Webinar 2 - Social Media for Public Health Intelligence:

The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Tuesday, 7 December 2021

Speakers

Sonia Boender

Epidemiologist, Robert Koch Institute (RKI)

Dr Sonia Boender is a health scientist and field epidemiologist, based at the Surveillance Unit of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology of the Robert Koch Institute (Germany's national public health institute). Her work experience includes infectious disease monitoring and surveillance, applied public health research, and outbreak investigation, on local, national and international level. Furthermore, she advocates for science communication (social media for public health #SoMe4epi, #VaccineEmoji 💪🩹) and infodemic management.

Giri Shankar

Incident Director for the COVID-19 response, Public Health Wales

Dr Giri Shankar (MBE) is the Incident Director for the COVID-19 response at Public Health Wales (PHW), based in Cardiff, United Kingdom. He is also the Professional Lead Consultant for Health Protection and oversees the national operational delivery of the health protection functions of the organisation. As the Incident Director, his roles involves contributing to the overall pandemic control strategy of the organisation. This involves designing control measures, advising on their implementation and evaluation. He is also responsible for overseeing the response to the pandemic on a daily basis. This involves coordinating outbreak control actions including providing specialist health protection advice to a range of local and national partners. He also provides advice to a range of senior civil servants and policy officials in Welsh Government, the Chief Medical Officer for Wales and through them to Welsh Ministers. Dr Giri Shankar is an expert member of the Welsh Technical Advisory Cell (TAC) that provides advice to Welsh Ministers on various aspects of pandemic control. His area of expertise is in control of communicable diseases, outbreak management, surveillance and field epidemiology and risk communication. He is also the named spokesperson for the organisation and provides regular briefings and interviews to local, national and international media houses. Dr Giri Shankar has 22 years of experience in the field of communicable disease control and public health. His special interest are in research and evaluation and has published a number of scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. He obtained his undergraduate medical degree (MBBS) from Bangalore University, India followed by MD in Community Medicine (with distinction – First Rank), Diplomate of the National Board (DNB) in Social & Preventive Medicine. He then moved to the United Kingdom and obtained further higher specialist training in Public Health by completing a Master’s programme at Birmingham University and has been awarded the Fellowship of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians.

Leah Morantz

Head of Communications, Public Health Wales

Authenticity, vision, pragmatism and optimism. These are the qualities that helped Leah Morantz lead Public Health Wales’ communications response to the coronavirus pandemic. In her 15 years in the communications and PR profession, Leah has turned her hand to marketing, internal communications, PR and events, giving her broad experience across the spectrum of communications disciplines. Currently, she leads a team of 23 communicators and is responsible for internal communications, media relations and campaign delivery for Public Health Wales. Leah spent eight years at Lloyds Banking Group, rising to become Senior Communications Business Partner to the CEO of Lloyds Bank Commercial Bank and later, to the Group COO. Before that, Leah held a number of roles leading communications and marketing for small businesses, including her own retail venture. Alongside her professional career, Leah has also been involved in advocacy work, chairing the Maternity Services Liaison Committee for her local health board and later held the post of Co-Vice Chair of the Women’s Network of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Both groups work to ensure the voices of women are central to the health and care pathways provided to them. Leah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Concordia University in Montreal. She is a Black Belt Leader in Internal Communications (Melcrum/Gartner) and is a Chartered Practitioner and Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. A native of Canada, Leah now lives on the Welsh coast with her young family and three chickens.