Speakers
Updated: 7 days ago
Mazen Al-Malkawi - Regional Advisor for Climate and Environment, World Health Organization
Tala Al Ramahi
Jane Blake
Bio
Ms. Jane Blake, MS, PMP has decades of experience in global health security, including biosurveillance, biosafety and biosecurity research and operations; Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) implementation; biological threat reduction program evaluation; and capability and capacity building within the U.S. and internationally. As deputy program manager for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Biological Threat Reduction Program (BTRP), Jane co-led an 80+ contractor team providing technical, logistical, and acquisition support and was a primary architect of BTRP’s sustainment strategy and metrics framework. Prior to her DTRA work, her experience includes leading research and development teams building biosurveillance tools and models, to include co-founding several start-up ventures dedicated to biosurveillance, disease forecasting, and risk modeling for disaster scenarios. Jane received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service and a Master of Science in Microbiology and Immunology from Georgetown University. She has authored multiple papers on global health security, biological threat detection, and biological risk perception in peer-reviewed journals and is currently Jacob’s Global Health Security Director.
Sohini Chatterjee – Managing Director, Malaria No More
Bio
Sohini Chatterjee joined Malaria No More in 2023 as Managing Director of Global Policy and Advocacy. She served as a Presidential Appointee in the United States Department of State as Senior Policy Advisor to the US Ambassador to the United Nations. She also served as a Presidential Appointee in the Obama Administration where she led multiple White House initiatives and directives on global development and governance. Sohini is an international attorney who worked on the first ever international trade case before the US Supreme Court and served as lead counsel in numerous international human rights, domestic violence and family law cases. She was an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and has consulted on global governance issues for The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), The World Bank, Independent International Legal Advocates, Humanity United, Chemonics International, and the Asia Foundation. Ms. Chatterjee has a J.D. from Duke University School of Law, an M.A. in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University, and a B.A. magna cum laude in English Literature from Columbia University.
James Colborn – Senior Advisor, Malaria – Clinton Health Access Initiative
Bio
Dr. Colborn is the Senior Malaria Advisor for CHAI in Mozambique. He has been working in malaria for nearly 20 years and has been working to integrate climate change into malaria and other public health work in Mozambique for the past 10 years. He has also worked with USAID, WHO and others to promote adaptation and resiliency to climate-sensitive diseases in the developing world. He is also the current President of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s (ASTMH) Committee on Global Health (ACGH).
Felipe J Colón-González – Technology Lead, Data for Science and Health, Wellcome Trust
Bio
Felipe is a Technology Lead in the Data for Science and Health Team at Wellcome. He has a background in climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling, and at Wellcome, he specifically focuses on how to fund innovative digital tools and technologies that advance research on climate and health. Before Wellcome, Felipe worked in climate-sensitive infectious disease modelling for 15 years. Felipe has contributed multiple papers to several reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the impacts of global warming on vector-borne infectious diseases
Colleen Connell – Managing Director, Health Finance Coalition
Bio
Colleen Connell is the Managing Director for the Health Finance Coalition, hosted by Malaria No More. From 2018-2020, Colleen was the Chief Markets Officer, then Sr. Advisor for Business Development and Investments at MedAccess, where she helped design and build an investment pipeline and stand-up the organization. She also worked for more than 11 years with the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Colleen holds a B.S. from Fordham University and an MBA from Yale University.
Yacine Djibo – Founder & Executive Director, Speak Up Africa
Bio
Yacine Djibo founded Speak Up Africa in 2011 to discover and implement effective, sustainable solutions to the most challenging problems facing the African people. Focusing on strategic communications, policy and advocacy, Speak Up Africa is dedicated to collaborating with African leaders and citizens to take on issues such as malaria, neglected tropical diseases and sanitation in order to save and improve lives.
Yacine Djibo currently sits on the Board of the Sabin Vaccine Institute and the Faecal sludge Management Alliance and serves in an advisory capacity to several organizations, including the Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance (MESA), GeneConvene Global Collaborative and UNITLIFE.
Previously, Yacine Djibo worked as the Senegal country director for Malaria No More, where she developed and managed several high-profile national programs to promote malaria prevention and treatment.
Prior to devoting her career to the health and well-being of children and families in Africa, Yacine Djibo honed her skills in the areas of business administration, finance and real estate at several private-sector companies.
Dung Do – Vietnam National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology (NIMPE)
Bio
Do Trung Dung is General Medical Doctor from Vietnam, who graduated from Thai Binh Medical University. He later received his MS on Tropical Medicine from Mahidol University and a PhD in Medical Parasitology. He currently works as a researcher and head of the Parasitology Department, at the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology, in the MOH, Vietnam. He has conducted research on epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of parasitic diseases in Vietnam since 2003, and has been involved in the elimination program for Lymphatic Filariasis and the control and elimination program for Malaria since 2010.
Martin Edlund – CEO, Malaria No More
Bio
Martin Edlund is a founding member and Chief Executive Officer of Malaria No More, a globally recognized non-profit with the visionary mission to end humanity’s oldest, deadliest disease in our lifetimes. During his tenure, Martin has played a lead role in mobilizing global political will, government resources, and innovations to scale life-saving interventions for the global malaria campaign. Martin also serves as Executive Director of the Health Finance Coalition, which is raising substantial private capital to help achieve Africa’s public health goals through blended-finance structures that count leading global corporates, major Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), and top foundations as investors. Martin lived and worked in West Africa as Malaria No More’s Director of New Programs, where he helped lead innovative net distribution, testing and education campaigns with Youssou N’Dour, government officials, and media partners in Senegal, Cameroon, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Chad. Prior to joining MNM, Martin was a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The New Republic, and a political consultant in Washington, D.C., specializing in online campaign strategies. He is a graduate of Harvard University.
Mohamed Eissa – Liaison Officer for Public Health Issues, IFMSA
Bio
Mohamed is a recently graduated medical doctor from Egypt. He has been volunteering in the public health field for 6 years, allowing him to gain extensive experience in different public health issues such as NCDs including Mental Health, Infectious diseases, Climate Change and Environmental issues, Health systems and UHC, AMR, Health Equity and Determinants of Health etc.. He is currently the Liaison Officer for Public Health Issues at the IFMSA, Youth Leadership Board Member at the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety and Climate Change and COVID-19 Youth Associate at WHO Egypt.
Omnia El Omrani – COP27 Youth Envoy
Bio
Omnia El Omrani is the first official Youth Envoy for the COP27 President and a medical doctor from Egypt. She is a Climate Change and Health Junior Policy Fellow at Imperial College London and has more than seven years of experience in climate change facilitating over 74 hours of training sessions in 15 countries globally. She is a Commissioner at the Lancet-Chatham House Commission on Post-COVID Population Health, a Youth Sounding Board member of the EU DG-INTPA, an associate at Women Leaders for Planetary Health, and a member of the Global Youth Coalition for Road Safety and UNICEF-Az Youth Leaders Program.
Ahmed Elsayed – Executive Director, JPAL MENA
Peace Dziedzom Gbeckor-Kove – Ghana Environmental Protection Agency
Bio
Peace Dziedzom Gbeckor-Kove is a Principal Programme Officer in the Natural Resources Department of Environmental Protection Agency – Ghana. She has over decade’s experience in Integrated Coastal Zone Management, Ocean governance, Environmental Impact Assessment and Strategic Environmental Assessment. Her research areas include ocean governance and policy, biodiversity conservation, invasive species & marine spatial planning coastal erosion, and climate change. She has collaborated with stakeholders both locally and internationally on research projects, educational campaigns and policy formulation in the environmental sector. She is currently working on a collaborative study on Coastal Community Resilience to Climate and Diarrhoea (C2R-CD) Project, funded by DANIDA and with partners from University of Ghana, Aarhus University, Denmark, Peoples Dialogue of Humanity, Ghana and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana. Her works on the project include conducting research on health facility resilience to climate change in coastal communities. The overall goal of the C2R-CD project is to build resilience to climate change and improve diarrhoeal management in selected coastal communities.
Hosni Ghedira – Director, Mohamed bin Zayed University for Artificial Intelligence
Bio
Dr. Ghedira is an expert in artificial intelligence with extensive experience in research, innovation, and new technologies. His scientific interests include earth observation and microclimate modeling. He brings experience applying machine learning and data analytics to climate modeling and forecasting as well as the application of sensing technology and other detection methods for malaria diagnosis.
Farid Fezoua
James Golden – Chief Data Officer - Rockefeller Foundation
Bio
James (Jim) Golden is a data scientist and entrepreneur focused on applying emerging computational approaches to difficult business and societal problems.
Jim is the Chief Data Officer (CDO) of the Pandemic Prevention Institute at the Rockefeller Foundation.
Prior to the Rockefeller Foundation, he was the CEO of World Quant Predictive - a technology-enabled services company, reimagining data science and AI for prediction. Prediction lies at the heart of decision-making under uncertainty. Jim’s background is in the business of creating accurate predictions through improved signal detection and modeling, framing critical business and societal challenges as prediction problems, and solving them by leveraging the latest advances in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Jim has a B.S. in mathematics and computer science from Rhodes College, Memphis, TN; an M.S. in computer science from the University of Tennessee Space Institute in Tullahoma, TN; and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University.
Evie Gray – Global Health Communications Manager, GSK
Bio
Evie leads external communications for GSK’s Global Health Unit, working across everything the unit does to reduce health inequalities: R&D for infectious diseases which disproportionately impact underserved people, capacity building partnerships and programmes to expand access to GSK’s medicines and vaccines. Evie has a particular interest in the links between climate change and health, with a focus on putting health at the centre of climate action. She joined GSK over five years ago after completing a Master’s degree in Public Policy and has held communications, advocacy and policy roles in several parts of the business including ViiV (GSK’s specialist HIV company) and the vaccines product area.
Paul Gunstensen – Global Safe Water Director, Evidence Action
Bio
Paul is the Global Safe Water Director at Evidence Action and has been working in the international water and sanitation sector for almost 20 years, with a focus on Africa and Asia. His experience spans rural and urban programming, enterprise development and market-based solutions as well as philanthropy and impact investment.
Kimberly Humphrey – Climate Change and Human Health Fellow, Harvard C-CHANGE
Bio
Dr Kimberly Humphrey, MD MPH, is an emergency medicine specialist from Australia, with expertise focused on the impacts of climate change on health and health systems. She is a Fellow in Climate Change and Human Health at The Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Kimberly has played a key role in climate advocacy and policy development for the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, and in the development of climate and health policy for the South Australian Government where she works as a public health medical consultant. Kimberly holds additional postgraduate qualifications in emergency and disaster management, clinical education, health informatics and medical administration. Her research is solutions focused with an emphasis on the health impacts of climate change on individuals and communities, and involves community based interventions, public and preventative health approaches, and building of health system resiliency to enable better responses to climate related disasters and climate related health impacts.
Priya Kanayson – Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE)
Bio
Priya Kanayson is a public health policy and advocacy specialist with extensive experience in global health and development. She has a track record of cultivating relationships with high-level partners and building consensus among diverse stakeholders for effective advocacy and policy outcomes in cross-cultural settings. Previously, she was the Policy & Advocacy Manager for the NCD Alliance, where she led advocacy on the integration of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) with HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH), universal health coverage (UHC), and financing for health.
Priya holds a Master of Public Health with the distinction of Delta Omega from New York University, and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of California, San Diego.
Corine Karema - Interim CEO, RBM Partnership to End Malaria
Nino Kharaishvili - Global Solutions Director | Health System Governance, Jacobs
Bio