Kesete Admasu

CEO, Big Win Philanthropy

Dr Kesetebirhan (Kesete) Admasu is Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropy and former Minister of Health of Ethiopia (2012–2016). He has worked as a public-private partnership team leader, the CEO of a tertiary hospital, and the Director-General of health promotion and disease prevention before assuming his previous position as CEO of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to End Malaria. Dr Kesete has dedicated his career to public service and scientific research focused on major public health problems in Ethiopia and has received numerous national and international awards. A medical doctor by training with a master’s degree in Public Health, he has served in a number of clinical and public health positions.

Arti Ahuja

Additional Secretary and Director-General, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India

Arti Ahuja joined Indian Administrative Service in 1990 after completing her Masters in Economics and LLB. She is Additional Secretary and Director-General (CGHS & NACO) in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India. She has a career spanning more than 30 years in the Central Government and the State. She has been Secretary in various departments in the State, such as Handloom & Handicrafts, Women & Child Development, Health & Family Welfare, and Tourism. Many of the system-level reforms brought in by her in the nutrition and health sectors were recognized as national best practices by independent national and global organizations.

She earned a master’s in Public Policy with a specialization in Health Policies from Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, and a masters in Public Health from Harvard University. She was a Member of the Independent Expert Group of the Global Nutrition Report, an independent Global Report brought out every year; and was also a Senior Honorary Research Associate at the Global Institute of Health, University College, London. She has written a number of articles for different Journals and Books.

Professor of Global Health, University of Barcelona

Pedro L. Alonso

Former Director, Global Malaria Programme, World Health Organization
Professor of Global Health, University of Barcelona

Dr Pedro L. Alonso is the former director of the Global Malaria Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland (July 2014-April 2022). The Global Malaria Programme is responsible for the coordination of WHO’s global efforts to control and eliminate malaria and sets evidence-based norms, standards, policies, and guidelines to support malaria-affected countries around the world. He is professor of Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Science-Hosptial Clinic at the University of Barcelona.

Dr Alonso has spent over 30 years in public health, having started his career as a physician working in West Africa. His past scientific research focused on the key determinants of morbidity and mortality in the most vulnerable population groups. He has published over 300 articles in international peer-revised journals, primarily on malaria treatment, vaccine trials, and preventive therapies, and he has served on several national and international committees. Dr Alonso is committed to the capacity building of both institutions and individuals, primarily in Africa.

Before his appointment at the WHO/GMP (2014-2022), Dr Alonso served as the founding director of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and president of the governing board of the Manhiça Foundation and the Manhiça Health Research Center in Mozambique.

Abdourahmane Diallo

Former Chief Executive Officer, RBM Partnership to End Malaria

Dr Abdourahmane Diallo served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria from March 2019-April 2022. Prior to this role, he served as Minister and Health Advisor to the President of Guinea; in this role, he was tasked with dealing with the Ebola crisis and subsequent rebuilding of the national health system. He has helped develop health and supply chain systems in more than 20 African, Caribbean, and Asian countries. From 2002¬–2015, he held various positions at John Snow, Inc., including serving as the Director of Public Health and Supply Chain Systems Strengthening for the USAID|DELIVER PROJECT where his responsibilities included overseeing and leading worldwide public health and supply chain systems strengthening. He also served as Country Director for the US President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funded Supply Chain Management System project in Tanzania. He is a medical doctor and earned a master’s degree in International Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.

Mark Dybul

Professor, Department of Medicine at the Medical Center; Co-director of the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact, Georgetown University

Mark Dybul is a professor in the Department of Medicine at the Medical Center and the co-director of the Center for Global Health Practice and Impact. He is a member of the Global Health Initiative faculty committee. A well-recognized global health expert and humanitarian, Professor Dybul served as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria, and as the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, overseeing the implementation of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

He served as an HIV research fellow at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under director Dr Anthony Fauci in the late 1990s. He conducted basic and clinical HIV research at NIAID, and eventually conducted the first randomized, controlled trial with combination antiretroviral therapy with HIV patients in Africa. He went on to lead President George W. Bush’s International Prevention of Mother and Child HIV initiative for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and in 2006 was named U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. As U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, he led the implementation of PEPFAR, a health initiative Dybul helped create. He later became the inaugural Global Health Fellow of the George W. Bush Institute.

George F. Gao

Director-General, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Vice President, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Director and Professor, CAS Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Dean, Medical School, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, People’s Republic of China

Gao is a world-leading virologist and immunologist who has made some significant contributions to the field. He is renowned for his scientific contributions to the understanding of the molecular recognition of immune receptors to their ligands and the molecular basis of the pathogenicity of pathogens, in particular, influenza viruses and other enveloped viruses, which provide insight into drug and antibody development and the prevention and control of infections worldwide. Gao earned his doctoral degree (DPhil) from Oxford University, United Kingdom, and completed postdoctoral studies at both Oxford University and Harvard University (with a brief stay in Calgary University). Gao worked at the Beijing Agricultural University (1986-1991), Oxford University (2001-2006), Institute of Microbiology, CAS (2004-2008, Director General). Gao is a member (academician) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (elected in 2013), a fellow of The Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS, also known as The World Academy of Sciences) (elected in 2014), a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM, elected in 2015); an associate (foreign) member of EMBO (The European Molecular Biology Organization) (elected in 2016), a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (elected in 2016), a fellow of Royal Society of Edinburgh (elected in 2017), a fellow of African Academy of Sciences (elected in 2017), a member (academician) of International Eurasian Academy of Sciences (elected in 2018).

Gao’s research interests include virus entry/release mechanism and host immune receptor recognition. His group research is mainly focusing on the virus entry and release, especially influenza virus interspecies transmission (host jump), structure-based drug design, and structural immunology. He is also interested in virus ecology, especially the relationship between the influenza virus and migratory birds or live poultry markets and the bat-derived virus ecology and molecular biology. He has so far published over 500 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 20 books or book chapters, with an H-index of 70 (until April 2019). His research has recently expanded on public health policy and global health strategy. His heroic role in fighting against the Ebola outbreak in 2014 by spending two months (between September to November) during the peak outbreak in Sierra Leone, leading a China Mobile Test Laboratory, is highly appreciated worldwide. Gao’s contribution in science is not only for basic life/medical sciences but also for clinical-related preventive medical sciences and public health, which can be reflected from his ‘grand-slam’ publications in 5 top-niche scientific journals, i.e., Nature, Science, Cell, The Lancet, and The New England Journal of Medicine.

Tore Godal

Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Global Health, Norway

Dr Tore Godal is currently a special advisor to the Norwegian Prime Minister of Norway on global health issues. He has worked for the WHO, served as Executive Secretary for GAVI, and spent time at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He was critical in the UNDP, World Bank, and the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, and launched the Roll Back Malaria Programme.

Karl W. Lauterbach

Member of the Bundestag, Social Democratic Party/SDC; Adjunct Professor, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Hassan Mshinda

Consultant to Botnar Foundation

Currently, he is a consultant with Swiss-based Botnar Foundation, focusing on leveraging digital technology to improve child health and wellbeing. He is a scientist and former Director of Ifakara Health Institute, where he attracted several research grants from various international donors and foundations, funding projects that have had their results published in various international and peer-reviewed journals. The results of his studies have gone on to impact health policy and strategies both at national and international levels, in particular, on malaria, schistosomiasis, and child health. Under his leadership, the Institute was awarded the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award on International Cooperation 2008 by the Prince of Spain.

In June 2008, Dr Mshinda was appointed to the role of Director General of Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), a position he held until November 2017. During this time, he initiated various innovation spaces and incubation programs as part of his efforts to develop an innovation ecosystem in Tanzania. As a result of these initiatives, the government of Tanzania increased its funding on research and innovation, supported by development partners such as the United Kingdom Department for International Development and the Swedish International Development Agency, among others.

He earned a master’s degree in the Science in Applied Parasitology and Medical Entomology from the University of Liverpool in 1992, and later a doctoral degree in 2000 from the University of Basel in Switzerland. Dr Mshinda has been a member of various boards of research and academic institutions. He was a member of the United Nations High-Level Commission for Health Commodities for Newborn and Pregnant Women and was an Honorary Professor at the University of Liverpool.

Raj Panjabi

Global Malaria Coordinator, US President’s Malaria Initiative

Dr Raj Panjabi was appointed by President Joe Biden to lead the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative in February 2021. Born in Liberia, Dr Panjabi settled in the United States after fleeing civil war at age nine. Before joining PMI, he served as CEO of Last Mile Health, an award-winning nonprofit he founded in 2007. At Last Mile Health, he enabled community and frontline health workers to deliver life-saving care—including for malaria, COVID-19, Ebola, and other diseases—to the world’s most remote places. He also served as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and advisor for the World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Dr Panjabi is a recognized thought leader and social entrepreneur passionate about building rural health systems and ending epidemics. TIME magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and 50 Most Influential People in Healthcare. He has also been listed as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune and is a recipient of the $1 million TED Prize. Dr Panjabi earned his medical degree at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, completed his residency at Harvard Medical School, and holds a master’s degree in Public Health Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University.

Muhammad Pate

Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

In July 2019, Pate was appointed Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Professor Muhammad Ali Pate formerly served as Global Director of Health, Nutrition, and Population at the World Bank Group. He also served as Director, Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, an NGO in Washington, DC.

Dr Pate is the former Minister of State for Health of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 2011–2013 and former member of the President’s Economic Management Team. During his tenure at the Minister of Health, he helped mobilize more than US$1 billion in additional financing for primary health care, chaired the Presidential Task Force on Polio Eradication in Nigeria, and developed innovative results-based initiatives, including a prevention program to reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV and a clinical governance effort. Since June 2010, Dr Pate has co-chaired the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, which raised US$24 million domestically for investments to complement the Nigerian government’s Saving One Million Lives Initiative. Prior to his ministerial appointment, he served as chief executive of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency from 2008–2011, where he pioneered innovative strategies and interventions to address major primary health care issues in Nigeria. Dr Pate served as co-chair of the Harvard-London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine panel to review and advise the global health system on the lessons learned from the 2014 West African Ebola Outbreak. He is an adjunct professor of Global Health at Duke University and served as a 2016 Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is a Board Member of Harvard University’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative.

During the course of his career, Dr Pate spent several years at the World Bank Group in Washington, DC, which included serving as senior health specialist and human development sector coordinator in the East Asia Pacific Region and also as a senior health specialist in the African Region.  He also served as chief executive officer of Big Win Philanthropy, a foundation that invests in maternal, child and reproductive health, nutrition and education, among other areas. Dr Pate is a medical doctor with US Board Certifications in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He trained in sub-specialty of Infectious Diseases at the University of Rochester, NY. He earned a master’s degree in Business Administration with a health sector concentration from Duke University and a master’s degree in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He earned a Medical degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria in 1990. He has been honored with numerous global health awards, including the 2012 Harvard Health Leadership Award, and has authored or contributed to dozens of peer-reviewed publications and contributed book chapters.

Michael R. Reich

Taro Takemi Research Professor Emeritus of International Health Policy, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Professor Michael R. Reich is Taro Takemi Research Professor Emeritus of International Health Policy in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research addresses the political dimensions of public health policy, health system reform, and pharmaceutical policy. Professor Reich is a core faculty member and current course director of the World Bank Flagship Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing. He co-authored a landmark textbook on health systems with Harvard colleagues, Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Health Systems & Reform now in its fifth year; most articles are available open-access. Professor Reich has provided policy advice for national governments, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, private foundations, and private corporations. His software for political analysis, PolicyMaker 4.0, is available for free online.

Professor Reich was appointed a member of the Harvard faculty in 1983 and, in addition to teaching responsibilities, he served as the director of the Takemi Program in International Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2015, the Japanese government awarded Professor Reich the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, for his outstanding contribution to the promotion of Japan’s policy for global public health as well as for advancing public health in Japan. Professor Reich earned a bachelor’s degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and a Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science from Yale University.

Peter Sands

Executive Director, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria

Peter Sands became the executive director of The Global Fund in March 2018. A former Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered PLC, one of the world’s leading international banks, Sands has been a research fellow at Harvard University since 2015, dividing his time between the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School and the Harvard Global Health Institute, working on a range of research projects in financial markets and regulation, fintech and global health.

Sands has served on various boards and commissions, including as Lead Non-Executive Director of the Department of Health in the United Kingdom, a Director of the World Economic Forum and Co-Chairman of Davos, Governor of the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Economic and Social Research, Member of the International Advisory Board of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Member of the Browne Commission on Higher Education Funding in the United Kingdom, Member of the China People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign People’s Global CEO Council, Co-Chair of the UK-India CEO Forum, Board Director of the Institute of International Finance, Chairman of the International Monetary Conference, Member of the International Advisory Board of Lingnan University, China, Trustee of the Camden Roundhouse, London.

Leonardo Simāo

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Manhiça Foundation

Dr Leonardo Santos Simão is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Manhiça Foundation, an institution dedicated to health research through its Manhiça Heath Research Center (CISM), with an emphasis on malaria. He is also executive director of the Joaquim Chissano Foundation (Fundaćão Joaquim Chissano) and chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mediation Reference Group, and chairperson of the steering committee of the Business Environment Support Fund in Mozambique, a development initiative funded under Denmark’s development cooperation activities. He also works with the WHO Malaria Elimination Program, as a member of its MEOC (Malaria Elimination Oversight Committee).

Trained as a medical doctor at the Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique in 1980, he later worked in rural areas of the country as a medical officer at district and provincial levels. He earned a master’s degree in Public Health (Community Health in Developing Countries) from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom and taught in the Faculty of Medicine of the Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique.

Keizõ Takemi

Member, House of Councillors of Japan

Keizo Takemi is a member of the House of Councillors of the Japanese parliament, or Diet, where he belongs to the Liberal Democratic Party. He has been a senior fellow with the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) since 2007 and was a research fellow at the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health from November 2007 to June 2009. Also, he is a visiting professor at a number of universities around the country, including Nagasaki University. In March 2016, he was appointed to the UN High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth. He was appointed WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in July 2019.

Professor Takemi served in the House of Councillors from 1995 to 2007 and then returned to the Diet in December 2012. Professor Keizo Takemi is an internationally renowned advocate on global health and development issues, with decades of experience as a powerful member of a leading political party in Japan. Professor Takemi was the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Japan in 1998-1999 and the Senior Vice Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan in 2006-2007. He led the initiative to establish the UN Trust Fund for Human Security when he was state secretary for foreign affairs in 1999 and was subsequently named by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to serve as a member of the High-Level Panel on UN System-Wide Coherence in Areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance, and Environment.

Since September 2007, he has been serving as the chair of the Executive Committee of JCIE’s Global Health and Human Security Program, a pioneering public-private partnership on global health that was formerly known as the “Study Group on Challenges in Global Health and Japan’s Contributions.” In 2008, Professor Takemi led a high-level working group dedicated to advocating for collective action on global health, particularly on health system strengthening within the G8 Summit, hosted by Japan. Both the pre-summit proposal and the follow-up report succeeded in ensuring strong commitment by the G8 2008 to recognize and address the global health workforce crisis. This commitment played a major role for pushing the agenda forward towards a continued commitment from the G8 Summit 2009 in Italy.

Specioza Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe

Senior Presidential Advisor, Population & Health Vice President Emeritus, Republic of Uganda

Evelyn Korkor Ansah

Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Director of the Centre for Malaria Research, University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ghana

Professor Evelyn Korkor Ansah is the Director of the Centre for Malaria Research, University of Health and Allied Science in Ghana. She is a Public Health Physician, an Epidemiologist, and Fellow of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellow. She holds a medical degree and a master’s in Public Health from Ghana and a doctoral degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Professor Ansah has served and continues to provide service at Global, International and National levels. She was the Vice Chair of the Technical Review Panel (TRP) of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She currently serves on the World Health Organization’s Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG) and Malaria Elimination Oversight Committee (MEOC). She also serves on the Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS and Malaria.

Professor Ansah previously served as a member of the Bellagio Academic Selection Panel of the Rockefeller Foundation, member of the Steering Committee of the ACT Consortium (involving over 15 institutions in several countries) and the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium. She was Deputy Director responsible for Research at the Research & Development Division of the Ghana Health Service. As the Deputy Director responsible for research at the National Level she led the development of the Ghana Health Service Research Agenda for the period 2015-2019. She contributes to building capacity among the next generation of Public Health Professionals and has supervised several PhD and Masters students both locally and internationally. She has served and continues to serve as adjunct faculty at the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons, The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and The School of Public Health, University of Ghana.

Kelly Chibale

Neville Isdell Chair in African-centric Drug Discovery & Development; South Africa Research Chair in Drug Discovery; and Director, H3D, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Kelly obtained his doctoral degree in Synthetic Organic Chemistry from the University of Cambridge in the UK (1989-1992). This was followed by postdoctoral stints at the University of Liverpool in the UK (1992-94) and at the Scripps Research Institute in the USA (1994-96). He was a Sandler Sabbatical Fellow at the University of California San Francisco (2002), a US Fulbright Senior Research Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2008), and a Visiting Professor at Pfizer in the UK (2008).

He joined the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa as a lecturer in October 1996 and rose through the ranks to become a full Professor in 2007. He is also a Full Member of the UCT Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine (IDM), a Tier 1 South Africa Research Chair in Drug Discovery, founding Director of the South Africa Medical Research Council (SAMRC) Drug Discovery and Development Research Unit at UCT and the Founder and Director of the UCT Drug Discovery and Development Centre, H3D. His research interests are in integrated drug discovery.

He has served as a member of the Medicines for Malaria Venture Expert Scientific Advisory Committee and a member of the following Boards: UK Government Department of Health Global Antimicrobial Resistance Innovation Fund (GAMRIF), Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) External Review, South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA). He was named as one of Fortune Magazine’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders for 2018 (http://fortune.com/longform/worlds-greatest-leaders-2018/)

Hon. Awa Marie Coll-Seck

Minister of State, Republic of Senegal

Dr Awa Marie Coll Seck works in the field of health and disease prevention in her native country and internationally. After earning a degree in medicine from the University of Dakar in 1978, Awa Marie Coll Seck served for more than ten years as a specialist in infectious diseases in leading hospitals in Dakar, Senegal, and Lyon, France. She specialized in bacteriology and virology, infectious and tropical diseases. She also studied applied epidemiology and biostatistics in Annecy, France. In 1989, she was appointed Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Dakar and Chief of Service for Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital in Dakar. She was the Director of the UNAIDS Department of County and Regional Support for Africa, Asia, Eastern, and Central Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean from 1996 to 2001. In 2002, she served as president of the Assembly of the Ministries of Health of the West African Health Organization.

From 2001 to 2003, she served as Minister of Health and Prevention of Senegal and Director for Policy, Strategy, and Research. From 2004 to 2011 she was the Executive Secretary of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership based in Geneva, Switzerland. She has been a coordinator, counselor, and trainer with the National AIDS Program and a member of the World Health Organization country team in Senegal. Awa Marie Coll Seck is also a member of the WHO Advisory Group on the Ebola Virus Disease Response. In January 2019, the WHO Advisory Group established a strategy to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus. One of the responses was to immunize first responders and health workers who fight against this disease, partnering with the Vaccine Alliance, UNICEF, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr Coll Seck has been honored with numerous professional and academic awards, including the Knight of the Order of Merit of the French Republic, Officer of the Order of Merit Senegalese; and Knight of the Order of Merit of Burkina Faso. She is an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences and Technologies of Senegal and is the author of more than 150 scientific publications.

Christopher J. Flowers

Chairman & CEO, JC Flowers Foundation

Mr J. Christopher Flowers is chairman and chief executive officer of J.C. Flowers & Co. LLC, an investment company founded in 1998 and specializing in financial services. The JC Flowers & Co. Fund has assets under management of US $8 billion. Mr Flowers previously served as a partner in charge of the Financial Institutions Group at Goldman Sachs from 1979–1998. Mr Flowers was among the founders of Goldman’s Financial Institutions Group in 1986 and became a general partner of Goldman in 1988.

Among Mr Flower’s philanthropic engagements include serving as a trustee of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, launching and supporting NetsforLife, co-founding the Isdell:Flowers Cross Border Malaria Initiative in Africa, supporting the Harlem Parolee Initiative, and founding the J.C. Flowers Foundation. He graduated magna cum laude in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1979. Mr Flowers is a Board member of Harvard University’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative.

Githinji Gitahi

Group Chief Executive Officer, Amref Health Africa

Silvia Gold

President, Mundo Sano Foundation

Dr Silvia Gold earned a doctoral degree in Biochemistry from the University of Buenos Aires, is a Member of the National Academy of Pharmacy and Biochemistry and was awarded the Gold Medal from the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Murcia, Spain. Dr Gold is the president of the Mundo Sano Foundation, whose vision is to transform the reality of populations affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in endemic and non-endemic countries. The foundation works on a management model focused on prevention and control of neglected diseases, through the development and implementation of investigative projects in the field and the lab.

In line with the idea of collaborative work, Mundo Sano has a formal relationship with national and international organizations and institutions. Dr Gold has been part of numerous scientific publications and has actively participated in international meetings and conferences related to the NTDs and Global Public Health. Jointly with Hugo Sigman, she founded Insud Group and Insud Pharma an international pharmaceutical company.

Lutz Hegemann

Group Head, Corporate Global Strategy, ESG Management & Global Health, Novartis

Dr. Hegemann oversees Corporate Global Strategy, the ESG Management Office and the Global Health organisation of Novartis. This includes the group’s business in sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Novartis Foundation. Prior to this, he served as Chief Operating Officer for Global Health, where he led drug discovery, development and delivery for the flagship programmes (malaria, leprosy, sickle cell disease and Chagas disease) and the implementation of the Novartis Access Principles across the portfolio.

He has held leadership positions of increasing responsibility since joining Novartis in 2005. In 2011, he was appointed Development Unit Head for Established Medicines & Anti-infectives in the Pharma Division and served on the Development Committee of Novartis. Dr. Hegemann studied at the University of Bonn (DE) and the University of Utrecht (NL).  He holds a medical doctorate and a PhD in Molecular Pharmacology. He trained as a dermatologist and worked as a physician-scientist at the University of Cologne (DE), at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA (US) and at the University of Vienna (AT). Subsequently, he occupied senior local, regional, and global roles in drug development and commercialisation with Takeda, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer, and Nycomed.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine & Hygiene.  He additionally serves on the board of trustees of the Novartis Foundation, the board of directors of the Swiss Alliance against Neglected Tropical Diseases and of the Tanzania Training Centre of International Health as well as the board of professors of the Master’s Programme in Vaccinology and Drug Development of the University of Siena, (IT).

Nobuaki Mito

Managing Executive Officer and President, Health & Crop Sciences Sector, Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd.

Dr Nobuaki Mito graduated from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry at Nagoya University in 1983. He undertook doctoral studies under the supervision of Professor Kozo Ishizuka at Tsukuba University in 1989. He joined the Department of Vegetable Crops at University of California Davis to work with Professor Alan Bennett as a Visiting Scientist researching gene expression during tomato fruit maturation.

In 1985, Dr Mito joined Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. In 2007, He became Group Manager, Environmental Health Science Research at Agricultural Chemicals Research Laboratory (presently, Health & Crop Sciences Research Laboratory) at Sumitomo Chemical Co., Ltd. He also served as General Manager of Vector Control Department in 2008, leading the development of the long-lasting insecticidal net, new mosquito larvicide formulation, and mosquito indoor residual spraying product.

In 2013, Dr Mito has been assigned as General Manager of the Intellectual Property Department at Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. He became responsible for Corporate Business Development as Managing Executive Officer in 2017. In 2019, he served as Managing Executive Officer responsible for Planning, R&D, and Pharmaceutical Chemicals Department at Health & Crop Sciences Sector. He became President of the Health & Crop Science Sector in 2020. He is a Board member for Harvard University’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative.

Carlos Morel

Director, Centre for Technological Development in Health (CDTS), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)

Morel is director, Centre for Technological Development in Health (CDTS), Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ), Rio de Janeiro. A molecular biologist and medical doctor, he received his MD from the Medical Faculty, Federal Univ. of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, and completed his doctoral work at the Biophysics Inst., Federal Univ. of Rio de Janeiro, and Molecular Biology Dept., Swiss Cancer Inst., Lausanne. He has led research projects in molecular parasitology and collaborated with others on neglected diseases and capacity building. He was previously: Professor, UnB; president, FIOCRUZ; and director, UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, Geneva, where he moved WHO forward in areas such as the unveiling of genomes of parasites and vectors and establishing relationships with product-development partnerships and global ventures in public health.

Corrina Moucheraud

Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California, Los Angeles

Corrina Moucheraud is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management and Associate Center Director at the Center for Health Policy Research at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is a global health policy and systems researcher, focused on the question: how can we deliver high-quality, efficient, equitable, sustainable health services in low-resource, system-constrained settings? She conducts both quantitative and qualitative research, including primary data (surveys, interviews, focus groups, clinical observation) and secondary data, as well as economic evaluation research such as cost-effectiveness analyses. The main topic areas include HIV, maternal health, and non-communicable diseases, and she primarily conducts research in sub-Saharan Africa.

John Nkengasong

Director, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr John Nkengasong currently serves as Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, a specialized technical institution of the African Union. In early 2020, he was appointed as one of the World Health Organization’s Director-General’s Special Envoys on COVID-19 Preparedness and Response. In addition, Dr Nkengasong was most recently awarded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2020 Global Goalkeeper Award for his contributions to the continental response in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa.

Prior to his current position, he served as Acting Deputy Principal Director of the Center for Global Health and Chief of the International Laboratory Branch, Division of Global HIV and TB for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr Nkengasong holds a master’s degree in Tropical Biomedical Science from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and a doctorate in Medical Sciences (virology), from the University of Brussels, Belgium. He has received numerous awards for his work including Sheppard Award, the William Watson Medal of Excellence, the highest recognition awarded by the US CDC. He is also recipient of the Knight of Honour Medal by the Government of Cote d’Ivoire; was knighted in 2017 as the Officer of Loin by the President of Senegal, H.E. Macky Sall; and Knighted in November 2018 by the government of Cameroon for his significant contributions to public health. He is an adjunct professor at the Emory School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA. He serves on several international advisory boards including the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative (CEPIT) and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), among others. He has authored over 250 peer-review articles in international journals and published several book chapters.

Faith Osier

Executive Director, IAVI Human Immunology Laboratory, Imperial College London

Faith Osier trained as a paediatrician in Kenya, specialized in immunology in Liverpool, and earned a doctorate from the Open University in the United Kingdom. She is currently the Executive Director of the IAVI Human Immunology Laboratory (HIL) at Imperial College London. Her work in malaria vaccine development focuses on vaccine candidate discovery, the identification of correlates of protection and the mechanisms that underpin protective immunity. Her vision is to ‘Make Malaria History’ through vaccination. She also aims to inspire and support the next generation of African scientists to provide the solutions that the continent urgently needs. Her work has led to international honors and prizes, including the Royal Society Pfizer Prize, the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, and an UKRI African Research Leader Award. She is a TED Fellow, an EDCTP Senior Fellow and an official #TOGETHERBAND Ambassador for the United Nations Global Goal 3. She is the current President of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) and serves on multiple international funding and expert panels.

N. Regina Rabinovich

ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence, Harvard University
Director, Malaria Elimination Initiative and International Scholar, Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

Susan Silbermann

Global Advisor to the Group President of Pfizer’s Biopharmaceuticals Group

Susan Silbermann is currently a Global Advisor to the Group President of Pfizer’s Biopharmaceuticals Group. She recently led Pfizer’s internal Global COVID-19 Task Force, ensuring the safety and well-being of Pfizer’s 75,000 employees and its current medicine and vaccine supply chain around the globe. She is an advisor to the Group President of Pfizer’s Biopharmaceuticals Group. She is the former Global President for Emerging Markets where she managed Pfizer’s broad pharmaceuticals portfolio, leading almost 10,000 colleagues across China, Latin America, emerging Asia, Africa, and the Middle East focused on improving the health and well-being of the more than 5.7 billion people living in these regions. Under her leadership, the Emerging Markets business innovated to partner with governments, non-governmental organizations, patients, and others to increase appropriate access to Pfizer’s portfolio in several therapeutic areas. The business developed industry-leading programs and partnerships with alliances like Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF, which are improving health and quality of life in the poorest, underserved populations.

Prior to this role, Susan was the Global President of Pfizer Vaccines, supporting the internal development and external sourcing of novel vaccines that established Pfizer’s leadership in this sector. She was responsible for the operational management and commercial development of a broad portfolio of vaccines to protect people across all stages of life and address unmet needs for serious and life-threatening conditions. Susan also worked as an advocate to promote the value of vaccination around the world. Throughout her 30-year career at Pfizer, Susan has held numerous leadership positions in Marketing, Commercial Development, and General Management in the U.S. and international markets.

Susan currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the President’s Advisory Council on Doing Business in Africa and recently completed a 3-year term as a member of the Board of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, representing the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) member companies. During her time leading Pfizer Vaccines, she was the chair of the Vaccine Policy Advisory Committee at Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in Washington D.C. and subsequently chaired the Vaccines CEO Roundtable at the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) in Geneva. She is an emeritus member of Pfizer’s Diversity Worldwide Leadership Council and created and then chaired the Pfizer Global Women’s Council. In addition, Silbermann served on the boards of advisors for Catalyst Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes inclusive workplaces for women around the world, and on the corporate advisory board for the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School. Susan earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology and French from Tufts University and a joint master’s degree in International Business and French studies from the Stern Graduate School of Business and the Institute of French Studies at New York University.  She is fluent in French and Italian and currently lives with her wife in New York.

Philip Welkhoff

Director, Malaria Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Dr Philip Welkhoff is director of the Malaria Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Previously, he served as director of research at the Institute for Disease Modeling. There, he helped develop computer simulations of malaria, polio, and other disease transmission dynamics to assist public health professionals and other scientists in planning the eradication of different diseases.

Dr Welkhoff received a Special Achievement Award by a Hertz Fellow in 2009 for his work on malaria modeling. He earned dual undergraduate degrees in Mathematics and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University. At Princeton, his work focused on biophysically-inspired models of neural circuits for perceptual decision making. He has served on the Board of the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation and he now serves as a senior interviewer. Prior to joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he served as a pro bono external advisor to various programs, including Agriculture and Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene.

Dyann F. Wirth

Richard Pearson Strong Professor of Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-Chair, “”Rethinking Malaria in the Context of COVID–19”

Professor Dyann F. Wirth has been a major leader in malaria research for more than 30 years. Recognizing the importance of bringing cutting-edge genomic science to the study of infectious diseases, she joined the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard shortly after its establishment to lead its infectious diseases initiative. Using a multidisciplinary approach, her group explores challenges related to mosquito biology and the malaria parasite. Leveraging the genomic tools of the human genomic project, the group has applied state-of-the-art technologies and novel approaches to better understand the fundamental biology of the malaria parasite, evolution, and mechanisms of drug and insecticide resistance.

This work has provided completely new insight into how the malaria parasite has evolved, specifically in the areas of population biology, drug resistance, and antigenicity. The group’s current efforts seek to determine both the number and identity of genes expressed by the parasite in response to drug treatment and to evaluate the role of these genes for parasite survival. The Wirth lab aims to understand basic molecular mechanisms in protozoan parasites. Current findings have made significant contributions to advancing our understanding of malaria vaccine efficacy with long-term R&D goals to discover and apply preventive and therapeutic interventions against malaria infection. The group’s research activities are made possible through collaborative research partnerships with investigators, universities, and clinical centers in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.

In addition to her research and teaching efforts, Professor Wirth directs Harvard’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative, a university-wide effort to produce, transmit, and translate knowledge to support the control and eradication of malaria. Wirth is past chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard Chan (2006–2018). She is a member and current Chair of the World Health Organization’s Malaria Policy Advisory Group (MPAG), fellow and past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH), a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and American Association for the Advancement of Science, and member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Professor Wirth is a recipient of the ASTMH’s Joseph Augustine LePrince Medal and honored with BioMalPar’s Lifetime Achievement Award and USF Presidents Global Leadership Award in 2018. She is a past board member of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer

Former Acting Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance at USAID

Tim Ziemer is former Acting Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) at USAID. From April 2017 to July 2018, Ziemer was appointed by President Trump to be the Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense at the National Security Council. Ziemer is on his second appointment at USAID. In June 2006, Ziemer was nominated by President Bush to lead the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). The PMI is a historic initiative to control malaria in Africa and is a collaborative U.S. Government effort led by USAID in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the Department of State, the White House, among others.

Admiral Ziemer was Executive Director of World Relief, an organization that provides disaster response, community development, child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS, agricultural assistance, and microcredit programs in over 30 countries. Ziemer completed a 30-year career in the U.S. Navy as a naval aviator and commanded several squadrons, air wings, and naval stations. He also commanded the Mid-Atlantic Region which is responsible for supporting the world’s largest fleet concentration, which includes 110 ships, 275 aircraft, and over 105,000 personnel. During his service, he served as Deputy Director for Operations on the Joint Staff and was responsible for planning and response for crisis operations at the National Military Command Center.

Admiral Ziemer was born in Sioux City, Iowa, and raised in Asia, the son of missionary parents serving in Vietnam. After college, he joined the Navy, completed flight school, and returned to Vietnam during the war where he flew 550 combat sorties in support of the Navy Seals and riverine forces. Ziemer holds a degree in History from Wheaton College in Illinois, an honorary Doctor of Humanities from Georgetown University, and served as a Senior Fellow at the Naval War College National Security Strategic Studies Group.

Samira Hamid Abdelrahman

Professor of Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira (FMUG)

Uche Amazigo

Professor in the Department of Parasitology and Entomology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria

Uche Amazigo is a professor in the Department of Parasitology and Entomology, Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Nigeria.  She is a recognized global expert on community engagement and participation in strengthening health systems. Prof Amazigo has over forty years of experience in national and global public health with a bias in Community-Directed interventions (CDI) for the control and elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). She served as Scientist, Chief of Sustainable Drug Distribution Unit (1996-2005), and the Director of the World Health Organization African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (WHO/APOC) from 2006 to 2011. Professor Amazigo is one of the few female Africans to head a UN Agency.

She is recognized for her pioneering research which shed greater light on the causes and effect of Onchocerciasis (River blindness) in Sub-Saharan Africa and for her scientific contributions and leadership in the scaling up of community-directed treatment (CDT) strategy for the distribution of ivermectin by over 146,000 communities to control River blindness and other Neglected Tropical Diseases in sub­ Saharan Africa. In 2009, she provided the scientific evidence of the interruption of transmission of Onchocerca volvulus infection in APOC countries and launched the repositioning global effort from control to elimination of River blindness in Africa. She has more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and contributed to book chapters. Professor Amazigo has received numerous national and international awards including the prestigious Prince Mahidol Award in Public Health, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science.

She was a member of the selection sub-committee for the Japanese Government Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Services Category in 2013 and 2019, and for the Al-Sumait Prize 2018 (Health) for Africa. She serves on the Merck for Mothers Global Advisory Board on Maternal Mortality and WHO/TDR Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) Advisory Committee. Professor Amazigo is a member of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Coordinating Committee; chair of the Anambra State VISION 2070 development plan committee on Social Agenda (Education, Health Social Security and Housing). She serves as Trustee to several national and global Boards and currently heads a Non-Governmental Organization, Pan-African Community Initiative on Education and Health (PACIEH).

Chinedum Peace Babolaola

Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacokinetics and Vice-Chancellor of Chrisland University Abeokuta

Chinedum Peace Babalola is Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Pharmacokinetics and is Vice-Chancellor of Chrisland University Abeokuta. She is the immediate past Dean, Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. She earned both master and doctoral degrees from Obafemi Awolowo University and completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She completed a part-time PGD in Industrial Advanced Pharmacy (IPAT) jointly from Kilimanjaro School of Pharmacy, Tanzania & Purdue University, USA and Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD), University of Benin.

Babalola has focused on pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics as tools to study the disposition of several drugs in Nigerians as a guide to optimizing therapy in the Black population. Due to renewed interest in quinine as an alternative for resistant malaria in the 80s and 90s, Babalola elucidated its novel bioanalysis and pharmacokinetics in humans, related its levels to efficacy and adverse effects, and thus provided a guide to its regimen in Africans. Her ongoing formulation of quinine and artemether-lumefantrine suppositories is a novel achievement that shows potential for therapy Her studies have shown remarkable antimalarial and antibacterial interactions revealing a marked reduction in bioavailability (30-90%) and bacterial activity (5 to 7 -fold decrease) of Beta-Lactam antibiotics after co-administration with antimalarials, which calls for dose adjustment. She has also shown marked differences genotypically regarding drug-metabolizing genes implicated in antimalarial therapies in the African population.

She has received several fellowships and grants (World Bank, TWAS, DAAD, WHO, NIH, MacArthur, Tetfund, etc.) and has been a Research Scholar to various institutions abroad (UBC Canada; University of Jena, Germany; Hartford Hospital, the University of Connecticut; University of Sciences in Philadelphia; Temple University all in USA and others). She has ~90 peer-reviewed publications and has supervised more than 50 master- and doctoral-level trainees. She is actively involved in research and development at the University of Ibadan while also building research capacity at the Chrisland University Abeokuta.

Núria Casamitjana

Professor at University of Barcelona and Director, Training & Education Director, Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)

Professor Núria Casamitjana Badia is director of Training and Education at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and professor at the University of Barcelona. She has over 30 years of experience as a professor, lecturer, researcher, and senior manager in the Faculties of Pharmacy and Medicine at the University of Barcelona. In 2006, she created the Barcelona Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB) with Dr Pedro Alonso, now known as ISGlobal. She held the post of deputy director of CRESIB from its creation until 2011.

Professor Casamitjana is currently co-director of the ISGlobal-University of Barcelona Master of Global Health Programme and coordinator of the International Health track for the Master of Clinical Research. She also coordinates the University of Barcelona’s TransGlobal Health Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctor of Philosophy Programme and the track on International Health. She has coordinated other specialized global health courses, including the Science of Eradication: Malaria leadership development course together with Harvard University and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute.

Professor Casamitjana serves as president of tropEd, an International Network for Education and Training in International Health and is a member of the executive board of the World Federation of Academic Institutions for Global Health. She is also involved in the Consortium of Universities for Global Health and coordinates the European Institute of Knowledge and Technology (EIT) Health Education pillar at the University of Barcelona. She is a board member of the Partnership for Maternal, Neonatal, and Child Health. Professor Casamitjana earned a bachelor’s degree and Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmacy from the University of Barcelona, and a master’s degree in Occupational Health from the University of Barcelona – University Pompeu Fabra.

Marcia Castro

Andelot Professor of Demography and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Marcia Castro is Andelot Professor of Demography and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is also associate faculty at the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. At Harvard, she serves as a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Brazil Studies Program, a member of the Executive Committee of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and a member of the Center for Geographic Analysis Steering Committee.

Professor Castro’s research focuses on the identification of social, biological, and environmental risks associated with vector-borne diseases in the tropics, with the ultimate goal of informing the planning, implementation, and evaluation of control interventions. From 2004­–2010, she worked with the Dar es Salaam Urban Malaria Control Program to promote the use of environmental management approaches and larviciding to improve urban health. Professor Castro is currently conducting a study to evaluate the use of larviciding in fish ponds in the Brazilian Amazon, and she is part of the Amazonia International Center of Excellence in Malaria Research, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Professor Castro is also working on the epidemiology and impacts of arboviruses (dengue, Zika virus, and chikungunya) in Brazil, on issues of human mobility and asymptomatic malaria infections in the Brazilian Amazon, as well as on the potential impacts of extreme climatic events on malaria transmission in the Amazon. Her research interests include assessing the impact of human mobility and asymptomatic infections in the pattern and level of malaria transmission; testing a new strategy to identify residual reservoirs of P. vivax in areas of declining transmission; evaluating the role of behavior change communication campaigns in malaria control; and modeling the impact of extreme climatic events on the transmission of malaria.

Professor Castro earned a bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Rio de Janeiro State University, a master’s degree in Demography from Minas Gerais Federal University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Demography from Princeton University. Professor Castro received a Mentoring award in 2011, the Alice Hamilton award in 2014, and was the 2018 recipient of the Roger L. Nichols Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Oluwafunmilola (Lola) Dare

President, Chestrad Global, Nigeria and Board Member, RBM Partnership to End Malaria

Lola Dare is an award-winning community physician, epidemiologist, public health practitioner, development consultant, sociopreneur, and an irrepressible global health advocate for women, girls, and young persons. She champions the application of evidence and data for policy, evaluation, and accountability demand functions of non-state actors including civil society and community-based organizations, the private sector, and the media. Lola is at the forefront of advocacy for resilient, accountable right based health care services and systems strengthening driven by the PHC approach. She engages policymakers, parliamentarians, donor-funded programmes, and national governments including bilateral, multilateral, and intergovernmental organizations. She has nimbly linked investments in health to social protection, with resultant multi-sector actions for large-scale impact.

Lola, an innovative thought leader whose impact on global health development is expansive has served in governance mechanisms of major initiatives and is currently a member of the Transition Independent Monitoring Board (TIMB), Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), and the RBM Partnership to End Malaria. In recognition of her competence and knowledge of much-needed country context to development dialogues, Lola has been awarded membership of the UK Based Game Changers Women’s Leadership Network with recognition on its Wall of Wonder Women. She is President of Chestrad Global, a trail-blazing global social enterprise with network members in Africa, Europe, and the Americas. Lola Dare is well-published beyond her immediate spheres of influence.

Sharon Fonn

Professor, School of Public Health, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa

Sharon Fonn is a full professor in the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand. She has been the Head of the School of Public Health and Acting Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand. She was the President of the Association of Schools of Public Health in Africa (ASPHA) from 2014 to March 2017. In 2015 she was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa Medicine from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2011 she was awarded the University of the Witwatersrand Vice-Chancellor’s Academic Citizenship Team Award for “evidence of influencing academic citizenship beyond their core responsibilities to re-build and strengthen the capacity of African universities and enhancing communities of practice across Africa”, and in 2005 was awarded a Distinguished Scientist Award–for contribution to the quality of life of women by the South Africa Government, Department of Science of Technology.

She currently co-leads the Consortium of Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) and was a panel member of the Market Inquiry into the private health care sector for the Competition Commission of South Africa from February 2014—October 2019. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well a number of training curriculums and a range of technical reports, policy documents, and publications for non-technical audiences. Her areas of expertise include policy development and implementation; Health systems research; Gender; Human rights; Reproductive health; Research training and curriculum development.

Margaret Gyapong

Professor and Director, Institute of Health Research and Coordinator, Centre for Health Policy and Implementation Research, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana

A medical Anthropologist by training, Professor Gyapong is Director of the Institute of Health Research (IHR) and Coordinator of the Centre for Health Policy and Implementation Research (CHPIR) at the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ghana. The centre was designated as a WHO/TDR Satellite Training Centre for Implementation Research in 2018. Prior to joining the university in 2017, she spent almost 25 years as a researcher in the Ghana Health Service and was foundation Director of the Dodowa Health Research Centre from 2005 to 2016, transforming it from a small research station to an internationally acclaimed research Centre. Her interests are in socio-cultural aspects of tropical diseases, implementation research, Demographic Surveillance and maternal and child health. Currently, Professor Gyapong is a member of the Sight Savers board of trustees, the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute External Review Board, the task force for Global Health Campaign Effectiveness Advisory board, WHO Scientific and Technical Advisory Group (STAG) on Neglected Tropical Diseases and the WHO/AFRO Advisory Committee on Health Research and Development.

She has in the recent past been a member of the WHO Task force on Malaria Research Capability Strengthening in Africa, Vice-chair, WHO/TDR Scientific Advisory Committee on Integrated Community-Based Interventions, Co-Chair WHO/TDR Technical Review Group on social Science and Gender, Member Global Technical Strategy on Malaria steering group 2010-2013. In 2017, she was one of 12 women across the world to receive the first Heroines of Health award for her work in drawing attention to the needs of women suffering from the consequences of neglected tropical disease.s In academia, Professor Gyapong is full Professor of Applied Health Social Science at UHAS, and an adjunct professor of Global Health at Georgetown University. She has 149 publications in peer-reviewed journals to her credit.

James (Jim) Jones

Director, Global Community Programs and Strategy, ExxonMobil Foundation

Mr James M. Jones is director, Global Community Programs and Strategy, at the ExxonMobil Foundation. In this capacity, he oversees the ExxonMobil Foundation’s major grant-making programs in global health (specifically in the fight against malaria), women’s economic opportunities, and US math and science education. Previously,
he directed ExxonMobil’s global brand, advertising, and integrated communications work.

Prior to his work in the private sector, Mr Jones was the founding executive vice president at the Vaccine (now GAVI) Fund. He also was vice president of programs and policy at the Children’s Defense Fund where he oversaw the organization’s work on education, juvenile justice, child welfare, and health. For a dozen years, he served in various capacities in the US Congress, including director of communications and policy to then-Senator John F. Kerry, for whom he drafted global health legislation, including the original federal spending authorizations for many product development partnerships. Mr Jones is a graduate of Georgetown University and Oxford University; he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study international economics at the University of Munich.

Rose Gana Fomban Leke

Chair, “Rethinking Malaria in the Context of COVID–19” and Emeritus Professor of Immunology and Parasitology, University of Yaoundé I

Rose Leke is Emeritus Professor of Immunology and Parasitology at the University of Yaoundé I. Her primary research interests center on the immunology of parasitic infections, in particular, malaria. Professor Leke has a keen interest in global health issues and has been involved in the worldwide Polio Eradication Initiative, global malaria elimination activities, and health systems strengthening efforts. She has been very effective in the training of the next generation of scientists, namely the empowerment of the young female scientists and women overall. Higher Women Cameroon, a high-impact mentoring program, is one of her primary initiatives. In March 2013, she stepped down as Head of Department of Immunology and Parasitology at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Biotechnology Centre at the University of Yaounde.

Professor Leke is Executive Director of the Cameroon Coalition against malaria, and Chair of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Secretariat, member of the Canada Gairdner Foundation Global Health Award Advisory Committee, President of the Federation of African Immunological Societies, fellow of the Cameroon Academy of Sciences CAS, fellow of the African Academy of Science AAS, fellow of the World Academy of Science, and two-term Council member of the International Union of Immunological Societies.

Professor Leke is co-Chair of Harvard’s Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative Executive Board (alongside Michelle Williams, Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard Chan) and Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Medical Research Institute. She serves as Vice President of the Scientific Committee of Cameroon First Lady’s Research Centre. She is a member and Chair of the African Advisory Committee for Health Research (ACHR) and Global ACHR; Board member of the Global Forum for Health Research; and served as Vice-Chair of the Technical Evaluation Reference Group (TERG) of the Global Fund to Fight HIV, TB, and Malaria. She was awarded a Plaque of Honor in recognition of her “outstanding Services and dedication in leading the TERG” in 2009.

She has served as a consultant on several past/current committees of the WHO, including Malaria Policy Advisory Committee, Malaria Elimination Oversight Committee, Global Certification Commission, Emergency Committee for Polio Eradication, and the Chair of the African Regional Commission for the Certification of the Eradication of Poliomyelitis. She also served as Chair of the Data Management Committee for a trial on Azithromycin-chloroquine, was a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Ebola vaccine trials in Guinea.

In 2011, she was one of six women who received the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award for Women and received the 2012 award for Excellence in Science from the Cameroon Professional Society. In 2014, she served as the Aggrey-Fraser-Guggisberg Memorial Lecturer at the University of Ghana and was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa (DSc). In 2015, she was elected International Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 2018, she was elected one of nine women as Heroine of Health and was celebrated in a special event in Geneva in the presence of the Director-General World Health Organization (WHO), the Regional Director WHO/African Regional Office, and the Cameroon Minister of Health. On November 23, 2018, she was crowned by the Cameroon Medical Council as Queen Mother of the Cameroonian Medical Community.

Olivia Ngou

Founder & Executive Director, Impact Sante Afrique (ISA)

Olivia Ngou is the Founding Executive Director of Impact Santé Afrique, an African based NGO. Prior to launching the ISA, she had a 10-year tenure at Malaria No More where she led the Cameroonian and other Africa-based programs to advocate for malaria control and eradication among politicians, celebrities, private sector stakeholders, and community leaders. She Co-Founded and established the first Global Network of Civil Society for Malaria Elimination (CS4ME), which she now coordinates with over 300 members from 43 countries.

Her work on malaria control began at the Special Envoy for Malaria at the United Nations and teaching a public health course for undergraduate students at The City College in New York City. She also worked with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control as a research assistant. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and is an alumnus of the “Science of Eradication: Malaria” leadership development course organized by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Harvard University, and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health InstituteTropical and Public Health Institute.

Francine Ntumi

Founder, Chair and Executive Director, Congolese Foundation for Medical Research, Republic of Congo; Senior Lecturer in Immunology, Université Marien Ngouabi and Associate Professor, University of Tübingen

Francine Ntoumi is founder, chair, and executive director of the Fondation Congolaises pour la Recherche Médicale and a malaria expert who advocates for women in science. Through the Central Africa Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Malaria (CANTAM), Ntoumi is highly involved in developing African health research capacities, especially for clinical trials. CANTAM is the first African network of excellence supported by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, of which she is a former senior scientific officer. Currently, she is a senior lecturer in immunology at Marien Ngouabi University in the Republic of Congo; an associate professor at the University of Tübingen in Germany; a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Scientific Advisory Board; and a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. She also holds the distinction of being the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria’s first African leader (2007-2010).

Her accolades include the 2016 Christophe Mérieux Prize, the 2015 Georg Forster Research Award, and the 2012 African Union Kwame Nkrumah Regional Scientific Award for women. She is a laureate of the Réseau International des Congolais de l’Extérieur for her contributions in health research and earned a doctorate at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, France.

Friday Okonofua

Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology; Director, Grants and Research Administration, University of Benin, Nigeria

Professor Okonofua obtained the fellowships of the West African College of Surgeons in 1984 and the Nigerian Postgraduate Medical College in Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1985. He earned a doctorate in public health from the Karolinka University in Sweden in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a Takemi Fellow in International Health at Harvard University, and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Science. He joined the services of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Nigeria) in 1986, and rose through the ranks to become a full professor in 1992.

His research interests include reproductive health, especially maternal, child, and adolescent reproductive health. His research focuses on identifying the causal pathways for reproductive health mishaps and pinpointing innovative solutions through interventional and translational research. He has previously served as the head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Obafemi Awolowo University and the University of Benin (Nigeria), Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in the two Universities, and Provost of the College of Medical Sciences at the University of Benin. He is currently the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences in Ondo City, Nigeria. He has been the Adviser on health to President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the Executive Director of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Program Officer at the Ford Foundation.

He is the Editor-in-Chief of the African Journal of Reproductive Health, founder of the Women’s Health and Action Research Centre the Centre Leader of the World Bank African Centre of Excellence in Reproductive Health Innovation at the University of Benin (Nigeria) and a member of the editorial board of the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He has 277 publications (2018).

Marcel Tanner

Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Parasitology, University of Basel; Adjunct Professor, Federal Institute of Technology; and President, Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences

Professor Marcel Tanner is Director Emeritus of the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (1997 to 2015) and is now President of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. He is Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Parasitology at the University of Basel and an Adjunct Professor at the Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland. He has lived and worked in Africa and Asia and has published extensively in many fields of health research (>650 original papers) and has received global recognition for his expertise in the field of infectious diseases research and control. He has served on several technical committees of the World Health Organization (WHO), including chair of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group on Eradication (SAGme). He was Co-investigator and Coordinator of the first African malaria vaccine trial in 1992 and participated as co-principal investigator in several major intervention trials on malaria and schistosomiasis. He developed a Swiss field laboratory to what is now the Ifakara Health Institute in Tanzania from 1981 to 1985 and when back in Europe as Programme Director from 1987 to 1997. He earned a doctoral degree in medical biology from the University of Basel and an MPH from the University of London.

Michelle Williams

Dean of the Faculty and Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School

Dean Michelle A. Williams is an internationally renowned epidemiologist and public health scientist, an award-winning educator, and a widely recognized academic leader. Prior to becoming Dean of the Faculty at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in July 2016, she was professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and program leader of Harvard’s Clinical and Translational Sciences Center (Harvard Catalyst) Population Health and Health Disparities Research Program.

Dean Williams joined the Harvard Chan faculty after a distinguished career at the University of Washington (UW) School of Public Health. While at UW, she served as co-director of the Center for Perinatal Studies at the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA. She developed and directed the Reproductive Pediatric and Perinatal Training Program at the UW, held a joint appointment in Global Health from 2008–2011, and was an affiliate investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center 1992–2010.

As an acclaimed researcher, Dean Williams’s scientific workplaces special emphasis in the areas of reproductive, perinatal, pediatric, and molecular epidemiology. She has extensive experience in carrying out large-scale, multidisciplinary research involving the collection and analysis of epidemiological data (e.g., sleep characteristics, physical activity, dietary intake, and environmental exposures) and biological specimens (e.g., blood-based biochemistry/biomarkers, flow cytometry, genetic variants, whole-genome expression of mRNA and miRNA), both domestically and internationally.

Dean Williams has published more than 425 peer-reviewed research papers ranging from studies of modifiable behavioral and environmental determinants of adverse health outcomes to genetic and genomic studies of common complications of pregnancy and chronic disorders among children and adults.

She has successfully administered large-scale, clinical epidemiology studies that seek to understand genetic and environmental causes of adverse pregnancy outcomes and other non-communicable disorders along the life course. Dean Williams also developed and directed (for more than seven years) the Reproductive Pediatric and Perinatal Training Program at the UW.

In 1994, Dean Williams developed and is currently directing, the NIH-funded multidisciplinary international research training (MIRT) program that allows for the development and operations of undergraduate and graduate student training in global health, biostatistics, and epidemiology in over 14 foreign research sites in South America, South East Asia, Africa, and Europe. She was appointed Board Co-Chair of Defeating Malaria: From the Genes to the Globe Initiative at Harvard University in 2016.

Dean Williams has been recognized for her excellence in teaching, as the recipient of the Harvard Chan School’s Outstanding Mentor Award (2015), the White House’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (2012), the UW’s Brotman Award for excellence in teaching (2007), and the American Public Health Association’s Abraham Lilienfeld Award for education in epidemiology (2007). She earned undergraduate degrees in Biology and Genetics from Princeton University in 1984. She earned a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from Tufts University, and a master’s and doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard University.

Yongyuth Yuthavong

Senior Advisor to the President, National S&T Development Agency (NSTDA)

Advisor to the President of Thailand National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). Chairman of the Council of King Mongkut’s University of Technology, Thonburi. B. Sc. (chemistry, first-class honors, London University), D. Phil (organic chemistry, Oxford University). Professor of Biochemistry, Mahidol University. First President of Thailand National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). Former Director of BIOTEC National Centre. Former Minister of Science and Technology and former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. Awards include the “Outstanding Scientist of Thailand” Award (1984), Outstanding Person of the Nation from National Identity Board (2004), and Nikkei Asia Award for Science, Technology and Innovation from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan (2004).

Linda Arogundade

MPA Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School

Dr Linda Arogundade is a physician and global health professional with over 12 years’ experience in HIV/AIDS control, vaccine delivery, primary health care, malaria control, quality improvement, advocacy, communications, and health systems strengthening. She has designed, implemented, and evaluated successful public health programs and policies that have served the needs of over 50 million people across 20 states in Nigeria and 15 West African Countries. She is passionate about universal health coverage and has championed initiatives that resulted in enhanced access to primary health services for the prevention of infectious and non-communicable diseases. She has provided strategic counsel and technical support to international health development agencies, sub-national, national, and regional health authorities. At the Institute of Human Virology in Nigeria, she co-pioneered the implementation of continuous quality improvement and performance measurement strategies that were instrumental in improving treatment outcomes for over 100,000 HIV patients. As an adviser to the Nigerian Primary Health Care Development Agency, she recommended demand creation strategies and coordinated numerous media engagement activities on behalf of the agency which resulted in increased nationwide vaccine awareness and coverage.

As a Technical Advisor at the West Africa Health Organization, the specialized health institution of ECOWAS1 in Burkina Faso, she coordinated the West Africa Integrated Vector Management Program responsible for developing regulatory frameworks for the application of gene drive and other novel vector control technologies for malaria elimination in collaboration with the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD. Alongside this, she supported the Sahel Malaria Elimination initiative aimed at mobilizing financial and political support to accelerate malaria elimination in eight Sahel countries. Dr Arogundade is committed to advancing policies that will apply innovative technologies to accelerate equitable access to essential health services while advising policymakers to decide on long-term investments that will expedite population health and economic development in Africa.

Maurice A. Itoe

Research Associate, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Maurice A. Itoe, is a Research Associate in the laboratory of Professor Flaminia Catteruccia in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Buea, Cameroon, and master’s degree in Medical Biochemistry (with honors) from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. He obtained a doctoral degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where he worked on liver-stage malaria research under the co-mentorship of Professors Maria M. Mota (Lisbon, Portugal) and Freddy Frischknecht (University of Heidelberg, Germany). His research interest focuses on elucidating the role of lipid metabolic pathways in the reproductive success and the establishment of malaria infection in Anopheles gambiae, the main vector of malaria in Africa. His work aims at identifying novel targets that could be exploited for vector control.

Gabriel W. Rangel

Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Pennsylvania State University

Gabriel W. Rangel, PhD, is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Professor Manuel Llinás in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Pennsylvania State University. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Purdue University and his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in Public Health, studying Plasmodium vivax in vitro growth dynamics and requirements with Professor Manoj Duraisingh at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. His current research interests are focused on understanding the metabolic effect of Plasmodium falciparum drug resistance and exploring antimalarial targets that are less susceptible to evolving drug resistance. Outside of research, he enjoys mentoring aspiring scientists and spending time outside with his wife and dogs.

Neil Thivalapill

Medical Student, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine

Neil Thivalapill, MS, is a medical student at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. As a clinical epidemiologist, Neil’s research focuses on the prediction of outcomes of clinical importance such as co-infection, co-morbidities, and adherence, primarily in the infectious disease setting. He has methodological interests in improving clinical trial validity and in improving the quality of electronic health record data. He also enjoys hiking, coffee-shops, and advocating for the right to health. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Biology and Human Rights from Columbia University and a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.