Towards a new collaborative environment for pandemic intelligence

Friday, 10 December 2021

Speakers

Chikwe Ihekweazu

Assistant Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu is the Assistant Director-General for the Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems division at the World Health Organization (WHO). In this position, he leads the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. Prior to this, Dr Ihekweazu was the first Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and led the agency between July 2016 and October 2021. He also served as Interim Director of the West Africa Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control from January to December 2017. Dr Ihekweazu is a physician with specialist training in public health and infectious disease epidemiology. He has over 25 years experience working in senior public health and leadership positions in several national public health institutes, including NCDC, the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the UK's Health Protection Agency, and Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

Dylan George

Director of Operations, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Dylan George is the director of Operations of the US Center for Epidemic Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics of the US CDC. He is a specialist in Mathematical epidemiology, disease ecology, infectious disease modeling and simulation, public health surveillance, infectious disease risk assessment. Under the Biden-Harris Transition Team he was member of the Covid-19 Policy team, where he contributed to COVID-19 response planning and related National Security / Foreign Policy issues.

Jenny Harries

Chief Executive Officer, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

Professor Jenny Harries has previously served on the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) and brings a wealth of public health knowledge and expertise gained from working in the NHS and local government at local, regional and national levels. She played central roles in the UK’s response to COVID, Ebola, Zika, monkeypox, MERS and the Novichok attacks.

 

 

Manisha Bhinge

Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation

Manisha joined The Rockefeller Foundation in October 2016 and currently serves as the Managing Director of Global Networks and Partnerships with the Pandemic Prevention Institute. She has over a decade and a half of experience in social innovation and implementation science in global health. Prior to her work at the Rockefeller Foundation, she created and lead the strategic partnerships office at the Tata Trusts, India’s oldest philanthropic organization and launched The India Health Fund, a leverage fund in collaboration with the Global Fund. In addition, Manisha was Vice President at BRAC, the world’s largest NGO for over six years, where she developed and managed programs that promote access to health, education, economic empowerment, and social justice. She has worked extensively across Africa and South Asia on community-based service delivery and women’s health and empowerment.

Sofonias Kifle Tessema

Program Lead at the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC)

Sofonias Tessema is the Program Lead at the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Africa PGI) at the Africa CDC Institute of Pathogen Genomics. Sofonias received a PhD degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia and was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California in San Francisco. Sofonias is passionate about capacity building for the implementation of genomic and digital epidemiology in public health institutions in Africa. He joined the Africa CDC in 2020 and been coordinating the pathogen genomics activities across the continent.

Josefina Campos

Director, Argentina National Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics (ANLIS)

Dr. Josefina Campos, the Director of the National Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics - ANLIS (National Administration of Laboratories and for Health Institutes in Argentina) ‘Dr Carlos G Malbrán’. Josefina Campos also works with Pulsenet Latin America and Caribbean, which is a regional network that works to strengthen national and regional laboratory-based foodborne disease surveillance for early detection and investigation of outbreaks to setup control and prevention strategies in contribution to Public Health.

Muneera Pilgrim

Slam Poet

Muneera Pilgrim is an international Poet, Cultural Producer, Writer, Broadcaster. She conducts workshops, shares art, guest lectures, host, and finds alternative ways to educate and exchange ideas. She regularly contributes to Pause for Thought on BBC Radio 2, she is an alumni artist with English Touring Theatre where she is writing her first play, and she is the resident Artist and Critical Thinker for IBT. Muneera has just released her debut poetry collection 'That Day She'll Proclaim Her Chronicles' which is available for sale directly from her, she has also written for The Guardian, Amaliah, Huffington Post, The Independent, Al Jazeera Blog, Black Ballard and various other digital and print platforms. She has been featured across the BBC network including BBC News, as well as Sky News, Sky Arts, Al Jazeera, and various other television channels. In 2015 a documentary was commissioned and screened about her former group Poetic Pilgrimage Called ‘Hip Hop Hijabis. Muneera holds an MA in Islamic studies where she focused on Black British pathways to spirituality, migration, gender and race. She holds a second MA in Women’s Studies, where she focused on the intersection of faith and spirituality, race, gender, autoethnography and methodologies of empowerment for non-centred people. Her innovation in her work won her The Ann Kaloski-Naylor Award for Adventurous Academic Writing. Muneera is concerned with telling alternative stories, she colourfully etches a space of dialogue, accessible to all regardless of cultural boundaries. Rooted in spirituality she uses communication and art for edification and change. If she were asked to describe herself in three words, she would say ‘Just Getting Started’.