Dr. Julio Frenk

President, University of Miami

A fourth-generation physician whose paternal grandparents fled Germany in the early 1930s to build a new life in Mexico, Julio Frenk catalyzed his deep gratitude for the kindness of strangers into a lifelong mission to improve the health, education, and well-being of people around the world. Dr. Frenk became the sixth president of the University of Miami in 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, and Professor of Sociology in the Department of Sociology of the College of Arts and Sciences. Prior to joining the University of Miami, he served for nearly seven years as dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Julio Frenk was the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, which expanded access to health care for 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.

Dr. Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a Master of Public Health and a joint PhD in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. His scholarly production, which includes over 180 articles in academic journals, as well as many books and book chapters, has been cited more than 23,000 times. In addition, he has written three best-selling novels for youngsters explaining the functions of the human body. He serves on the boards of the United Nations Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has chaired the board of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington since its founding in 2007. Julio Frenk is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Medicine of Mexico. In 2017, he was elected as a member of El Colegio Nacional, one of the most prestigious learned societies of Mexico, comprising intellectuals, artists, writers, and scientists.

He has received numerous distinctions, including the Clinton Global Citizen Award for changing the way practitioners and policymakers across the world think about health, the Bouchet Medal for Outstanding Leadership presented by Yale University for promoting diversity in graduate education, the Welch-Rose Award for Distinguished Service from the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and the Columbia University Frank A. Calderone Prize in Public Health in recognition of his transformational contributions to the field. Ten universities in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, and Mexico have granted honorary degrees to him. In September 2016, the Julio Frenk Professorship of Public Health Leadership was established at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with an anonymous endowment gift.

In summary, Dr. Frenk’s career has included leadership positions in all relevant aspects of public health and higher education: research, teaching, analysis of public policies, institution-building, international cooperation, and national public service. He has also been involved in various initiatives to reform higher education.

Ms. Katie Dain

Chief Executive Officer, NCD Alliance

Prof. Seval Akgun

Professor of Public Health, Baskent University School of Medicine

Dr. Terje Andreas Eikemo

Leader, Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Prof. Martin McKee

Professor of European Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Dr. Jeffrey Sturchio (moderator)

Chairman, Rabin Martin

Dr. Sandro Galea (remarks)

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. David Parirenyatwa

Vice President, Society for AIDS in Africa

Dr. Magda Robalo

High Commissioner for COVID-19 and Former Minister of Health, Guinea-Bissau

Dr. Sheila Tlou

Co-chair, Nursing Now Global Campaign and Global HIV Prevention Coalition

Prof. Jesse Uneke

Director, African Institute for Health Policy and Health Systems, Ebonyi State University

Dr. Jeffrey Sturchio (moderator)

Chairman, Rabin Martin

Dr. Sandro Galea (remarks)

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Gabriel Leung

Dean of Medicine and Helen & Francis Zimmern Professor in Population Health, University of Hong Kong

Dr. Sabina Rashid

Dean and Professor, BRAC James P. Grant School of Public Health

Prof. K. Srinath Reddy

President, Public Health Foundation of India

Dr. Kiran Regmi

Professor, Karnali Academy of Health Sciences, Nepal

Dr. Saunthari Somasundaram

President, National Cancer Society Malaysia

Dr. Jeffrey Sturchio (moderator)

Chairman, Rabin Martin

Dr. Sandro Galea (remarks)

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Dra. Gerry Eijkemans

Unit Chief, Health Promotion and Social Determinants of Health, Pan American Health Organization

Dr. Felicia Knaul

Director, Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas

Dr. Stephanie Psaki

Senior Advisor on Human Rights and Gender Equity, US Department of Health and Human Services

Dr. Sebastian Garcia Saiso

Director, Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health, Pan American Health Organization

Dr. Joy St John

Executive Director, Caribbean Public Health Agency

Dr. Jeanette Vega

Chief Medical Innovation and Technology Officer, Red de Salud UC-Christus, Chile

Dr. Georges C. Benjamin (moderator)

Executive Director, American Public Health Association

Dr. Sandro Galea (remarks)

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Maha El-Adawy

Director, Health Protection and Promotion, World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean

Prof. Fadi El-Jardali

Professor, American University of Beirut

Dr. Cother Hajat

Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health Institute, United Arab Emirates University

Prof. Ziad A. Memish

Director, Research & Innovation Centre, King Saud Medical City, Saudi Ministry of Health and Former Deputy Minister of Public Health, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dr. Sherine Shawky

Senior Scientist, Social Research Center, The American University in Cairo

Dr. Jeffrey Sturchio (moderator)

Chairman, Rabin Martin

Dr. Sandro Galea (remarks)

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (remarks)

Director-General, World Health Organization

Dr. Naveen Rao (remarks)

Senior Vice President, Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation

Dr. Laura Magaña

President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health

Co-chair, Determinants Working Group

Dr. Blessing Mberu

Head of Urbanization & Wellbeing, African Population and Health Research Center

Co-chair, Determinants Working Group

Dr. Heidi Larson

Risk and Decision Science and Director, The Vaccine Confidence Project, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Co-chair, Data Working Group

Dr. Kyu Rhee

Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, Aetna at CVS Health

Co-chair, Data Working Group

Dr. Jeffrey Sturchio

Chairman, Rabin Martin

Co-chair, Decision-making Working Group

Dr. Nana Twum-Danso

Senior Vice President, Global, Institute for Healthcare Improvement

Co-chair, Decision-making Working Group

Dr. Sandro Galea (moderator)

Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health

Chair, 3-D Commission

Professor Sundari Ravindran

Principal Visiting Fellow, United Nations University International Institute for Global Health

TK Sundari Ravindran is currently Principal Visiting Fellow at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, and Visiting Faculty at the School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. She holds a PhD in Applied Economics and served for twenty years as Professor of Public Health in the Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum.

Sundari’s research interests include inequities in health, with a focus on gender-based inequities, sexual and reproductive health and rights, political economy of health, and health systems research. She has been a researcher, activist, and trainer working at the local and international levels for close to four decades. She is founding co-editor of Reproductive Health Matters (now Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters) and is currently a member of its editorial advisory board. She has worked with the World Health Organization in its headquarters and regional offices in various capacities. Sundari is a founder-member of CommonHealth, a National Coalition for Reproductive Health and Safe Abortion (India). She is also a founder Member of Rural Women’s Social Education Centre, a grassroots women’s health organization in Tamil Nadu, and has been involved in the organization’s activities in various capacities since its inception in 1981.

Dr. Rana Hajjeh

Director of Programme Management, World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office

Dr. Hajjeh is a senior public health leader with 25 years’ experience in global health, health policy and diplomacy, and health management, especially in the Middle East Region. Dr. Hajjeh is currently holding the position of the Director of Programme Management (DPM) at the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (WHO/EMRO) since April 2019 (i.e. deputy regional director for technical issues). In her capacity as DPM, she directs and leads all the technical public health programs at the regional level, including universal health coverage and systems, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, information and science, as well as health promotion, working closely with the Emergency department, Headquarters in Geneva, and all 22 countries and offices.

Prior to that position, she held the position of the Director of the Department of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control. In this capacity, she played a major role in supporting emergency response in the Region, and in accelerating the agenda for prevention and control of vaccine preventable diseases, HIV, hepatitis, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, and antimicrobial resistance. Prior to joining WHO/EMRO in 2016, Dr. Hajjeh worked with the United States Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) for 23 years, where she held many senior positions with increasingly complex management responsibilities, and worked extensively in the Middle East. Between 2005-2010, Dr. Hajjeh was the Director of the GAVI Hib vaccine Initiative, that introduced lifesaving vaccines for Hib meningitis and pneumonia to millions of children in limited resource countries around the world. Between 1996 and 2016, Dr. Hajjeh led many responses to major epidemics across the world, including meningitis during Hajj in Saudi Arabia in 2000, cholera in Haiti in 2010, and recently MERS coronavirus in Saudi Arabia and Ebola in West Africa. She has considerable experience in health policies and systems, and supported development of various global policies for prevention of infectious diseases, such as for new vaccines and strategies for building laboratory and surveillance systems. Throughout her career, she managed increasingly complex departments and initiatives with large budgets. She is a well-known speaker and advocate for strong public health capacity in the region, and for the right to health of every person. She has broad health diplomacy skills working with ministries of health and governments in the Middle East and globally, and many global and regional partners and donors. She is fully fluent in Arabic (mother language), French, and English. 

Dr. Hajjeh holds a Medical Doctor degree from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and has benefited from extensive training in medicine (American board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases) and public health (epidemiology training at the CDC-EIS). She has received many awards, including the prestigious United States Federal Employee of the Year Award in 2014 for her global vaccine work. Dr. Hajjeh has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, serves as a reviewer for multiple journals, and holds professor positions in medicine and public health at Emory and Johns Hopkins universities.

Professor Sir Michael Marmot

Professor of Epidemiology, University College London

Director, UCL Institute of Health Equity

Sir Michael Marmot has been Professor of Epidemiology at University College London (UCL) since 1985. He is the author of The Health Gap: the challenge of an unequal world (Bloomsbury: 2015), and Status Syndrome: how your place on the social gradient directly affects your health (Bloomsbury: 2004). Professor Marmot is the Advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, on social determinants of health, in the new WHO Division of Healthier Populations; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) (2019-), and co-Director of the CUHK Institute of Health Equity. He is the recipient of the WHO Global Hero Award; the Harvard Lown Professorship (2014-2017); the Prince Mahidol Award for Public Health (2015), and 19 honorary doctorates.

Marmot has led research groups on health inequalities for nearly 50 years. He chaired the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas, set up in 2015 by the WHO’s Pan-American Health Organization and chaired the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, which was set up by the WHO in 2005, and produced the report entitled Closing the Gap in a Generation in August 2008. At the request of the British Government, he conducted the Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England post 2010, which published its report Fair Society, Healthy Lives in February 2010. This was followed by the European Review of Social Determinants of Health and the Health Divide, for WHO EURO in 2014, and in 2020 Health Equity in England: Marmot Review 10 Years On, and Build Back Fairer: the COVID-19 Marmot Review. Professor Marmot also chaired the Expert Panel for the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research 2007 Second Expert Report on Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective; the Breast Screening Review for the National Health Service National Cancer Action Team, and was a member of The Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health. 

Early in his career, he set up and led a number of longitudinal cohort studies on the social gradient in health in the UCL Department of Epidemiology & Public Health (where he was head of department for 25 years): the Whitehall II Studies of British Civil Servants, investigating explanations for the striking inverse social gradient in morbidity and mortality; the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, and several international research efforts on the social determinants of health. 

He served as President of the British Medical Association in 2010-2011, and as President of the World Medical Association in 2015. He is President of the British Lung Foundation. He is an Honorary Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology; a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, and an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution for six years and in 2000 he was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, for services to epidemiology and the understanding of health inequalities. Professor Marmot is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Naveen Rao

Senior Vice President, Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation

Dr. Naveen Rao is Senior Vice President of the Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Rao leads The Rockefeller Foundation’s work to ensure more equitable access to Covid-19 tests and vaccines, science-based tools, and data to fight the pandemic, while strengthening public health systems to prevent future outbreaks. Under Dr. Rao’s leadership, The Foundation launched the Precision Public Health initiative and rapidly expanded this data-driven public health approach to address the current Covid-19 pandemic in the US and abroad. Dr. Rao is also spearheading the Foundation’s efforts to use data to predict, prevent and quickly respond to future pandemics, including by facilitating greater global collaboration around genomic surveillance.

For decades, Dr. Rao has been a leader in equipping health care providers with the skills, tools, and technologies they need to succeed. He joined the Foundation after a 25-year career with Merck & Co., Inc., where he led Merck for Mothers, the company’s 10-year, $500 million initiative to reduce maternal mortality around the world. In this capacity, Dr. Rao was responsible for leveraging the company’s science and business expertise to accelerate progress in reaching the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and advancing the company’s mission to improve and save lives. Prior to leading Merck for Mothers, Dr. Rao was Head of Medical Affairs for Merck’s Asia-Pacific region and Managing Director of Merck’s subsidiary in India. Prior to joining Merck in 1993, he was the Associate Director of the Department of Medicine at Beekman-Downtown Hospital and practiced Internal Medicine in New York City for 10 years.

Dr. Rao is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Medic Mobile and represents The Rockefeller Foundation on the Private Foundation constituency of Global Fund ATM.

Dr. Pascale Allotey

Director, United Nations University International Institute for Global Health

Professor Pascale Allotey is the Director of the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health, a position she has held since 2017. She is a nurse, midwife, and public health nurse with postgraduate training in public health, anthropology and epidemiology. Her research in global health covers health equity, health and human rights, gender and social determinants of health, migration, sexual and reproductive health, tropical diseases, and non-communicable diseases, and she has published extensively on these topics. She has worked in several countries in Africa and Southeast Asia and in Australia. She has pioneered methodological approaches for engaging communities in research and policy processes to ensure joint ownership and partnership in health and service delivery. 

Her previous positions include Professor of Global Public Health, Deputy Head of School (Research and Development), and founding Associate Director of the South-East Asia Community Observatory (SEACO), School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University (Malaysia), Professor of Race, Diversity and Professional Practice at Brunel University London, UK, and Senior Research Fellow at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Women’s Health, University of Melbourne, Australia.

“Applying data on determinants to make transportation decisions” recording now available

“Investing for the future: Policies and programs to address the social determinants of health” recording now available

African decision-makers discuss the realities of the 3-Ds