & Consulting, I drive healthcare transformation by bridging clinical expertise, technological innovation, and entrepreneurial execution. My commitment to advancing global healthcare is demonstrated through extensive committee work, policy advocacy, and leadership in initiatives spanning AI, digital health, and neurotechnology. I'm particularly excited about the vision of accelerating healthcare innovation through interdisciplinary collaboration. My background in clinical medicine, AI, global health policy, and entrepreneurship positions me to contribute meaningfully to discussions about shaping the future of healthcare delivery and global health.

Scott has been working in the field of connectivity, telemedicine, and cold chain supply in Africa and Haiti since 2011. In 2011 he initiated real-time telemedicine consults from the Maasai Mara region of Kenya and in the same year was a presenter on telemedicine and satellite communications at the First International Congress on Pathogens at the Human-Animal Interface (ICOPHAI 2011) in Addis Ababa. He also spoke at ICOPHAI 2017 in Qatar on solar powered cold chain supply for vaccines, bio-samples, and food security. Scott conducted the first, real-time telemedicine ultrasound from the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Gabon to an OBGYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston in 2012. In 2014, Scott was a telemedicine presenter for the First Pan-African Doctors and Healthcare Workers Conference in Addis Ababa. Scott was a presenter at CUGH 2023 on “Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Health Systems – Preparedness & Vulnerabilities.” His participation in the first, international telemedicine-base

Sonia began her career as a dietitian working across range of clinical care areas on Australia and the UK. Sonia has completed humanitarian and development deployments in Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania and Timor Leste. For the last 15 years, she has worked in tertiary education completing teaching and research activities across nutrition and dietetics, humanitarian health and leadership. She currently works as Allied Health Clinical Education Manager and is completing her PhD in Global Health Education and Leadership curriculum development, where she has employed novel implementation of Cultural Historical Activity Theory.

Megan Gauger is a second year medical student at the University of Michigan. Her academic interests include global health, reproductive health, and medical education.

Dr. Flavio Marconi Monteiro serves as Senior Medical Educator in the Office of Educational Development at the UTMB John Sealy School of Medicine. He has significant experience in medical education in areas such as faculty development, curriculum design, program evaluation, and assessment. His work in faculty development includes extensive experience with international faculty development efforts. From 2000 – 2015, he directed and served as instructor in a faculty development fellowship for family physicians from Spanish speaking countries (Latin America and Spain); conducted medical education short-term courses in Argentina (2002 and 2004), El Salvador (2002 and 2005), Kenya (2010), and Peru (2012); and in the past two years has participated in the planning and implementation of health professions education faculty development efforts for health professions faculty and researchers from Egypt at UTMB-Galveston (2023) and at Badya University in Cairo (2024).

Carter Magnano is a compassionate and well-rounded student dedicated to making a positive impact in his community. As valedictorian of Ponte Vedra High School (PVHS), he leads with excellence both academically and in service. Carter serves as Co-President of the PVHS National Honor Society and Vice President of his class, demonstrating his commitment to leadership and collaboration. Carter is a co-founder and Co-President of JaxTHRIVE, a mentoring program that supports refugee youth, as well as the founder of SmartART, an art appreciation initiative for children at the St. Augustine Homeless Coalition. As an Ambassador for OneJax Metrotown, a teen diversity education program, Carter actively promotes interracial, interreligious, and intercultural dialogue. His dedication to service has earned him The President’s Volunteer Service Award for two consecutive years. In addition to his leadership roles, Carter is a published author. His book, New Beginnings: Refugee Children's Tales of Hope and Resilience, highlights stories of courage and is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Kofi A. Kondwani, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine, at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) in Atlanta Georgia, USA. Dr. Kondwani received his BS, MS, and Ph.D. in psychophysiology from Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa. Dr. Kondwani developed Consciously Resting Meditation (CRM), a simple, natural, mental technique to treat and prevent the effects of stress on the mind, body, and behavior. Dr. Kondwani is currently the Principal Investigator of a NIH, Fogarty Global Health LAUNCH Consortium that includes MSM, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Johns Hopkins University, and Tulane University. This collaborative has developed year-long active research mentoring sites for US medical students, post-doctorates, residents, and students from developing countries. This consortium is working in 22 countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. Dr. Kondwani also served as the Principal Investigator of a five-year President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This grant supported the collaboration between the University of Ghana, School of Public Health, the Ghana AIDS Commission, and MSM. The purpose of the collaborative was to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of HIV/AIDS in Ghana. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Kondwani has collaborated with PROMETRA International, headquartered in Dakar Senegal. PROMETRA International exist to preserve African medicine, culture, and the indigenous sciences. With Dr. Kondwani’s involvement, MSM has maintained a Memorandum of Understanding that allows for collaborative investigations. Currently, the Andrew Young Foundation, MSM, and PROMETRA International are investigating the use of herbal proteins to treat viral diseases that can improve health equity in vulnerable populations.

Dedicated to strengthening human capacity to improve health outcomes in low-resourced settings, Dr. Martin serves as the Assistant Dean of Global Health Education, the Associate Director for Education and Training at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) and as Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy in the Vanderbilt School of Medicine. In these capacities, she is responsible for curricular and academic program development in global health at Vanderbilt and abroad. Dr. Martin also serve as Associate Vice President for Global Initiatives at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center to develop and expand VUMC's international institutional initiatives. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of health, public policy, and education with a particular focus on agenda-setting and public finance.

Dr. Christiana Russ is a pediatric hospitalist, Medical Director of the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), and Director of Education for the BCH Global Health Program. She trained in medicine at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, and in pediatrics at the Boston Combined Residency Program. Following residency she completed the Harvard Rabkin Fellowship in Medical Education and a Diploma of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Russ aims to advance pediatric care domestically and in global health through improving pediatric education. She collaborates with interprofessional and multidisciplinary stakeholders to improve capacity development projects and partnerships in low and middle income countries or with underserved populations. She led a study with the International Pediatric Association (IPA) to describe gaps in the current global pediatric workforce and training, and a mixed methods study comparing written pediatric training accreditation protocols across 19 countries. She led a US-China commission assessing pediatric workforce and training in light of child health outcomes in both countries. She founded and leads the Global Health Pathway and Academy at the Boston Combined Residency Program, and collaborates with the Association of Pediatric Program Directors and other organizations to improve global pediatric education in residency and fellowship training. Her clinical interest is in intermediate care units and providing care to children with intensive nursing needs due to acute or chronic conditions.

Prof. Tsinuel Girma Nigatu, a pediatrician with over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, research and medical education, has an impressive background. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Jimma University, a Certificate of Specialty in Pediatrics from Addis Ababa University and a Ph.D. in Pediatrics and International Nutrition from the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. After completing his medical degree, he began working at the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Jimma University, where he held various academic and administrative positions. One of his notable accomplishments was serving as the Medical Director of Jimma University Specialized Hospital.

Dr. Nigatu is recognized for his research and leadership in improving the management of acute malnutrition in children. He established the Nutrition Rehabilitation Unit at JUSH and led the implementation of an outpatient treatment program in Jimma Zone, which was integrated with routine primary health care services. These initiatives have informed the redesign of nutrition programs in Ethiopia.

Dr. Nigatu is also known for his contribution to research capacity development for nutrition and health in Ethiopia. He is the founder and Principal Investigator of the Clinical and Nutrition Research Centre (JUCAN) at Jimma University, which has been instrumental in evidence generation, Ph.D. training, and improving research infrastructure for conducting high-caliber research in priority areas. It has also fostered an academic research culture, attracting and enabling collaborations with local and international institutions and researchers.

Dr. Nigatu is currently the Director of Fenot-Harvard, an Ethiopia-based project that offers high-level technical support to the Ethiopian Ministry of Health and Regional Health Bureaus to improve evidence-informed decision-making and healthcare financing functions. He serves as a member of several national and international working technical and advisory groups. He holds positions as a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in the USA and a visiting Professor of Pediatrics and Nutrition at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise, and Sports at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Honorary Professor of Public Health at Addis Continental Institute of Public Health and Honorary Professor of Pediatrics at Jimma and Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia. He is a member of the Ethiopian Pediatrics Society, the Ethiopian Public Health Association and the DOHaD Society. He has published extensively. 

Prof. Mirkuzie Woldie is a well-published health policy and systems researcher, educator, and health policy advisor with about 20 years of experience. He is a Professor of Health Systems Management at Jimma University. He has experience serving as a lead and co-investigator in several health policy and systems research projects. Prof. Mirkuzie has a strong base and expertise in promoting research evidence generation, synthesis, and knowledge translation to enhance the use of the best available evidence for policy and practice. He is currently Deputy Director for Evidence to Policy for the Fenot Project of Harvard University. He also works as the Health Policy and Systems Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Health-Ethiopia.

Mr. Kora Tushune Mr. Kora Tushune was born and lives in Ethiopia. Currently, he is serving as the State Minister of Higher Education Development in the Ministry of Education of Ethiopia. He is an associate professor of health economics and policy in the Health Economics and Policy Department of Jimma University Institute of Health. Besides his academic and leadership roles, he has coordinated a number of collaborative projects including VLIR-supported IUC and NETWORK programs at the University. He is also active in several institutional and community development projects implemented in partnership with different institutions and donors. Currently, Kora is the country coordinator of the VLIR-UOS Network Program Ethiopia (UCBHE) and International Center of Excellence for Malaria Research ICEMR), and has served as a PI for many collaborative research projects. He is a PhD candidate supported by the VLIR-UOS Network program researching the performance of the Health Extension Program of Ethiopia. He followed a master’s degree program in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in 1997 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in management from Addis Ababa University in 1987. As part of his academic career, he has taught many courses including health economics, health service management, health care administration, and health policy in undergraduate and graduate programs at Jimma University. He is actively engaged in research and scholarly works in broad areas of interest ranging from health systems to HIV/AIDS and malaria. He started his career in the former Jimma Institute of Health Sciences (JIHS), the forerunner of the present Jimma University, and served in various capacities in administrative positions including deputy registrar, head of human resources division, head of administration and finance services, and vice dean for administration. Alongside his academic and leadership roles, he also served as chairperson and member of many governing boards.

In a distinguished academic career, Esayas Alemayehu obtained a Ph.D. degree (Dr.-Ing) with highest distinction, magna cum laude, in Environmental Engineering from Rostock University, Germany in 10th Nov, 2010, following a MSc degree in Sanitary Engineering & M.Eng. in Water Supply from International Institute of Hydraulic & Environmental Engineering (IHE), The Netherlands in 16th April 2003 and a BSc degree in Environmental Health Sciences from Jimma University (JU), Ethiopia in 3rd March 1999. Prof., Dr.-Ing Esayas Alemayehu (born in Harar (Ethiopia; on June 20, 1973) joined Jimma institute of Technology (JiT) in 2011 and was named a Full Professor in Water and Environmental Engineering in 2016. Esayas continued with JiT Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering (FCEE), where he became Scientific vice Director of the institute (2011-2018). Furthermore, Esayas worked at Department of Environmental Health Sciences & Technology, JU (1993-2010) before joining the JiT. Currently he is a Full Professor and Senior Researcher at Jimma University, JiT, FCEE, and Department of Water Supply & Environmental Engineering. He has also serving as Adjunct Professor of Africa Centre of Excellence for Water Management (ACEWM) at Addis Ababa University. Moreover, he has serving as Guest Professor, Senior Consultant, Research Reviewer and Editorial Board Member at various national and international institutions. Adding to that, Professor Alemayehu has been collaborating with prominent scientists from world-renowned Universities and Research Institutes He has also acquired numerous research grants from various organizations. Professor Alemayehu published extensively during the course of academic carriers including 190 scientific papers (https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=x17teeMAAAAJ&view_op=list_works) pertinent to his field of work. Additionally, he is the mastermind and innovator of JU’s brand Educational Philosophy (Community Based Education) that make higher education institutes (HEIs) relevant to the local, national and global needs.

Dr. Abdulhalik Workicho Bushra is an experienced evidence-to-policy expert and researcher with a robust academic and professional background in public health. Based in Addis Ababa, Dr. Abdulhalik serves as the Evidence to Policy Specialist for the Fenot project, a collaborative project between Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Ministry of Health, Ethiopia. He brings several years of teaching and research experience in various areas of public health importance, including but not limited to Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, and Communicable Diseases. In his work at Fenot, Dr. Abdulhalik supports the evidence to policy activities at the Maternal Child and Adolescent Health Lead Executive Office of the Ministry of Health. He coordinates and works with the Research Advisory Council (RAC) to build the culture of evidence-informed decision-making. He also supports research projects conducted by Fenot in formulating questions, data collection, research analysis, publication, and knowledge translation. Before joining Fenot, Dr. Abdulhalik worked with Tufts University, Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy as a research manager for a multisectoral nutrition and WASH project in Ethiopia. He also served as innovation lead at HaSET Maternal and Child Health Research Program and assistant professor of Epidemiology at Jimma University in Ethiopia. Since recently, his work focuses on health systems strengthening, evidence-based policymaking, and addressing inequities in healthcare delivery. Dr. Abdulhalik holds advanced degrees in public health, complemented by extensive fieldwork in Ethiopia, where he has led studies on health service accessibility, maternal and child health, and disease prevention. By bridging research and practice, Dr. Abdulhalik strives to contibute to the designing of innovative health interventions and the establishment of resilient healthcare systems, with a particular focus on maternal child and adolescent health programs. Dr. Abdulhalik envisions leveraging his expertise to align local health advancements with global health initiatives. He is deeply committed to fostering a safe, sustainable environment for all by addressing social determinants of health, advocating for equity, and promoting climate-resilient health systems. Through collaboration with global stakeholders, Dr. Abdulhalik aims to create transformative solutions that prioritize health equity and environmental sustainability on a global scale.

Paige Alexander serves as chief executive officer of The Carter Center, a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to advance peace and health worldwide. Alexander joined the Center in 2020 at a pivotal time for the organization and the country. In her first year, Alexander led the organization through the COVID-19 pandemic and a period of national social upheaval, while envisioning a path forward for The Carter Center as it transitioned from an organization that was founder-led to one that is guided by its founders’ principles. Since that time, Alexander has strengthened the Center’s core peace and health programs and led the organization in new directions, including adding programs to address: the global mental health crisis; political polarization in the US; and the impact of climate change on global peace and public health. During her tenure as CEO, Alexander has provided thought leadership on issues related to peace, health, and the nexus of the two, authoring essays and op-eds that have appeared in Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, and CNN, and appearing on the BBC, National Public Radio, NBC, and other major outlets. In 2023, Alexander presented a TEDWomen talk on the close connection between human rights and access to information. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Atlanta Business Chronicle “Most Admired CEO" and Georgia Trend Magazine’s “100 Most Influential Leaders.” Before joining The Carter Center, Alexander had a distinguished global development career, with more than two decades of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors. She held Senate-confirmed senior leadership positions at two regional bureaus of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), covering missions and development programs in 25 countries. Between 1993 and 2001, Alexander was USAID’s deputy for the Europe region, focusing on immediate post-conflict reconstruction in the Balkans. After leaving for 10 years to work in a leadership role in the nonprofit sector, Alexander returned to USAID in 2011 as a Presidential appointee to be the assistant administrator for Europe and Eurasia; in 2015, she was again Senate-confirmed to lead the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Bureau, overseeing 1,000 employees, programs in 12 countries, and more than $1.4 billion in annual funding. Between her assignments with USAID, Alexander was senior vice president and European founder/president of IREX, an international civil society, democracy, and education nonprofit organization. From 2017 until her appointment to The Carter Center, she served as executive director of the European Cooperative for Rural Development (EUCORD) in Brussels and Amsterdam, working to bring market-led solutions to marginalized farmers in Africa to improve the livelihoods of families and communities sustainably. Earlier, Alexander was associate director of Project Liberty at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a consultant to institutions including the C.S. Mott Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Open Society Institute in Prague. Alexander currently serves on the boards of the Romanian American Foundation, the World Affairs Council of Atlanta, and the Free Russia Foundation, and as an advisory board member of several human rights organizations.

Dr. Martin is a physician who, since September 2012, has served as the founding Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH). Between 1993-2011, Dr. Martin served as a Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons. He held portfolios in foreign affairs, health, the environment, defense  and international development. He has been on many diplomatic missions in areas in crisis around the world but particularly across Africa and worked as a physician on the Mozambique border during their civil war. He has spent many years volunteering on conservation efforts in  South Africa and is a member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.

Prof. Peter Berman (M.Sc, Ph.D) is a health economist with almost fifty years of experience in research, policy analysis and development, and training and education in global health. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia where he had previously been Professor and Director from 2019-21. He is also Adjunct Professor of Global Health at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health where he was on faculty for several decades, lastly as

Professor until 2019. He was the founding faculty director of Harvard Chan’s Doctor of Public Health degree and HSPH’s International Health Systems Program. 

He is also currently affliated as Adjunct Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in New Delhi, India.

Recent research has focused on factors affecting government decision-making in response to public health crises. Much of this work appears in Effective Pandemic Response: Linking

Evidence, Intervention, Politics, Organization, and Governance -- A World Scientific Publications Reference Set (3 Volumes), 2024, and related journal publications. 

Other noteworthy publications include Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity (Roberts, et al, Oxford University Press, 3 rd edition, 2018), Tracking

Resources for Primary Health Care: A Framework and Practices in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Berman and Wang eds., World Scientific, 2020); co-editor of the Guide to the Production of National Health Accounts (World Bank, World Health Organization, and USAID,

2003), and co-editor of Berman and Khan, Paying for India’s Health Care (Sage, 1993).

Susan Michaels-Strasser, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN Senior Director, Human Resources for Health (HRH) Development Dr. Strasser is a public health professional with over 25 years of experience in nursing and public health. She is the senior director for Human Resources for Health (HRH) Development, providing leadership, guidance and direction for the development, implementation, and assessment of programs to develop human resources for health across ICAP’s portfolio of programs. This work focuses on improving acute and chronic health care as well as management and mitigation of disease outbreaks. She is the Principal Investigator for CDC, Global Fund, GAVI, Tow Foundation and Resolve to Save Lives funded programs in South Africa, South Sudan, Sierra Leone and Zambia. She has served at senior management and training levels at various locations throughout Southern Africa. Her areas of expertise include pediatric care and support, nurse training, and use of point of care diagnostics. She is a pediatric nurse practitioner, a member of the Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society for Nurses, a member of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Strasser holds a MPH and MSc in nursing from Yale University and a PhD in public health from the University of Cape Town.

Sofia Gruskin directs the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH). She is a Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Law , Professor of Preventive Medicine and Chief of the Disease Prevention, Policy and Global Health Division at the Keck School of Medicine; Professor of Law and Preventive Medicine at the Gould School of Law; and an affiliate faculty member with the Spatial Sciences Institute at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Within USC, she is highly engaged in university service, including serving as a member of the USC Academic Senate Executive Board, and primary convener of the USC Law & Global Health Collaboration. Gruskin was awarded USC’s highest academic honor, a Distinguished Professorship, in March 2024.Gruskin currently sits on numerous international boards and committees, including the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board; the Lancet Commission on Gender and Global Health; the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Population Registers, Ethics and Human Rights; and the Lancet Commission on Health and Human Rights. Professor Gruskin has published extensively, including several books, training manuals and edited journal volumes, and more than 200 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics. She is an associate editor for Global Public Health, on the editorial advisory board for Revue Internationale des Études du Développement, and a trustee of Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters. Previously, she served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health and editor-in-chief for Health and Human Rights, both for over a decade.A pioneer in bringing together multidisciplinary approaches to global health, Gruskin’s work — which ranges from global policy to the grassroots level — has been instrumental in developing the conceptual, methodological and empirical links between health and human rights. With a long-standing focus on HIV, sexual and reproductive health, child and adolescent health, gender-based violence, non-communicable disease, and health systems, Gruskin’s work also seeks to address the manifestations of inequalities in a range of new areas, including sustainability, climate change, and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 and other emerging pandemics.

Nelson Sewankambo MBChB, MSc, M.MED, FRCP, LLD (HC) is a Professor Emeritus and a former President of Makerere Medical School, Uganda and a past Principal Makerere University College of Health Sciences. He facilitated the establishment of many collaborations between Makerere University and institutions in both high and low or middle-income countries. He was a member of the research team that for the first time identified and documented the existence of HIV in Uganda in early 80’s (Lancet, 1985). He is one of the founders of the internationally reknown Rakai Health Sciences Program (RHSP), initially known as the Rakai Project which has a longitudinal population Rakai HIV Community Cohort Services (RCCS) for the last 35 years. RHSP has generated research evidence used in global (WHO), regional and national HIV prevention and management policies. He is one of the founders of the world famous 20-year old Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) at Makerere University. IDI has very strong HIV prevention, research, management and care programmes for the last 20 years. He was a founder and is a scientific adviser (20+ years) of the Makerere-University Walter Reed Research Institute (MUWRP) and a founding member and Board Chair of the Makerere Joint AIDS Program (MJAP) in Uganda. He has focused on epidemiological and interventional HIV/AIDS research and also contributed to building indigenous research capacity to conduct quality research relevant to the country, region and globally.

Hilke Schellmann is an Emmy-award-winning journalism professor at New York University and a freelance reporter holding artificial intelligence accountable. Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The New York Times, and MIT Technology Review, among others. She is currently writing a book on artificial intelligence and the future of work for Hachette.

Dr. Kilmarx is deputy director of the Fogarty International Center. He joined Fogarty on July 1, 2015; he was acting director of the Fogarty International Center and acting associate director for international research at the National Institutes of Health from January 2023 to May 2024.

Dr. Kilmarx is an expert on infectious disease research and HIV/AIDS prevention. During his tenure at Fogarty he has led analysis of NIH global health activities, built coalitions with high-level NIH and external stakeholders, and represented the Center and NIH in national and international forums. He co-lead an initiative to transform African health professional education and research as well as the African Postdoctoral Training Initiative (APTI), which brings African postdoctoral fellows to NIH. He has also focused on efforts to increase equity in global health research, build global capacity for pandemic preparedness , and expand research training opportunities for people from groups that have been underrepresented as both health research practitioners and participants. Dr. Kilmarx has also concentrated on using data and metrics to increase impact and equity in capacity strengthening. He has co-authored papers using data to track equity through authorship and metrics to measure national health research capacity .

He previously served as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Country Director in Zimbabwe, providing oversight for 30 CDC staff who managed implementation of the U.S. efforts to reduce HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. A retired Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in the U.S. Public Health Service, Dr. Kilmarx served as the CDC Ebola response team leader in Sierra Leone in September-October 2014, and as principal deputy team leader in Guinea in January-February 2015. Previously, he initiated the CDC response to the Ebola outbreak in Kasai Occidental, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in 2007, and led household surveillance in the Ebola outbreak in Kikwit, DRC, in 1995.

Dr. Kilmarx held a variety of leadership positions at the CDC, including senior advisor to the Director for Health Reform and chief of the Epidemiology Branch—both in the Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention. He also served as director of the CDC partnership with Botswana to combat HIV/AIDS, TB and related conditions, as well as the chief of the CDC's Sexual Transmission Research Section in Thailand. Previously, he completed assignments in Pakistan and the DRC. An experienced clinical trials manager, he has served as principal investigator on microbicide trials in Thailand, as senior investigator on TB and HIV trials in Botswana, and as principal investigator on HIV studies he initiated at public health facilities in Zimbabwe.

After earning his M.D. from Dartmouth-Brown's Combined Program in Medicine, Dr. Kilmarx completed both his internal medicine residency and infectious disease clinical fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore. He is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and serves on the editorial board of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. He began his international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in the DRC (then Zaire), where he helped develop fisheries that are still productive today.

Dr. Kilmarx has received numerous awards including the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Distinguished Service Medal for a distinguished USPHS career responding to HIV/AIDS and other infectious disease threats and building health research capacity worldwide, and the USPHS Presidential Unit Citation, for “extraordinary courage and the highest level of performance in action throughout the United States Government's response to the Ebola outbreak."

Anant Madabhushi, PhD, holds a primary faculty appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and secondary appointments in the Departments of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Biomedical Informatics (BMI) and Pathology. Dr. Madabhushi serves as executive director for the Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute.

Prior to joining Emory, Dr. Madabhushi was at Case Western Reserve University, where he was the director of the Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics and Donnell Institute Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering. He was also a research health scientist at the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Administration Medical Center.

In 2021, he was honored as one of Crain's Cleveland Business Notable Entrepreneurs of the year and also was conferred a Faculty Distinguished Research Award by Case Western Reserve University. His work on using AI for addressing health disparities, especially in identifying differences in appearance of prostate cancer between Black and white men, received national attention in 2020.

Dr. Madabhushi is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. In 2017, he received the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society award for technical achievements in computational imaging and digital pathology.

Dr. Shamim Nabuuma: A Multifaceted Leader Bridging the Digital Divide in African Healthcare Transforming Rural Healthcare Access with AI and Telemedicine Dr. Shamim Nabuuma, a Ugandan medical doctor with a master's degree in digital health, is a remarkable innovator and social entrepreneur at the forefront of tackling critical healthcare issues in Africa, particularly for rural and marginalized populations. Her work emphasizes bridging the digital divide to ensure equitable access to comprehensive healthcare services. A)Focus on Rural Healthcare Delivery: Dr. Shamim's organizations directly address the challenges faced by rural communities. Chil Femtech Center, established as Chil Artificial Intelligence Lab, utilizes cutting-edge technology to deliver accessible healthcare solutions. Hub-and-Spoke Model for Expanded Care: Expanding beyond its initial focus on early detection of cervical and breast cancer, Chil Femtech Center now offers a broader range of telemedicine services through its huband- spoke model. This model connects rural clinics with specialists in urban centers. Patients can receive consultations and diagnoses for various health concerns, all from the comfort of their local clinic. B)Empowering Marginalized Groups: Solerchil Technologies, co-founded by Dr. Shamim, tackles food insecurity,another major health concern in rural areas, by providing solar-powered cold rooms for rent to farmers. This empowers these communities to reduce food spoilage, increase profits, and improve overall health outcomes. C). Dr. Shamim's leadership extends beyond Enterpreuership . She serves on the global stage as Africa's representative on the Commonwealth Youth Council Executive Committee, fostering connections between young African entrepreneurs and potential investors. D)Award-Winning Recognition: Dr. Shamim's dedication has been recognized through numerous prestigious awards, including the Takeda Young Entrepreneur Award, the Young African Entrepreneur Award (both in 2018), and the highly coveted Forbes Woman Africa Youth Icon Award in 2023. Adding to this impressive list, she was selected as one of the inaugural class of Bloomberg New Economy Catalysts in 2021. This recognition highlights her work's potential to create a more equitable and sustainable future. A Beacon of Inspiration: Dr. Shamim Nabuuma's story is one of exceptional innovation, social responsibility, and unwavering commitment to empowering rural and marginalized communities across Africa. Her unique blend of medical expertise, digital health knowledge, and a passion for social impact positions her as a transformative leader and an inspiration for aspiring healthcare entrepreneurs worldwide.

Olakunle (Kunle) Alonge, MD PhD MPH is a professor of global health and implementation science and the Director of the Sparkman Center for Global Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA. He leads global public health education, research, and practice in partnership with academic institutions, governments, and NGOs in different countries to achieve health equity and address solutions to health problems affecting vulnerable populations in resource-limited settings globally. He uses multiple methods, including quantitative, qualitative and system science approaches to study and facilitate effective implementation of global health programs and achieve population-level impact across diverse low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). His teaching and research focus on advancing the field of implementation research and applying its methods to improve the implementation of global health initiatives and health system strengthening strategies for addressing maternal and child health, communicable and non-communicable diseases, injuries, and mental health conditions. Dr. Alonge is a member of CUGH Executive Board of Directors.