Advisory group members

• Dr. Gaudenz Silberschmidt, M.D., M.A.;chairperson, Ambassador, Head International Affairs Division, Swiss Federal Office of Public Health
  

Ambassador Gaudenz Silberschmidt heads the International Affairs Division of the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health. Prior to joining the Swiss administration in 2003, he directed the International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE), a nongovernmental organization. In his current position, his primary achievements include chairing the draft committee for the World Health Assembly Resolutions WHA 58.3 on the Adoption of the International Health Regulations and WHA 59.24 on Public Health, Innovation, Essential Health Research and Intellectual Property Rights: Towards a Global Strategy and Plan of Action. He also initiated the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)/World Health Organization (WHO) reviews of the Swiss health system, led the elaboration of the Swiss Health Foreign Policy, led the negotiation team for the procurement of pre-pandemic vaccine, and is leading the negotiations toward a health agreement between Switzerland and the European Union.
Ambassador Silberschmidt is a member the Executive Board of WHO and its Program, Budget and Administration Committee. Before that he was member of the Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe of WHO and the bureau of the OECD health committee. He received his medical degree from the University of Zurich and holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of St. Gallen. Dr. Silberschmidt also studied tropical medicine and public health at the Swiss Tropical Institute in Basel. Amongst his publications figure a proposal in The Lancet to “create a committee C of the World Health Assembly” to improve coordination in global health governance; “The European Approach to Global Health Identifying Common Ground for a U.S.–EU Agenda, A Report of the CSIS Global Health Policy Center”; and the working paper 6 of the Global Health Program at the Graduate Institute Geneva on “How to set priorities for WHO”.
For the Global Health Program of the Graduate Institute he chairs the external advisory group and regularly teaches in and directs global health diplomacy courses in Geneva, Beijing, Nairobi and Jakarta.

• Prof. Dr. Ilona Kickbusch, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Global Health Programme

Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva with a focus on global health governance and global health diplomacy. She is known throughout the world for her contributions to innovation in public health, health promotion and global health. She has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization, where she initiated the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and a range of “settings projects” including Healthy Cities. In 1998 she joined Yale University, where she contributed to shaping the field global health. She is a sought after speaker and advisor on policies and strategies to promote health at the national and international level. She presently serves as senior health policy advisor to the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health. She advises organizations such as The Federation of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent and the European Foundation Centre and works closely with a range of public health organisations. She has published widely and is a member of a number of advisory boards in both the academic and the health policy arena. Most recently she has served as the Thinker in Residence by the Premier of South Australia with a focus on health in all policies. She has also launched an initiative for a European Council on Global Health. She is a political scientist with a PhD from the University of Konstanz, Germany. Details can be found on her Website: www.ilonakickbusch.com

•  Prof. Dr. Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, University of Geneva, Law Faculty

Laurence Boisson de Chazournes is Professor of international law and Head of the Department of Public International Law and International Organization at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva (Switzerland). She is also Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies (Geneva) and the University of Aix-Marseille III (France). Between 1995 and 1999, she was Senior counsel with the Legal Department of the World Bank. A consultant and a member of groups of experts with various international organizations, including the World Bank, WHO, UNDP and ILO. Recent publications include: Freshwater and International Economic Law, (with E. Brown Weiss and N. Bernasconi-Osterwalder (eds.)), Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2005.

•  Prof. Dr. Andrew Clapham, Graduate Institute, International Law

• Dr. Nick Drager, World Health Organisation

As the Director of the Department of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights, and Health Law at the World Health Organization, Dr Nick Drager's current work focuses on emerging global public health issues related to globalization and trade. The policy related, research and training activities of the work programme he leads are designed to contribute to enabling public health practitioners to analyse and act on the broader determinants of health development, as well as to place public health interests higher on the international development agenda to improve health outcomes for the poor. Prior to this he was Senior Adviser in the Strategy Unit, Office of the Director-General at WHO.

He has extensive experience working with senior government officials in developing countries worldwide and major development agencies in health sector analysis, health policy development, strategic planning and resource allocation decisions and in providing advice on health development negotiations and conflict resolution. He has deep experience in negotiations on international health development issues. He represents WHO at international events and conferences, serves as chair, keynote speaker at numerous international conferences; lectures at Universities in Europe, North America and Asia; and is the author of numerous articles and editor of books in the area of health and development. He has an M.D. from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Hautes Etudes Internationales, University of Geneva.

• Ms Thea Emmerling, European Commission Delegation in Geneva

Since November 2009 Ms Thea Emmerling is working as a First Councellor at the European Commission Delegation in Geneva, International Relations Officer for Health and Food Safety. From December 2008 to November 2009 she was on secondment to the World Health Organisation, Cluster on Partnerships and UN Reform. Ms Thea Emmerling has large experience working for the European Commission as a Deputy Head of Unit DG Sanco C6 – Health law and international; as well as Member of Cabinet of Budget Commissioner Dr. Michaele Schreye; Spokesperson for Health and Consumer Commissioner David Byrne; Official in DG Sanco, Health Risk Evaluation Unit and Desk officer in DG Regio.

• Stefan Germann, External Partnerships, Research & Learning of World Vision International’s Health, HIV and Nutrition team

Dlitt et Phil (Development Studies), MSc (Social Policy & NGO Management), BSs (Micro Engineering & Management)
Stefan Germann is presently based in Geneva as Global Director for External Partnerships, Research & Learning of World Vision International’s Health, HIV and Nutrition team.
For the past 18 years, Stefan has been working in the field of HIV/AIDS, Health and community care of children. His focus has been on orphans and children affected by AIDS in rural and urban communities. In 1998, he started the Masiye Camp program in Zimbabwe that provides psychosocial support for children affected by AIDS and household management camps for child headed households. From 2000 to 2002, he was part of the Salvation Army Africa Regional Facilitation team on HIV/AIDS, Health and Development as focal person on Children, Youth and AIDS. In 2002 he founded regional psychosocial support initiative called REPSSI that has the goal to scale up psychosocial support to children affected by AIDS in Africa and beyond. Today REPSSI is one of the leading agencies focusing on psychosocial issues for children affected by poverty, war and AIDS.
In 2005 he started to work with World Vision and was Director for program quality & accountability (leader of technical sector teams) in the Asia Tsunami response, a large 350 Million USD World Vision relief operation. In June 2006, he took up the position as the World Vision International Senior Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s advisor, based in South Africa. He is as well a part time lecturer and research associate of the Nelson Mandela Metro University in South Africa, department of development studies and economics giving lectures on urban youth participation. He has working experience in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe / Middle East.

•  Prof. Louis Loutan, Global Health Forum, Geneva

Louis Loutan, president of the Organizing Committee of the Geneva Health Forum, is head of the Division of International and Humanitarian Medicine, Department of Community Medicine and Primary Care, Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland. He is also Associate Professor International Health at the University of Geneva and Assistant Professor in Community Health at Tufts University, School of Medicine, Boston, USA. In addition to his MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Professor Loutan is specialized in internal medicine, tropical medicine and migrant health. His initial clinical practice as an MD and in coordinating community-based projects was carried out in Geneva, Nepal, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and - for five years in nomadic communities - in Niger. He was formerly president of the Swiss Society for Tropical Medicine and Parasitology, the International Society of Travel Medicine, and the Geneva University Hospitals Committee of Humanitarian and International Cooperation Activities.

• AMB.DR.TOM MBOYA OKEYO MBchB (Nairobi, Kenya), MPH (Wales, United Kingdom), DSHI (Turin, Italy)

Amb.Dr. Tom Mboya Okeyo is a Medical Doctor, Public Health Specialist, was appointed by His Excellency Hon. Mwai Kibaki, President of the Republic of Kenya in April 2010 as Kenya’s Ambassador, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative to UN and to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland. In Geneva, Ambassador Tom Mboya Okeyo also serves as the Coordinator of the African Group to the WTO providing leadership in the ongoing Doha Development Agenda multilateral trade negotiations.
Prior to this appointment, was Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Kenya to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva with primary responsibility for managing Kenya’s relationship with the World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UNITAID, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The GAVI Alliance, and other international health organizations in the period 2007-2010.
Amb.Dr. Tom Mboya Okeyo has published books on SARS, Social Health Insurance, and Quality Management in healthcare, and several publications on innovative health financing. He has served as a part-time lecturer on Quality Management at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Latest publications have focused on establishing the African Network on Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) which are published in the Lancet in 2009 and IPOS-Medicine Journal in 2010. Chaired the ANDI Task Force composed of leading African Scientific Organizations, The African Scientists in Diaspora, The African Development Bank, the World Health Organization, the Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and the European Commission which resulted in the establishment of the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI) in 2010 jointly managed by WHO and UNECA. Founder editor of the Geneva Journal Monthly which promotes Results based management in Diplomacy.

• Dr. Ulysses Panisset, World Health Organisation

Ulysses Panisset, Md, with Ph.D. in International Relations of the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, with 20 years experience in international cooperation to promote health research in developing countries. At WHO HQ he holds the post of Scientist. He coordinated the organization of the 2004 Ministerial Summit on Health Research and is currently the coordinator of the Evidence- informed decision making programme of RPC. He is a member of the EVIPNet Global Steering group. Integrated into all levels of his research and policy analysis are his ten years of professional practice as a primary health care physician among impoverished communities in his native country Brazil.

• Ms Michaela Told, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Global Health Programme

Michaela Told currently coordinates the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Prior to moving into academia, she has been working more than 10 years with the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement at local, regional and international level, most recently heading the Principles and Values Department of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Earlier in her career, she worked with the Austrian Ministry of Development Cooperation and later served as Secretary General of an international women’s human rights NGO based in Geneva. In her current position at the Graduate Institute she is responsible for the successful implementation of the activities of the Global Health Programme. She holds a MSW (International Social Work, School of Social Work Vienna), a MCom (Development Economics, University of Economics and Business Administration Vienna), and a MA in Development Studies (Women & Development, Institute of Social Studies The Hague).

• Vijay Trivedi, Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Vijay Trivedi is Policy Adviser in the Secretariat of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control since March 2009. He provides guidance on strategic issues in implementation, communication and outreach of the Convention with the United Nations and its specialized agencies and other international development partners.Vijay Trivedi holds the rank of Director in the Indian Foreign Service and brings with him over 15 years of experience in bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, intergovernmental negotiations international health, development policy making, peace and security, human rights, environment, humanitarian affairs, peace-making, conflict mediation and resolution. Vijay Trivedi started his career in the Indian Foreign Service in 1994, and served on diplomatic postings in Russia (1996-1998), where he was instrumental in securing India's first ever energy deal. In Ukraine (1999-2001) he helped establish Long Term Bilateral Scientific and Technical Cooperation. In Kabul (2003-2005) as the Political Officer and Chargé d'Affaires a. i. he was also responsible for India's bilateral assistance programme to Afghanistan. In the Ministry of External Affairs (2001-2003), he first served as desk officer in charge of Chinese affairs and later as officer in charge of Training of the Officials from the Office of the President of Afghanistan and Afghan Diplomats. He also designed and conceptualised these courses to suit the needs of Afghan Diplomats and officials under guidance from senior most foreign service officers, both serving and retired. Vijay Trivedi also designed the first ever mid career training programme for Indian Diplomats while serving at the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi. The mid career programme has important online component. He studied Business and Sociology at Delhi University and Diplomacy as a Commonwealth scholar. He speaks Hindi, English, and Russian and has working knowledge of French and Farsi.