Dr. Balaji headed the Primary Health Care - Health Systems Strengthening unit at UNICEF Headquarters from 2017 to 2023. He is a medical doctor with an advanced degree in Public Health and a doctorate in Epidemiology from AIIMS, Delhi. He was with UNICEF for over 34 years and has worked in country, regional and headquarter offices. He was Chief of Strategic Planning from 2004-2014 and was Deputy Representative managing UNICEF supported programmes in Afghanistan for three years. As the Chief of Strategic Planning, he was responsible for drafting UNICEF annual reports to UNICEF Executive Board, ECOSOC and to the General Assembly. Earlier when he was the Regional Chief of Programme and Planning at Eastern and Southern African Regional Office (2001 to 2004), he supported the organization of the Africa Fit for Children summit in 2002 (Cairo) and its review five years later in 2007. During the period he held additional charge as the Regional Health Adviser for one year with responsibilities over 23 countries of the region. He was also responsible for the follow up to the World Fit for Children and its follow up through the special commemorative session of the General Assembly. In 2010, he led on behalf of the UN system, the MDG 4, 5 and 6 (Health related goals) review and drafted the input to the Secretary General’s review and report to the UN General Assembly. He was instrumental in the development of Multiple Indicators Cluster Surveys and was also the person who conceived ChildInfo and DevInfo before they were adopted by the UN agencies in over 100 countries. Dr. Balaji managed and developed EQUIST, a system for equity based planning and prioritization in PHC systems for delivery of public health services at national and sub-national levels and coordinated support for UNICEF offices to engage with GFF and Global Fund through child, adolescents and women focused investment plans. At the technical level, he led jointly with WHO, the PHC-Accelerator and the just concluded PHCPI partnership. He coordinated UNICEF support to programmes at country level on various aspects of Primary Health Care and Health Systems Strengthening and PHC oriented Implementation Research for achieving SDG3.

Harold Komiskey, PhD, is a distinguished professor with tenure at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine-Georgia Campus. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison with a PhD in Pharmacology, complemented by a minor in Medical Science/Physiology. He also holds an MS in Pharmacology from the same institution and a BS in Chemistry and Math from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Dr. Komiskey is an active member of the Society for Neuroscience, the Society of Toxicology, and the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

Prof. Chen, Chien-Jen received his Sc.D. in epidemiology and human genetics from the Johns Hopkins University(1983). He then worked as an associate professor (1983-1986) and professor (1986-2006) of National Taiwan University. He was jointly appointed as a research fellow of Academia Sinica (1986-2005). He was appointed as the director of Graduate Institute of Public Health (1993-1994), founding director of Graduate Institute of Epidemiology (1994-1997), and dean of College of Public Health in National Taiwan University (1999-2002). He became a distinguished research fellow of Genomics Research Center of Academia Sinica (2006-2015), and was appointed as a vice president of the academy (2011-2015). He was appointed as the Minister of Department of Health (2003-2005), Minister of National Science Council (2006-2008), Premier (2023-2024). He was selected as the 14th Vice President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (2016-2020). He is now an academician and distinguished research fellow of the Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica. Prof. Chen has dedicated himself to molecular and genomic epidemiological research on chronic arsenic poisoning and virus-induced cancers over 40 years. His discoveries of multiple health hazards of arsenic in drinking water have led to the global awareness and mitigation of the largest environmental calamity, and his research on end-stage liver disease risk prediction of chronic hepatitis B has pioneered the viral load paradigm in its clinical management. He has published over 800 scientific articles and over 75 books/chapters, which have been cited for over 127,000 times with an H-index of 157 (Google Scholar on 2024/6/11). Prof. Chen was elected as an academician of Academia Sinica (1998), a member of World Academy of Sciences(2005), an honorary member of Mongolian Academy of Sciences (2007), a international member of US National Academy of Sciences (2017), and an academician of Pontifical Academy of Sciences (2021). Prof. Chen has received many awards and honors including the Presidential Science Prize (2005), the Order of Dr.Sun Yat-sen with Grand Cordon (2020), the Order of Propitious Clouds with Special Grand Cordon in Taiwan; the Cutter Lectureship on Preventive Medicine of Harvard University (2008) and the Knowledge for the World Award of Johns Hopkins University (2012) in the USA; Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmesacademiques (2009) in France; and the Knight of the Equestrian Order of the HolySepulchre (2010) and the Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great (2013) in Vatican. He received honorary doctoral degrees from China Medical University (2014), National Sun Yet-Sen University (2020), and Kaohsiung Medical University (2020) in Taiwan.

Dr. Ade Mutiara, a seasoned professional in the field of Occupational Health and Medicine, brings a wealth of expertise and experience to the table. With educational milestones including a Medical Doctor degree from Universitas Indonesia in 1993 and subsequent achievements such as a Magister of Occupational Medicine in 2013 and Occupational Medicine Specialty in 2021, Dr. Mutiara has demonstrated a commitment to continuous learning and professional development. Currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Faculty of Medicine in Universitas Indonesia, her research focuses on informal workers as the major population in Indonesia. In her occupational health experience history, Dr. Mutiara has held key roles, including her current position as the Lead of Occupational Health and Medicine in the Special Task Force for Upstream Oil and Gas in Indonesia since 2017. Noteworthy roles include serving as the Chief Medical Officer in a few Oil and Gas Companies such as British Petroleum and Chevron in Indonesia. Her passion is to enhance the occupational health implementation to leverage the worker’s productivity through a healthy lifestyle and maintaining the ensure the workers are always fit for their job. Dr. Mutiara has made significant contributions to the field through various publications, including stress-related diseases, and the workplace adjustments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her involvement as a consultant for the Health Ministry of Indonesia and her advisory role in occupational health organizations highlight his dedication to advancing the field. As Secretary of ICSOEM (International Component Society of Occupational and Environmental Medicine) and the Scientific Committee of Occupational Medicine of ICOH (International Commission of Occupational Health), Dr. Ade Mutiara is actively shaping the future of Occupational Health and Medicine.

Pamela Rowe, MA, CCC-SLP, is the Clinical Director of Pamela Rowe, MA, CCC-SLP, LLC, an Adult and Pediatric Therapy Practice with seven Florida locations. Her practice provides Speech, Occupational, Physical, and Respiratory Therapy services in 26 counties in Florida. Pamela is a student in the University of Indianapolis’ Doctor of Health Sciences and Master of Public Health programs. She is co-author of Putting Your Dreams To Work: Keys To Setting Up Your Therapy Practice and Start Your Engines: A Road Map to Your Clinical Fellowship Year. As a continuing partner with various state agencies, Pamela enjoys empowering individuals to communicate and use their voices within their community.

Dr. Declan McKeown is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine who practices in Medical Epidemiology in the Health Information Unit, HSE. Having trained and qualified in Public Health Medicine in Western Australia, he returned to Ireland in 1999 to work in one of the then recently-established regional Departments of Public Health. His role involved infectious disease epidemiology, environmental health and outbreak control, along with teaching at undergraduate, postgraduate and specialist training college levels. He moved to the National Health Intelligence Unit in 2009 and has been closely involved in the development and roll-out of a number of the NQAIS projects (National Quality Assurance and Improvement System) which focus on hospital safety and quality improvement. He maintains a significant teaching commitment aimed at Specialist Registrars in Public Health Medicine and has a particular interest in measuring and mapping deprivation and related social indicators. During the COVID pandemic in Ireland, he assisted in the construction of Health Atlas’ real-time COVID dot map monitoring of active and recent cases, and the development of real-time COVID “heat mapping” to show incidence and change in incidence, thereby assisting in the control and containment of COVID “hot spots”.

Professor Kholofelo Matlhaba is an Associate Professor for Health Sciences Education at the Department of Health Studies, College of Human Science, School of Social Sciences, University of South Africa. She obtained PhD - Doctor of Philosophy in Health Sciences with Nursing Science from North- West University (Mafikeng Campus) South Africa, in April 2020. Her research interests include enhancing the clinical competence of new graduate nurses as well as Teaching and Assessment in Health Sciences Education. She is currently running a capacity building program through Engaged Scholarship for a public hospital “Project Title: Enhancing clinical competence of young professional nurses throughcollaboration in Gauteng Province, South Africa (90388526_CREC_CHS_2024)”.She is a supervisor for Masters and Doctoral degree students with Health Sciences Education, Nursing Education, General Nursing Science and Public Health Related topics. She has published in both national and international accredited journals with 18 articles and 1 conference proceeding. She presented research work at national and international conferences. She has supervised and co-supervised to completion 4master’s and 2 Doctoral students (2022/3/4), 1 PhD and 1 Master’s awaiting degrees conferment. She is an external examiner for national and international universities and an external moderator for military nursing college. She is a member of several Professional Associations for Nursing Education and Health Sciences Education (SANC; NEA; STTI/ SAAHE). She is a member of the UNISA Chance to Advance Community Engagement and UNISA Women’s Forum and she received Certificate of Appreciation for Community Service in 2022 and Knowledge Mobilizer Award in 2023.

Will be updated soon..