Lancet Commissioners

Dr. Natalia Kanem

Commission co-chair

Dr. Natalia Kanem is the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health and rights agency. Appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in 2017, Dr. Kanem has more than 30 yearsof strategic leadership experience in the fields of preventive medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy. She started her research career in academia with the Johns Hopkins and Columbia University schools of medicine and public health. Dr. Kanem joined UNFPA in 2014 as the Country Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania and in 2016 was named Deputy Executive Director in charge of programmes. Previously Dr. Kanem
served as founding president of ELMA Philanthropies, Inc., a private funding institution focusing on Africa’s children and youth, and as a senior associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.
As a Ford Foundation officer from 1992 to 2004, she helped pioneer work in women’s reproductive health and human rights in West Africa, and subsequently served at the Foundation’s headquarters in New York as Deputy Vice-President for its peace and social justice programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America.
Dr. Kanem holds a medical degree from Columbia University in New York, and a Master’s degree in Public Health with specializations in epidemiology and preventive medicine from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University in history and science.
Listed on the 2019 Gender Equality Top 100, Dr. Kanem is recognized for her leadership in advocating for rights and choices for women and girls and as one of the most influential people in formulating global policy on sexual and reproductive health and rights in the Sustainable Development Goals era.
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health and rights agency, which aims to end the unmet need for contraception, end preventable deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, and end gender-based violence and harmful practices in all forms, including an end to child marriage and female genital mutilation.
Dr. Kanem is the fifth Executive Director of UNFPA since the Fund became operational in 1969.

Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray

Commission co-chair

Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray is Chair of Health Metrics Sciences at the University of Washington and Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). His career has focused on improving population health worldwide through better evidence. A physician and health economist, his work has led to the development of innovative methods to strengthen health measurement, analyze the performance of health systems, understand the drivers of health, and produce forecasts of the future state of health.

He has led critical analyses during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand its impact on health systems and the population as a whole, and the effectiveness of policy interventions to mitigate it. The White House, European Commission, many governments, and organizations such as WHO EURO, PAHO, and Africa CDC use IHME COVID-19 forecasts and policy scenarios as a trusted source of evidence. Dr. Murray also leads the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) collaboration, a systematic effort to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and geography over time. The GBD is now a network of 7,700 scientists and decision-makers from 156 countries who together generate annually updated estimates. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) and the 2018 co-recipient of the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award.

Mr. Shameran Abed

Shameran Abed is the Executive Director of BRAC International. 

Shameran joined BRAC Bangladesh in 2009 and BRAC International in 2012, and has been instrumental in bringing BRAC’s flagship programmes of microfinance and ultra-poor graduation to global scale. Under his leadership, BRAC International’s microfinance portfolio has seen impressive growth and a renewed focus on client impact. Since 2016, Shameran has also led BRAC’s ultra-poor graduation work and played an instrumental role in setting up the UPGI to spearhead global advocacy and provide technical assistance to governments and other organisations. 

Shameran has significant Board experience on several non-profit and corporate entities, chairing the board of bKash, BRAC Bank’s mobile financial services subsidiary and one of the world’s largest mobile money providers, and serving on the boards of several institutions including BRAC Bank and BRAC Uganda Bank. 

Shameran holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from Hamilton College in the United States and is a qualified Barrister in the UK. 

Professor Ibrahim Abubakar

Ibrahim Abubakar, FMedSci, is the Dean of the UCL Faculty of Population Health Sciences and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. He is a UK National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator, Chair, Lancet Migration and of the NIHR Global Health Professorship Committee. He is a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board. Previous recent roles include Director, UCL Institute for Global Health; Scientific Adviser to the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee – Science of COVID-19 Review; Scientific and Technical Adviser to the Nigerian Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19 and was chair of the main WHO TB advisory group STAG TB. Over the last 3 decades his career has spanned leadership roles in clinical, academic and public service work. He led the UCL Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and was a senior investigator at the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit.  

Prior to his appointment at UCL, he was head of TB at Public Health England where he led the UK government’s successful strategy to control TB and was Professor in Health Protection at the Norwich Medical School, Norwich, UK. He qualified in medicine in 1992 and initially trained in internal medicine. He undertook postgraduate public health training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London and Edinburgh, the UK Faculty of Public Health and the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.  

He chairs expert and policy advisory groups for the UK National Institute for Health Research, World Health Organization, Wellcome Trust and other international bodies and has provided technical support to countries in Africa, Europe and North America. He has an established research programme in infectious diseases and global health and has published over 350 research papers, policy reports, book chapters and textbooks in infectious disease epidemiology and migrant health. 

Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa

Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa is the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC). Dr. Adetifa is a paediatrician and epidemiologist whose work has covered areas of paediatric HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and vaccine-preventable diseases epidemiology. He has focused on vaccine epidemiology research with a focus on evidence generation for vaccine policy in Africa through vaccine impact studies and seroepidemiology. He has been involved in the COVID-19 response through his activities as a member of the Kenya SARSCOV-2 Serology Consortium. and is a member of the World Health Organization, African Region (WHO-AFRO) Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group, the WHO Respiratory Syncytial Virus Technical Advisory Group, and the Programme Advisory Group for the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme. He is an Associate Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
(LSHTM) and Clinical Epidemiologist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) – Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) and prior, a Clinical Epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council Unit, The Gambia.

Dr. Samira Asma

Dr Samira Asma is the Assistant Director-General for Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact at the World Health Organization (WHO), where she ensures that health data is reliable and accessible, and is used to improve health outcomes worldwide. She leads WHO’s efforts to track and accelerate progress towards the Triple Billion targets and the health-related Sustainable Development Goals as well co-leading the game-changing Universal Health Preparedness Review. Dr Asma also oversees initiatives that support countries to deliver a measurable impact, including improving data quality, timeliness, and accessibility. 

Before joining WHO in 2018, Dr Asma held leadership positions at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for over two decades. During her tenure at the CDC, she established global health programmes, launched a worldwide initiative to reduce heart attacks and strokes, and led the development of a reliable and sustained surveillance system for tobacco control in 180 countries. 

Dr Asma has authored over 150 publications, books, and policy papers on global health and public health surveillance. She is widely recognized as an expert in preventing leading risk factors that cause premature deaths. Dr Asma holds a Doctorate degree in Dental Surgery, a Master’s in Public Health, and completed the US Federal Executive Leadership Program. 

Dr. Ximena Aguilera

Minister of Health, Chile. Bio forthcoming.

Professor Ilaria Capua, DVM, MS, PhD 

Ilaria Capua is Senior Fellow for Global Health at Johns Hopkins -SAIS Europe. She is also courtesy professor and former Director of the One Health Center of Excellence at the University of Florida. She is an award winning scientist who has worked in veterinary virology for over 30 years directing laboratories of international stature. She has also  served as an elected representative in the Italian Parliament for over three years (2013-2016).  She is a regular columnist for  Italian mainstream press and the author of several books.  

In her career as a virologist she dedicated most of her professional life to avian influenza and other viral infections of animals that can be transmitted to humans. In 2006 she pioneered genetic data sharing to improve pandemic preparedness. As a result of this leadership effort publicly accessible databases were established which now contain millions of Sars Cov-2 sequences. She has authored over 230 publications in peer reviewed journals and several scientific books on avian influenza. She is active in science communication and has published  eleven books for the general public, including for children and teenagers which have been translated in multiple languages. She is a member of the European Academy of Sciences. 

Her research currently  focuses on the concept  of Circular Health , which is a natural  expansion of the One Health concept. Circular Health is  an integrated approach  promoting the health of humans, animals, plants and the environment which recognizes the need for an expanded convergence effort between disciplines.  

Mr. Martin Chungong

Martin Chungong made double history in 2014 by becoming the first African and first non-European to beelected as IPU Secretary General. He was re-elected to a third term of office, which began in July 2022. He has more than four decades of experience and knowledge of parliaments at national and international levels. He has dedicated his professional life to promoting and building democracy worldwide.
After 14 years working in the Cameroonian Parliament, he spent more than 20 distinguished years within the IPU before being elected its Secretary General—the eighth person to hold the position. He had previously served as Deputy Secretary General and Director of Programmes.
He has also built an impressive portfolio in the promotion of dialogue and conflict resolution, issues that remain at the heart of the IPU’s global work. His focus on helping countries emerging from conflict or in transition has been widely acknowledged by the IPU membership and partners globally.
From 2012-2023, Martin Chungong made a push to strengthen parliamentary engagement on sustainable development and accountability. Martin Chungong has been instrumental in strengthening the gender equality agenda within the IPU. He also is spearheading gender parity initiatives promoted by the International Gender Champions, a network of decision-makers, male and female, who have committed to breaking down gender barriers. In 2020, he was elected Chair of the Global Board of the International Gender Champions.
Martin Chungong is highly committed to rejuvenating democracy, its processes and institutions such as parliaments and is driving the IPU’s efforts to bring more young people into parliaments worldwide.
Martin Chungong is also leading IPU’s work to dramatically reduce maternal and child mortality rates through effective legislation and its implementation, as well as ensuring governments’ accountability for international commitments in this area. He sits on the Board of the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child Health. He was also appointed by the UN Secretary-General as one of the global leaders committed to fighting malnutrition through the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement. He also is member of the HighLevel Commission on the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 Follow-up, as well as a Commissioner on the Club de Madrid’s Global Commission on Democracy and Emergencies.
A linguist by training, Martin Chungong speaks English, French and Spanish. He holds degrees from both the University of Yaoundé and the University of Ottawa. He has been made a Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, an honour awarded by what is now known as the International Organisation of La Francophonie to people who have distinguished themselves in the service of its ideals of cooperation and friendship. He has also been made Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du 27 juin, by the Government of the Republic of Djibouti.
In 2018, he was awarded the Friendship Order, an award given by the Government of Viet Nam to
foreigners who contribute towards building and developing friendship between Viet Nam and other countries and institutions.

Dame Sally Davies

Dame Sally Davies was installed as the 40^th Master of Trinity College on 8 October 2019. She joined the College after a distinguished career as a clinical academic and public servant.

Dame Sally graduated from Manchester Medical School in 1972 and became a Consultant Haematologist specializing in sickle cell disease. In 1997 she was appointed as Honorary Professor of Haemoglobinopathies at Imperial College.

Dame Sally was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health from 2004 to 2016. In 2006 she founded the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) and was the Inaugural Director. In 2013 she established and became a Non-Executive Director of Genomics England Ltd. (GEL), which sequenced 100,000 whole genomes of NHS patients.

Dame Sally was the Chief Medical Officer for England and Senior Medical Advisor to the UK Government from 2011 to 2019. She authorised 11 independent annual reports and three special reports: Medical Cannabis, Screen Times for Children, and Obesity in Childhood.

She has become a leading figure in global health, including serving as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board (2014–2016) and as co-convener of the United Nations Interagency Coordination Group (IACG) on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) reporting in 2019. 

She has championed the need to address AMR across all sections: human and animal health, agriculture and environment, within the UN family and globally. In 2019 Dame Sally was appointed as the UK Government’s Special Envoy for Global AMR.

Dame Sally received her DBE in 2009. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and a member of the National Academy of Medicine, USA, in 2015. She has been awarded more than 30 honorary doctorate degrees.

Dr. Senait Fisseha  

Professor Senait Fisseha is a globally recognized leader in reproductive health & rights. An attorney and a physician, her ability to bring the advocacy, practitioner, and policymaking communities together has fundamentally shifted global conversations around access to reproductive and maternal health services.   

She currently serves as the Vise President of Global Programs at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, as well as Chief Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization. An Obstetrician and Gynecologist specialist, previously Prof Fisseha was Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the University of Michigan, Medical Director of University of Michigan’s Center for Reproductive Medicine and founding Executive Director of the Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT). She also co-directed the Medical School’s Path of Excellence in Global Health & Disparities.  

She was included in the 100 Most Influential Africans for 2018 by New African magazine and the 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy (2019) and top forty most forward-thinking women (2020) by Athena40. She has also received the Ethiopian Ministry of Health’s highest award; University of Michigan’s Bicentennial Alumni Award; the 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from Southern Illinois University School of Medicine; and the 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award from Southern Illinois University.  

Dr. Julio Frenk

Julio Frenk has been president of the University of Miami since August of 2015. He also holds academic appointments as Professor of Public Health Sciences at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, Professor of Health Sector Management and Policy at the Miami Herbert Business School, Professor of Sociology at the College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Health Studies at the School of Nursing and Health Studies. Prior to joining the University of Miami, he served for almost seven years as Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Frenk was appointed Federal Secretary of Health of Mexico in 2000, a position he held for the full presidential term until 2006. In that position he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage called Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured persons.

He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. He also served as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy at the World Health Organization and as senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions. His scholarly production, which includes over 193 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited over 31,000 times. In addition, he has written four best-selling novels for youngsters explaining the functions of the human body. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico, and El Colegio Nacional. Dr. Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a Master of Public Health and a joint Ph.D. in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He has received honorary degrees from 11 universities. 

Dr. Luiz Augusto Galvão

Luiz Augusto (Guto) Galvão is a medical doctor with a master’s degree in public health and a Ph.D. in Collective Health. He is a senior researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation’s Center for Global Health (CRIS/FIOCRUZ), where he is responsible for the area of Environment, Climate, and Global Health. Since 2016, he has been a special advisor to the president of Fiocruz, coordinating a task force on Integral Surveillance for the Pandemic, a Fiocruz-USP task force on Pandemic Treaty and IHR revision, and representing Fiocruz before US Institutions and WHO. He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University.

Previously, he worked for 25 years at the Pan American Health Organization, where he organized and led the areas of sustainable development, health equity, and environmental health. He was also a professor at the National School of Public Health in Brazil, the founding coordinator of the Center for Studies on Occupational Health and Human Ecology Studies (CESTEH/ENSP/FIOCRUZ), and the past president of the Brazilian Society of Toxicology (SBT). He was responsible for drafting documents for global events, including the WHO and PAHO governing bodies, the UN Sustainable Development Summit that adopted the 2030 Agenda in 2015, and the 2015 UNFCCC COP21 that adopted the Paris Agreement.

Professor Jane Halton 

Jane Halton is the Chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the Australian Council on the Ageing. She is co-chair of the COVAX initiative. She is a member of the board of the ANZ, Clayton Utz, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the US  Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation.  Jane is Professor of Health Policy and Health Security at the ANU.  Her 33 career within the Australian public service, included nearly 15 years as Secretary of the Departments of Finance and Health (and Ageing). Previously she was Executive Co-ordinator (Deputy Secretary) of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She has extensive experience in the delivery of the Australian Government budget and the management and performance of Australian Government agencies.   She has also held a number of significant roles in Global Health Governance including chair of the board of WHO and chair of the OECD Health Committee. 

Dr. Richard Horton

Richard Horton is Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet.  He qualified in physiology and medicine with honours from the University of Birmingham in 1986. He joined The Lancet in 1990, moving to New York as North American Editor in 1993. In 2016, he chaired the Expert Group for the High Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, convened by Presidents Hollande of France and Zuma of South Africa. From 2011 to 2015, he was co-chair of the UN’s independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health. In 2011, he was elected a Foreign Associate of the US Institute of Medicine and, in 2015, he received the Friendship Award from the Government of China. In 2019, he was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award for outstanding leadership in global health and the Roux Prize in recognition of innovation in the application of global health evidence.  In 2021, he received the Physicians for Human Rights Award in recognition of extraordinary leadership in advancing health and human rights. He now works to develop the idea of planetary health – the health of human civilizations and the ecosystems on which they depend. In 2020, he published The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What’s Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again. A revised, updated, and expanded second edition was published in 2021. As part of the UK’s 2023 Honours, Dr Horton was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE)  in recognition for services to Health and Medical Journalism. 

Mr. Trevor Houser 

Trevor Houser is a Partner at Rhodium Group in the firm’s Energy & Climate practice. This interdisciplinary group of policy experts, economic analysts, energy modelers, data engineers and climate scientists analyzes the market impact of energy and climate policy and the economic risks of global climate change. Trevor also co-directs the Climate Impact Lab, a collaboration of leading research institutions combining climate, economic and data science to quantify climate risk around the world. Through this partnership, Rhodium provides actionable information to policymakers, investors, academics, non-profit organizations and business leaders alike. Trevor also directs the Climate Policy Fellows program at the City College of New York, his alma mater. During 2009, Trevor left Rhodium temporarily to serve as a senior advisor at the US State Department where he worked on international energy, natural resource and environmental policy issues. From 2009 to 2015 Trevor was a Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. 

Ms. Lorence Kabasele 

Young, dynamic and ambitious Congolese, Lorence is a pure product of the Civil Society of which she masters the wheels and the dynamics as well on the national, regional and international levels. She is very active in defending the rights of adolescents and young people, particularly young girls, to control their bodies and to have access to education, sexual and reproductive health information and services and equal opportunities. This has earned her the trust of her compatriots, as well as her peers in the East and Southern African region, who have entrusted her with the task of national and regional (East and Southern Africa) Chairperson of the African Youth and Adolescent Network on Population and Development (AfriYAN) for more than five years. 

She served as expert in the youth issues in the commission of “education, youth, science, innovation and Technology” at the Panel that was in charge of accompanying the President of the DRC in his responsibilities as Chairperson of the African Union from November 2020 to February 2022. 

She is currently one of four youth leaders out of 29 members of the High-Level Commission on the Nairobi Summit on ICPD25 Follow-up with Princess Mary of Denmark, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, the Former President of the Republic of Tanzania and the 27^th Governor General of Canada Ms Michael Jean and many others. 

Dr. Catherine Kyobutungi

Executive Director, Africa Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). Bio forthcoming

Dr. Hechmi Louzir 

Dr. Hechmi Louzir is Professor of Medicine and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of Tunis-University Tunis El Manar and Director General of the Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunisia.

He is graduated from Tunis medical school, and then followed an internship at Institut Pasteur in Paris. In late 1988 he joined the laboratory of immunology at Institut Pasteur in Tunis and the Faculty of Medicine in Tunis. He developed many research programs on the host pathogen interaction during leishmaniasis and contributed to the development of curricula and teaching of basic and clinical immunology. He is author or coauthor of more than eighty original publications and several patents. He has worked in more than 35 research projects funded by international agencies and directed the research of more than 40 students, including 6 PhD.

Since July 2007, Hechmi Louzir is the Director General of the Institut Pasteur in Tunis. He serves (or served), as member of the scientific council of many International Research Institutes or Organizations. He is also member of the WHO-Eastern Mediterranean Advisory Committee on Health Research. His Institute is actually involved in the COVID-19 crisis and Hechmi Louzir served as key person for the scientific management of COVID-19 crisis in Tunisia, including the operational strategy for vaccination.

Mr. Maziko Matemvu 

Maziko Matemvu is a Malawian global health professional and  youth advocate who works with vulnerable and marginalised young people in communities to advance their health and wellbeing. Maziko is the president and founder of Uwale- a youth-led media group that uses traditional and digital media for education as well as  policy advocacy and change. Additionally,  Maziko serves as the Vice Chairperson of the Adolescent and Youth Constituency at the Partnership in New Born and Child Health (PMNCH) and works as a Health Coordinator for MIET AFRICA. 

Dr. Nicolas Meda

Based in Burkina Faso, Dr Meda is a medical epidemiologist, senior research scientist, trialist, evaluator, innovator, Professor of Public Health, international expert on health and development, particularly, in HIV/AIDS, epidemic-prone diseases, nutrition, and women & children’s health. He established an international reputation in the field of the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV & other viruses through collaboration with various northern academic & research networks and institutions. His research results were instrumental in launching the first PMTCT programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa. He held several high-level positions in his career, including coordinator of French National Agency for AIDS Research (ANRS) activities in Burkina Faso, Director-General of Centre MURAZ, the national health research centre, Health Minister, Special Advisor to Burkina Faso President. He has accumulated more than 30 years’ experience of working in health research, higher education, international consultancy, and senior management interacting with high-profile actors in global health landscape at WHO, UNAIDS, Gates & Buffett Foundations, international NGOs, to name few. He has conducted extensive multicentre international clinical trials funded by ANRS, DFID, EU, EDCTP, the last one was EBOVAC2/JnJ/Janssen vaccine trial against Ebola virus disease, and run several epidemiological studies among vulnerable populations. He is a former member of UNAIDS/WHO Monitoring & Evaluation Reference Group and delivered more than 40 scientific reports from consultancies carried out in different African countries on epidemic-prone diseases surveillance and response, Global Fund health interventions impact assessments, and on effectiveness of institutional health research partnerships. He is the author of more than 300 articles published in international journals, a reviewer and member of editorial boards for a number of different scientific journals, and member of several national and international public health programmes steering committees, scientific review committees and networks.

President Mario Monti 

Mario Monti is Senator for life of the Italian Republic and President of Istituto Javotte Bocconi.  He was Prime Minister of Italy (2011-2013), heading a government of national unity which overcame Italy’s sovereign debt crisis and launched structural reforms.  

Monti had previously served for ten years as Member of the European Commission, in the capacity of Commissioner for the Single Market (1995-1999) and then for Competition (1999-2004).  He has been member of several advisory commissions in Italy (e.g. Monti Commission on banking and financial reform, Italian Treasury, 1982), the UK (Roll Committee, 2003), and France (Attali Commission on economic growth in France, 2007). In 2020-2021 he chaired the WHO Pan-European Commission on Health and Sustainable Development.  

At the EU level, he has been the author of A New Strategy for the Single Market (2010), and the Chairman of the High-level Group created by the European Institutions the Commission that released the report Future Financing of the EU (2017).  

Born in Varese, Italy, in 1943, he graduated from Bocconi and pursued graduate studies at Yale. He was professor of Economics at the Universities of Trento, Torino, and then at Bocconi, where he was Rector between 1989-1994 and President between 1994-2022 (he was on leave while holding public offices). 

Professor Baron Peter Piot

Peter Piot MD PhD is the Handa Professor of Global Health and former Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is Special Advisor on COVID-19 to the President of the European Commission, EU Chief Scientific Advisor on Epidemics and Visiting Professor at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven, and the National University of Singapore. He was the founding Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations. Peter Piot co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, and led pioneering research on HIV, women’s health and infectious diseases.  

He has held positions at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; the University of Nairobi;  Imperial College London; the College de France, and the Gates Foundation. He is a member of the US, UK, Belgian and French National Academies of Medicine, and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.  He is Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Vice-Chair of GHIT Fund, Tokyo, and was a founding Board Member of CEPI. He is a member of the Board of the Novartis Foundation.  In 1995 he was made a Baron in his native Belgium, and in 2016 received a UK Knighthood. His awards include the Canada Gairdner Global Health Award , Robert Koch Gold Medal , Prince Mahidol Award,  Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize , and Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights,  and was a 2014 TIME Person of the Year. He has published over 600 scientific articles and 16 books, including his memoir, No Time to Lose, available in 5 languages. 

Dr. Izukanji Sikazwe 

Izukanji Sikazwe is an infectious disease physician, HIV program expert, and clinical researcher whose work has been funded by the US National Institutes of Health, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Izukanji has over 15 years’ experience working within the public health sector in Zambia establishing and supporting HIV care and treatment programs, for both urban and rural communities. She previously worked as technical advisor for the National ART program at the Zambia Ministry of Health. She is a valued mentor and educator of medical trainees in Zambia, and practiced clinical medicine at the Adult Infectious Disease Centre of Excellence at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka. She is currently the chief executive officer for the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), a local non-profit NGO.

Izukanji graduated with an MBChB degree from the University of Zambia, School of Medicine. She then completed Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Disease fellowship at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore and the University of Maryland, respectively. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from Michigan State University and is a Fellow of the Africa CDC Kofi Annan Global Public Health Leadership Program.

Dr. Camilla  Stoltenberg

Dr. Camilla Stoltenberg is the Director-General of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. She is a medical doctor and epidemiologist, and an adjunct professor at the University of Bergen. Stoltenberg has had and currently holds several positions in national and international boards and networks, mainly on research and public health. More specifically she has focused on developing research infrastructures such as biobanks, population cohorts, and health registries. Main topics in her research have been autism, ADHD, and other neurodevelopmental conditions. In 2017-2019 she chaired a governmental commission on the gender gap in education. Stoltenberg has had a key national role in the Norwegian response to the Covid-19 pandemic since early 2020. She has been particularly engaged in mobilizing and using research as an essential tool in crisis management, and in developing the communication about science, uncertainties, and disagreements during a pandemic.  

Dr. Gunhild Stordalen

Gunhild A. Stordalen is the founder and executive chair of EAT. She is a driving force linking climate, health and sustainability issues across sectors to transform the global food system. In 2020, Dr. Stordalen was appointed the global Action Track 2 lead for the UN Food Systems Summit 2021.

Dr. Stordalen sits on several boards, including the World Economic Forum (WEF) Stewardship Board on Food Systems, REQ Capital Advisory Board, and UNICEF’s Advisory Group. She is a member of the Africa Europe Women Leaders Network and an international advisory board member of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Dr. Stordalen is an ambassador for Friends of Ocean action, sits on the International Leadership Committee for a Net Zero NHS, and is a member of the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (HLP) for the Blue Economy. 

Dr. Stordalen is a published scientist and a renowned public speaker with a distinct personal voice and a passionate commitment to food system transformation. She is a medical doctor from the University of Oslo and holds a PhD in pathology/orthopaedic surgery. Dr. Stordalen is a Norwegian national.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan 

Soumya Swaminathan was most recently WHO’s Chief Scientist and before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes. A pediatrician from India and a globally recognized researcher on tuberculosis and HIV, she brings with her 30 years of experience in clinical care and research and has worked throughout her career to translate research into impactful programmes. Dr Swaminathan was Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research from 2015 to 2017. In that position, she focused on bringing science and evidence into health policy-making, building research capacity in Indian medical schools, and forging south-south partnerships in health sciences. From 2009 to 2011, she also served as Coordinator of the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases in Geneva.  

She received her academic training in India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and has published more than 480 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. She is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Medical Sciences of the UK and a Fellow of all the science academies in India. She has received several honorary doctorates, including from Karolinska institute, EPFL, Lausanne and the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She serves on several national and global advisory bodies and committees. She is an adjunct Professor at Karolinska university in Sweden and Tufts university in Boston, USA.  

As WHO’s inaugural Chief Scientist, Dr Swaminathan built the Science division with a focus on research, quality assurance of norms and standards and digital health. She played a key role during the pandemic in coordinating scientific efforts at the WHO, as well as in setting up Covax, with a focus on equitable vaccine distribution to LMICs.  

Dr. Roberto Tapia

Medical Doctor by the National University of Mexico (UNAM). He has a Master’s Degree in Public Health and Science from Harvard University and Doctorate in Science from UNAM.

In the academic field, he has been a tenured professor at the School of Medicine at UNAM for 45 years; a visiting professor at the University of California at its campus locations in San Francisco, Irvine, and Berkeley, among other national and international universities; a member of Mexico’s National Research System with the highest level (III), the National Academy of Medicine, the Mexican Academy of Sciences, and the Mexican Society of Public Health. Dr. Tapia-Conyer has published more than 300 research articles in national and international peer-reviewed medical journals and approximately 20 chapters in specialized books; he is the author of 7 books on public health topics, including the Public Health Manual official textbook in Public Health programs through the region.

He worked in the Public sector for 25 years at the Ministry of Health, where he reached decision-making positions such as General-Director of Epidemiology (equivalent to US-CDC) from 1991 to 1997, when he designed and implemented today’s Mexico’s epidemiological surveillance system and country’s National Survey System. From 1997 to 2006, he was appointed Vice-Minister of Prevention and Health Promotion, during which he designed and implemented today Mexico’s public health strategies with significant accomplishments positioning Mexico as a global leader in innovative public health programs.

Since 2007 serves as the CEO of the Carlos Slim Foundation in Mexico City, where he has led the design and implementation of a comprehensive portfolio of Digital Health solutions aimed at catalyzing the deployment of innovations that improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of health services through personalized interventions. Roberto Tapia-Conyer coined this vision of Personalized Public Health.

Through this vision, Roberto seeks to re-engineer primary health care by designing, developing, and scaling up integrated data-driven public health models that comprise several innovations. First, implementing hybrid digital platforms with embedded decision support algorithms with outreach to schools, workplaces, and households in urban and remote areas ensuring effective health coverage. Moreover, these analytical platforms include BI and artificial intelligence models to personalize health interventions and provide robust information from local, regional, and national decision-making bodies.

Internationally, he has served as a member of the Technical Advisory Group for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases of the Pan-American Health Organization, a Member of the World Health Organization’s Influenza Global Action Plan Advisory Group; and Chair of WHO’s Technical Advisory Group of the Tuberculosis Program among other appointments.

Professor Teo Yik-Ying 

Professor Teo Yik-Ying is Dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Prior to his Deanship, he was the Founding Director of NUS’ Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR), and Director of its Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research (CIDER). 

A mathematician by training, Prof Teo holds a MSc in Applied Statistics and a DPhil in Statistical Genetics from the University of Oxford, UK.  He returned to Singapore from the UK in 2010 after working for four years concurrently as a Lecturer at Oxford and a researcher at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics. He is presently a member of the Council of Scientists for the International Human Frontier Science Program as well as a governing board member of the Regional Centre for Tropical Medicine and Public Health Network for Southeast Asia. 

Dr. Nísia Trindade Lima 

President, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), Brazil. Bio forthcoming

Dr. Juan Pablo Uribe

Juan Pablo Uribe is the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the
World Bank and Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and
Adolescents (GFF). Previously, from 2018 to 2019, Dr. Uribe served as Minister of
Health and Social Protection of Colombia. Between 2009 and 2011, he was the World
Bank´s Health Sector Manager for East Asia and the Pacific. In his vast career, first as
a medical doctor specialized in public health and public administration, and later in
both public and private leading health sector organizations, Mr. Uribe has
contributed significantly to public health policies, health care delivery and health
systems development.

Professor Dr. Lothar Wieler 

Prof. Lothar H. Wieler is currently president of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, the national Public Health Institute in Germany. He will remain in this function until March 31, 2023. Starting on April 1, he will take on his new role as Speaker of the Digital Health Cluster and Head of the Chair Global Public Health at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute. Prof. Wieler’s research focusses on zoonotic diseases in a One health concept, i.e. infections that are passed between animals and humans, and account for many of the newly (re-)emerging infectious diseases. A particular research interest of Prof. Wieler are the molecular mechanisms, which enable bacterial zoonotic pathogens such as e. coli and s. aureus to infect different hosts, and develop resistance to antibiotics. In his work, Wieler has used genome-based typing methods to identify zoonotic pathogens, which were subsequently analyzed in functional experiments in order to learn more about their evolution and adaption to different habitats. The insights generated from this work can be used to develop new interventions to target pathogenic bacteria.

Wieler has published more than 250 scientific publications and was awarded several scientific prices. He is co-founder of the German national research platform on zoonoses, and deputy spokesperson for the research consortium InfectControl 2020, which pursues intersectoral approaches to preventing and treating infections from a One Health perspective. Within InfectControl 2020, Wieler also heads the IRMRESS and Neobiom networks. IRMRESS researches innovative strategies to fight mult-drug resistant bacteria and aims to use next generation sequencing techniques to establish a molecular surveillance system. Neobiom identifies factors that change the microbiome, resistome and mykobiome of premature babies. Prof. Wieler is also a member of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards (STAG-IH) of the World Health Organisation, the scientific advisory board of the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) and the WHO Europe Advisory Committee on Health Research (EACHR). Since 2010, he is also an elected member of the German National Academy of Sciences, where he also holds the position of a senator. In 2020 he was nominated to the member board of the One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, launched by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2021 Wieler has been awarded multiple honorary Doctors of Veterinary Medicine (Dr. med. vet. h.c. mult.), one by the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Zurich, the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover and the Veterinary Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. He was also named an AVES Honorary Diplomate by the American Veterinary Epidemiology Society in 2021. As an honorary professor with teaching responsibility, he continues to be associated with the Institute of Microbiology and Epizootics at the Department of Veterinary Medicine at Freie Universität Berlin.

Dr. John Eu-Li Wong

Dr John Eu-Li Wong is the Isabel Chan Professor in Medical Sciences; Executive Director, Centre for Population Health at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Senior Advisor, National University Health System (NUHS) Singapore. 

A medical oncologist-haematologist, Professor Wong obtained his medical degree from NUS and did his residency both in Singapore and the United States, along with his fellowship at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where he was the Chief Resident in Medicine, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. 

He has previously served as Senior Vice President (Health Innovation and Translation), NUS, Chief Executive of NUHS Singapore; Director of the National University Cancer Institute, Singapore; Chairman, Medical Board, NUH; Dean, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS; Vice President (Life Sciences) and Vice Provost (Academic Medicine), NUS. He has also served as Chairman, Board of Directors, Health Sciences Authority, Singapore and served on the Singapore Medical Council. 

He is Co-Chair of the US National Academy of Medicine Commission for a Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity; an invited Commissioner of the Lancet Commission on 21st Century Global Health Threats, a member of the Advisory Committee for Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, The Culinary Institute of America, and the Association Montessori Internationale on Healthy Aging, Diet and Lifestyle; a Council Member, M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers where he was Past President of the World Health Summit in 2013; a founding Member of the Association of Academic Health Centers – International;  and currently sits on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Board of Governors of Sidra Medicine. 

He received an honorary Degree of Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is an international member of the US National Academy of Medicine, and an elected member of Academia Europaea. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Singapore, the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh and London, and the American College of Physicians

Dr. Anita Zaidi

Anita Zaidi is the president of the foundation’s Gender Equality Division. In this role, Anita oversees the foundation’s efforts to achieve gender equality by integrating gender across the foundation’s global work and investing in women’s economic empowerment, women’s leadership, and removing the barriers for women and girls to thrive. The mission of the Gender Equality Division is a world in which women and girls have equal opportunity. 

Anita joined the foundation in 2014 to lead a team focused on vaccine development for people in the poorest parts of the world, surveillance to identify and address causes of death in children in the most under-served areas, and significantly reducing the adverse consequences of diarrheal and enteric infections on children’s health in low and middle-income countries. She served as the foundation’s director of the Vaccine Development, Surveillance, and Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases programs until November 2022. Through that role, Anita championed innovative work on behalf of low-income women and children, including the creation of the Women Leaders in Global Health program—now called WomenLift Health—to promote diversity in global health leadership. She also worked closely with the foundation’s Maternal Newborn Child Health Discovery & Tools program. 

Previously, Anita was the department chair of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where she worked to reduce child mortality through the prevention and treatment of illness. She obtained her medicCVal degree specializing in pediatric infectious diseases at Aga Khan University, and completed further trainings at Duke University, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. To date, Anita has published more than 200 research papers on vaccine-preventable diseases and newborn infections in resource-limited settings. 

In 2013, Anita became the first recipient of the $1 million Caplow Children’s Prize for her pioneering work bringing health services and wraparound care to mothers and children in poverty-stricken communities in Karachi. She was also nominated as a notable physician of the year in 2014 by Medscape.