About Us

About us

About GOARN

We are a WHO network of over 250 technical institutions and networks globally that respond to acute public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries. Coordinated by an Operational Support Team based at the WHO headquarters in Geneva and governed by a Steering committee, we aim to deliver rapid and effective support to prevent and control infectious diseases outbreaks and public health emergencies when requested.

GOARN Steering Committee

The Steering Committee (SCOM) of the Global outbreak alert and response network (GOARN) is a representative body of 21 partner institutions that oversee the planning, implementation and evaluation of the Network activities and strategic goals. The Committee fulfills the following functions:

approving and monitoring the implementation of the Network’s work plan
approving the terms of reference and monitoring the activities of Technical Working Groups and Standing Sub-Committees
approving the addition of new institutions/organizations/networks to the Network.
advocating for the network and representing the network at key public health events.

GOARN Operational Support Team

The GOARN Operational support team (OST) is based at the World health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and in various WHO Regional Offices supporting outbreak response at the regional level. The OST facilitates the day to day running of the network and coordinates outbreak response missions, network activities and communications for the Network. You can reach the Operational support team for more information on how to get involved with GOARN.

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Partner Institutions

Abu Dhabi Public Health Center (ADPHC)

United Arab Emirates (the)

Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ethiopia

African Coalition for Epidemic Research, Response and Training (ALERRT)

United Kingdom

African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET)

Uganda

Aix-Marseille University

France

American University of Beirut Medical Center

Lebanon

African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET): Dr Simon Nyovuura Antara

Dr Simon Nyovuura Antara is a medical epidemiologist with vast experience in public health practice and applied epidemiology. He is the Acting Executive Director of the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET). Before his current appointment, he served as the Director of Programs of AFENET. Dr Antara has worked as Resident Advisor to a number of Field Epidemiology Training Programs in different countries in Africa. These include the Rwanda Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP), Namibia FELTP and the West Africa FELTP- a regional program based in Ouagadougou for the francophone West African Countries. Dr Antara has also previously worked as a Municipal Director of Health Service in Ghana and was a key member of the National Rapid Response Team.

Dr Antara has leadership skills and expertise in program and project management, monitoring and evaluation, surveillance, emergency preparedness & response, infectious diseases, training, mentorship, networking & collaboration. He is very focused and committed to his work and has won many awards as a student and in his work life. These include the US Ambassador’s award for exceptional dedication and technical excellence in supporting Namibia to respond to critical public health threats (2013), the University of Ghana School of Public Health award for best dissertation and best field practice student (2004), The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology School of Medicine award for best student in Medicine and Clinical Methods (2000).

Dr Antara is a member of the Ghana Medical Association and the International Epidemiological Association. He is also a member of the AFENET Board of Directors.

Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC): Dr Yanping Zhang

Dr Yanping Zhang is the director of the Infectious Disease Control Division at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC). He graduated as MD on public health from Shandong Medical University in 1987 and graduated as MPH from China CDC in 2007, and was also graduated from the Chinese Field Epidemiology Training Program in 2004.

Dr Yanping Zhang worked in Henan Provincial CDC after graduation from the university for 20 years, His main work duty is prevention and control of zoonoses such as Japanese encephalitis, Leptospirosis, Rabies, Brucellosis, HFRS, Plague and so on. Since 2007, he worked at China CDC, his main research area is emerging and reemerging infectious diseases control and prevention. He attended emergency events response including severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome(SFTS),pandemic influenza A(H1N1), H7N9 and other human infected avian influenza, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Zika virus disease, Corona Virus Disease 2019 and Unknown etiology diseases. As a deputy director of the public health emergency center of China CDC, he is now mainly coordinating the surveillance, risk assessment, emergency preparedness and response of emerging infectious disease and pandemic preparedness. He also coordinated the establishment and management of emergency response teams and logistics support. Dr Yanping Zhang is the focal point for the emergency medical teams (EMT) in China.

Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET): Dr Mohannad Al-Nsour

Dr Mohannad Al-Nsour is a medical doctor and an internationally recognized expert in field epidemiology, operational research, and public health systems, and a fellow through distinction with The Faculty of Public Health at UK (FPH). Dr Al-Nsour assumed several positions such as a notable researcher, advisor, and director during his career path. He also served as a consultant on several assignments with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the American University of Beirut (AUB).

Dr Al-Nsour has been leading the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) since 2009, by providing strategic assistance and operational solutions and guiding the enrichment of Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) and public health initiatives in the region. Under Dr Al-Nsour’s leadership, GHD|EMPHNET emerged as a prominent collaborative platform to serve the region and support national efforts to promote public health policies, applied epidemiology, surveillance, International Health Regulations (IHR), resource mobilization, and public health program development among others. Dr Al-Nsour is a lecturer and speaker at regional and international levels covering public health topics such as leadership, field epidemiology, delivering evidence-based recommendations, creating new opportunities, and being a catalyst for change. Some of his areas of expertise are infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases (NCD), and global health.

Dr Al-Nsour serves on several regional and global initiatives, associations, and networks as he is the Deputy Chair of the Steering Committee for the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), and a member of the Steering Committee for Roadmap on Public Health and Emergency Workforce (WHO), FETP Enterprise’s Strategic Leadership Group (SLG), IHR Review Committee of IHR amendments, Middle East and North Africa Health Policy Forum (MENA HPF), and many others. He is also the founder of the International Academy of Public Health (IAPH).

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC): Mr Thomas Hofmann

Mr Thomas Hofmann is heading the Section “Emergency Preparedness and Response” at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm. This Section also hosts the Secretariat for the EU Health Task Force, which supports countries in their national preparedness and response work.

Before he joined the Centre in 2021, he was working for WHO and the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) in various offices and functions. Besides directly supporting low- and middle-income countries with capacity building and during response operations, he was coordinating the implementation and application of the International Health Regulations (IHR) in the WHO European Region and supporting IHR Review and Emergency Committees at WHO Headquarters. Mr Hofmann was involved in several outbreak and crisis responses, on the national level by mobilizing support, e.g. during his earlier employment with the German Federal Ministry of Health, on the international level by coordinating support, and on the field level while being deployed, e.g. in Liberia during the EVD outbreak.

International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B): Dr Lubaba Shahrin

Dr Lubaba Shahrin, MBBS, FCPS, is a Pediatrician of ICDDR,B and working as a unit in charge of the Short Stay Ward of Dhaka Hospital. Dr Shahrin joined as a Clinical Fellow in 2006 and is currently holding the Associate Scientist position. Dr Shahrin’s professional career focused on emerging infectious diseases, diarrhoeal illnesses, malnutrition, child TB, Sepsis, and acute respiratory infections. She has experience in the clinical care of PLHIV from 2009-2015. In 2014, she was awarded an HIV/ID clinical observership program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Weill Cornell Medical College, USA.

Each year at ICDDR,B there are two seasonal surges of diarrheal patients, leading to daily over 800 admissions but in the year 2022, as many as 1,379 diarrhoea patients were admitted to ICDDR,B in 24 hours breaking all previous records. Dr Shahrin and the hospital team swiftly tackled effective treatment of dehydrated patients and successfully supervised and managed the situation, keeping the fatality rate below <2%. She has conducted Train the trainers (TOT) programs in case management of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) in many national crisis preparedness workshops in Barisal, Cox’s bazaar Rohingya refugee camp to name a few. In 2017, she was deployed to Ethiopia for three weeks. Funded by Global Affairs of Canada (GAC) to conduct nationwide training for IPC and Case Management for COVID-19, Dr Shahrin and her team efficaciously trained over 750 healthcare workers in the past year. Currently, she is working as a Child TB trainer for USAID’s Alliance for Combating TB in Bangladesh (ACTB).

Over her research career, she has authored 50+ journal publications and 15+ conference proceedings, including clinical trials on severe pneumonia. Dr Shahrin is a member of the Bangladesh Pediatric Association, elected as a young member of the Commonwealth Association of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (CAPGAN), European Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID), and American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH).

Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Virales Humanas "Dr Julio I. Maiztegui" (INEVH)-ANLIS "Dr Carlos G. Malbràn": Dr Alejandra Morales

Dr Alejandra Morales has extensive experience in virology, with specific training and specialization in laboratory surveillance of viruses transmitted by vectors and rodents, acquired during 25 years of uninterrupted work at the National Institute of Human Viral Diseases "Dr. Julio I. Maiztegui” (INEVH) in Pergamino, WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center on Viral Hemorrhagic Fever and Arbovirus in Argentina. Since 2004, she has been focused on developing and structuring a national network of laboratories for integrated laboratory surveillance of arboviruses in Argentina and coordinating the activities of the National Reference Center for Arbovirosis. In 2014, she became head of the Virology and Immunology Division and currently is the Head of the Referential Research and Diagnosis Department. In 2018, she took over as director of activities of the Collaborating Center. In the last two decades, the center has successfully detected the appearance and reemergence in Argentina of the four serotypes of the Dengue virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus, West Nile virus, Yellow Fever virus, Chikungunya and Zika, in addition to leading studies on Mammarenavirus and Hantavirus in the country and the region. Dr Morales is a biochemist trained at the University of La Plata (UNLP) and has obtained her PhD in Biological Sciences at the Universidad Nacional del Litoral (UNL). In 2022, she has been selected as Coordinator of the RELDA (Network of Laboratories of the Americas for Arbovirus Diagnosis) in support of the PAHO technical secretariat.

International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: Ms Gwendoline Eamer

Gwen Eamer is a humanitarian public health specialist with more than 15 years of experience in emergency management. Gwen is a public health in emergencies generalist, with experience implementing long-term community health programmes in conflict zones, in recovery from disasters and epidemics, and leading outbreak responses ranging from Ebola to cholera to COVID. She brings a wealth of experience in community-based emergency response, participatory planning and implementation of health programming, and training of local health workers and emergency responders. Gwen holds an M.Sc. in Global Health, and leads the Public Health in Emergencies file at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), where she is responsible for global epidemic response tools, coordination of health responses, and development of tools for volunteer-based action to improve health outcomes in emergencies.

International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC): Dr Gail Carson

Currently, Dr Carson is helping WHO EURO with the new regional strategy Preparedness 2.0 in the role of Chair of the Technical Advisory Group (TAG). Dr Gail Carson became Chair of the GOARN Steering Committee in June 2022 after 4 years of being the Deputy Chair. The Ebola outbreak in Gulu was the first outbreak that Dr Carson participated in as a GOARN in 2000. Over the subsequent years, Dr Carson was deployed again to VHF outbreaks and to WHO Geneva, where she supported a number of activities around clinical care and training for outbreaks. Dr Carson completed her adult infectious diseases clinical training in the UK and took up a consultant post with the public health agency of England in 2008. Leaving in 2012 to help set up the international clinical research consortium ISARIC, based at the University of Oxford. In 2016, ISARIC and Dr Carson were selected for the GOARN SCOM, and in 2017, she set up the GOARN research. More recently, Dr Carson led, on behalf of SCOM, the GOARN strategy revision 2022-2026. GOARN partners continue to inspire and humble Dr Carson, and she looks forward to seeing out her tenure as the Chair of the GOARN Steering Committee and working closely with the Operational Support Team, GOARN Regional focal points, WHO, and, of course, the GOARN Partners.

Medecins Sans Frontiers, International: Dr Daniela Garone

Dr Daniela Garone is a medical doctor from Argentina, specializing in infectious diseases, internal medicine and clinical and pharmacological research. Daniela has more than 25 years working in the clinical field and 13 years of experience managing medical programs in resource-limited settings working with Médecins sans Frontières (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Malawi, South Sudan and South Africa). She has more than 20 years of experience working in clinical, pharmacological and operational research as a study coordinator as well as principal investigator. She has also always sought to integrate operational research into the clinical service delivery elements of her work in resource-limited settings to further extend the impact and efficiency of health services. Daniela is a serving HIV-TB Expert member in the Technical Review Panel (TRP) at The Global Fund, she has participated in different TRP working groups and led revisions of the GF Strategic Initiatives. She is also a reviewer of the JAIDS-BMC-Lancet-TB union and others.

Daniela is the International Medical Coordinator of MSF, representing MSF in the ICG for Ebola, Meningitis, Cholera and Yellow Fever, at the GFTCC SCOM, GOARN SCOM, Humanitarian Buffer as well as different working groups for disease elimination. Dr Garone is always looking for acquiring the necessary skills and qualifications to perform her best in her responsibility toward high-quality outcomes that can improve patients' health and well-being.

National University of Singapore (NUS): Dr Louisa Sun

Dr Louisa Sun (MBBS, MPH) is an Infectious Diseases physician from Singapore (Alexandra Hospital, National University Health System). She started her specialist career by stepping up as ID lead of her hospital and helming various internal and external COVID-19 response measures and operations throughout the pandemic, including being at the forefront of managing the dormitory outbreaks, leading risk communication and engagement efforts for migrant workers, and managing community isolation and treatment facilities. For her contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic response, Dr Sun was awarded the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in the National Awards (COVID-19), and the Healthcare Humanity Award in 2023.

She is a founding member and Deputy Director of the Centre for Infectious Disease Emergency Response (CIDER), Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). CIDER is an education hub that aims to provide effective and diverse training programmes to enable Singapore and regional partners to strengthen their capacities to prevent, detect, and effectively respond to infectious disease emergencies.

Dr Sun takes a special interest in emerging infectious diseases, outbreak response, infection control and antimicrobial resistance. She currently heads the Infection Prevention and Control Unit of her hospital, and serves on multiple committees in the Ministry of Health MOH for infection control and antimicrobial resistance, including being the vice-chair of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Control Committee (NARCC).

Robert Koch Institute: Dr Andreas Jansen

Dr Jansen is currently working for the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin as the Head of the Information Center for International Health Protection (INIG). He is a trained MD with a postgraduate degree in field epidemiology (EPIET), a diploma in Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine, and a board certification in epidemiology.

From 2016-18, he worked at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. As part of the GOARN operation support team, his main task was to coordinate the work on Rapid Response Capacities. From 2010-2015, he was employed as Head of the Section for Scientific Advice Coordination at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm. He was responsible for developing and implementing SOPs and workflows for scientific advice at ECDC, including their IT implementation. Other responsibilities included country assessment missions, evaluation of public health measures, and production guidelines and recommendations based on the available evidence.

In 2015, he was employed as a senior consultant at the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office in Manila, as part of the response team for the MERS outbreak. In addition, he was a member of several public health emergency response teams (pandemic influenza, Q fever, EHEC) both on national and international levels. He has extensive working experience in outbreak response and was the principal investigator in several outbreak investigations.

University of Nebraska: Dr Ali Khan

Dr Ali S. Khan, MD, MPH, MBA, is Dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and a former Assistant Surgeon General with the US Public Health Service. Dr Khan’s professional career has focused on health security, global health, and emerging infectious diseases. He completed a 23-year career as a senior director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which he joined as a disease detective, and where he led and responded to numerous high-profile domestic and international public health emergencies. Dr Khan was one of the main architects of CDC’s national health security program and continues this work at UNMC.

He also continues to actively support global outbreak responses such as the response to the Ebola-Sudan outbreak in Uganda, West Africa Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, and the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh as a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Outbreak And Response Network.

As Dean of the UNMC College of Public Health, his focus is on the health system and community-based health transformations. His vision is for the College to play an integral role in creating the next generation of Public Health Guardians and devising innovative solutions and new interventions to address public health challenges. The College is committed to education with a purpose measured by the impact on our communities and has numerous training opportunities for research and practice health security experts.

Dr Khan received his medical degree from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn and has a Master of Public Health from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health and an MBA from University of Nebraska. He completed his paediatrics and internal medicine training at the University of Michigan. He has authored numerous papers and publications and has consulted extensively for multiple US organizations, ministries of health, and the World Health Organization. Dr Khan is the author of The Next Pandemic: On the Front Lines Against Humankind’s Gravest Dangers.

Public Health Agency of Canada: Dr Njoo Howard

Dr Howard Njoo is the Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada and directly supports the Chief Public Health Officer in providing public health advice, speaking to Canadians and representing the Agency in a variety of domestic and international fora. In addition, Dr Njoo is the Co-Chair of the Communicable and Infectious Diseases Steering Committee reporting to the Public Health Network Council in Canada.

Dr Njoo has worked at all three levels of the federal system of government in Canada as a public health physician and medical epidemiologist, as well as having practiced as a front line clinician in infectious diseases, for over thirty years. At the Public Health Agency of Canada, he has held a number of senior positions in both infectious diseases and emergency management and has been engaged at a senior level in the management of infectious disease outbreaks in Canada, including SARS in 2003 and H1N1 influenza in 2009. He has also been actively engaged in international health activities, including deployments to Haiti after the earthquake in 2010 and to Guinea for the Ebola outbreak in 2015. He is the designated state expert for Canada to the World Health Organization (WHO) for the International Health Regulations (IHR) and has participated in several Joint External Evaluations for the IHR. Dr. Njoo is also currently a member of the WHO’s Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework Advisory Group.

Dr Njoo earned his medical degree and a Master’s in Health Science from the University of Toronto. He subsequently earned his certification with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in community medicine.

American University of Beirut: Dr Ghassan M. Matar

Dr Ghassan M. Matar (GMM) is currently a Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Experimental Pathology, Immunology & Microbiology, Co-Director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research (CIDR) and Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Reference and Research on Bacterial Pathogens at the Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut, Lebanon.

Professor Matar was a post-doctoral fellow (Fulbright) at the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) and Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA and a Research Microbiologist at the Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, CDC. He served as the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Ambassador to Lebanon and member/Chairperson of the ASM Ambassador Leadership Circle. He served as a resource advisor in the WHO-Advisory Group on Integrated Surveillance of Antimicrobial Agents (AGISAR). GMM’s Laboratory is also a PulseNet Laboratory certified by CDC/NAMRU3. To present he published 140 articles in refereed international journals and presented 150 abstracts at international, regional and local conferences. He received funding from various extramural sources including CDC (BAA)WHO EMRO, the US Department of Defense (DOD), WHO-AGISAR, the Lebanese Ministry of Health (MoPH) and pharmaceutical companies.

Professor Matar’s research interests include: 1) Molecular epidemiology of foodborne pathogens (PulseNet), 2) Molecular mechanisms of resistance to antimicrobial agents in pathogenic bacteria, 3) Combating antimicrobial resistance by combination therapy and beta-lactamase inhibitors and 4) Genetic basis of biofilm production in P. aeruginosa isolated from patients with nosocomial infections and potential inhibition of biofilm formation by Micafungin and natural products in vitro and in vivo studies.

Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade: Mr Sean Starmer

Mr Sean Starmer is the acting Assistant Secretary of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, a specialist branch within the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade responsible for policy and program implementation in relation to the control of infectious diseases in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. In this capacity, he oversaw significant elements of Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine sharing efforts, which saw Australia provide more than 52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines and tailored support to national vaccine campaigns in countries in the Indo-Pacific.

The Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security leads the implementation of Australia’s Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative, an AUD 620 million initiative to support partner countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia to build resilient and equitable health systems. This includes support for training for outbreak responders and for GOARN’s operations.

Mr Starmer has previously worked in roles in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and in Australia’s diplomatic missions in China and India.

Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University, Nepal: Professor/Dr Prakash Ghimire

Prof Dr Prakash Ghimire, a prof of Microbiology at the Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University (CDMi-TU), a GOARN partner institute, brings broad knowledge and skills from his PhD in microbiology of infectious diseases from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. He is an alumnus of the WHO Advanced Course in Vaccinology, Biotechnology and Immunology (2002) and Surveillance of Transmissible Diseases, Swiss TPH 2002

Prof Ghimire has > 15 years (2005-2021) of WHO Country (Nepal), region (SEAR, WPR) & HQ (Geneva) work experience with 2009 Influenza Pandemic preparedness and response, avian influenza outbreak investigation and response in Nepal during the 2010-2017, vaccine-preventable disease lab-based surveillance and outbreak response to Polio/Measles/JE/AES outbreaks during 2004-2007. He is trained in emerging infectious disease detection, intervention prognosis evaluation, disease control measures and monitoring of the program/intervention effectiveness in different instances by WHO, CDC, AFRIMS and other agencies. He brings knowledge and skills in all in-vivo clinical, in-vitro labs, and field-based investigations of infections.

Prof Ghimire is also a Member-WHO COVID-19 Ethics & Governance WG- 2022, Member of the WHO-Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on “Hand hygiene in health care and other infection prevention and control interventions research and guidance. Prof Ghimire has also served as a Chairperson National Ethical Review Board (Aug 2018-Aug 2021), is an ISO 15189:2012assessor of the Diagnostic Medical Laboratory and has served as an American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Ambassador for Nepal during 2012-2017. He has played vital roles in strengthening diagnostic laboratory, AMR surveillance and biosafety capacity development in the country.

Prof Ghimire is the GOARN Primary Focal Point at Central Department of Microbiology, Tribhuvan University (CDMi-TU) Nepal, supervised >10 Ph D and >75 Masters in Medical and Public Health Microbiology students, and teaches wet & dry labs and skill-based field work in disease surveillance, outbreak investigations and response, fundamental epidemiology and clinical microbiology and published >145 original research articles in peer-reviewed international professional journals.

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA): Dr Edmund Newman

Dr Ed Newman is the Director of the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team - a partnership between the UK Health Security Agency and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, funded with UK aid by the UK Department of Health and Social Care, that responds rapidly to disease outbreaks in low- and middle-income countries around the world, conducts operational research into epidemic preparedness and response, and works with partner countries to help strengthen their own capacity for improved response.

Ed is a virologist by training, receiving a doctorate in molecular virology from Kings College London in 2006 and with over ten years’ technical expertise in applied research, surveillance and response to emerging human high consequence viruses with the Health Protection Agency/Public Health England at Porton Down. His outbreak response experience includes providing and managing initial diagnostic lab, and operational research, teams for Haemorrhagic Fever Virus outbreaks in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Uganda. Prior to joining UK-PHRST, he was Head of Global Operations at the UK Health Security Agency (formally Public Health England) for 5yrs where he facilitated the delivery and operational management of the portfolio of Global Health Security capacity and systems strengthening programmes within the Global Operations directorate at UKHSA.

National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) : Dr Jacqueline Weyer

Jacqueline Weyer is the Head of the Centre for Emerging Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases. For 17 years, she has been leading the team responsible for laboratory investigations of human rabies, viral heamorrhagic fevers, arboviruses, and other emerging zoonotic diseases (such as mpox) of concern to the health of the South African public. In the past 10 years, Jacqueline has authored and co-authored more than 60 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and seven chapters in books, and achieved a National Research Foundation C2 rating since 2017. She serves on several national and regional committees and working groups pertaining to laboratory biosafety and biosecurity, rabies and other zoonoses, and One Health. She has been co-chairing the National One Health Forum in South Africa since its inception and a member of the National Rabies Advisory Group since 2008. She serves as the Deputy Chair of the ASSAf Standing Committee on Biosafety and Biosecurity and the Lead for the Implementation of the International Health Regulations in South Africa, Biosafety and Biosecurity work package.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): Dr Douglas Noble

Dr Douglas Noble (BSc, BMBCh, MRCS, MPH, MD(Res), FRSPH, FFPH) is the Associate Director for Public Health Emergencies Preparedness and Response for UNICEF. As the global lead for public health emergencies in UNICEF he is driven by a desire to ensure that girls and boys, families and communities are prepared and protected during public health emergencies.

Dr Noble first joined UNICEF in 2013 as the Regional Health Adviser for South Asia based in Kathmandu, Nepal. He later joined UNICEF China as the Deputy Representative from 2017 - 2023.

He has also previously worked in the UK National Health Service, Department of Health and Health Protection Agency, with the World Health Organization, and was a Harkness Fellow with the Commonwealth Fund. He has an honorary academic affiliation with the University of Oxford.

Dr Noble studied science at the University of St. Andrews and medicine at Oxford University. He has a master’s degree and research doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins and Queen Mary University of London, respectively. He is a British national.

United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Dr Athalia Christie

Athalia Christie, DrPH, MIA, is the Principal Deputy Director for the Global Health Center at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Dr Christie supports Global Health operations and provides leadership and guidance in science, implementation research, and response activities, ensuring high-quality and comprehensive program delivery. Dr Christie received her Doctorate in Epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University and a Master’s in International Affairs with a concentration in public health from Columbia University. Dr Christie previously served as the Global Health Center’s Associate Director for Emergency Response and Preparedness, coordinating global emergency response work across CDC, the USG inter-agency and our global partners. During her time in this position, she served three times as the Senior U.S. Government Official overseeing interagency response teams spanning at least 12 federal departments and agencies, twice for Marburg Virus Disease (2023 and 2024) and for Clade 1 Mpox (2024). Previously, Dr. Christie served as the CDC's Ebola Response Lead in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the Principal Deputy Incident Manager for DRC Ebola, COVID-19, Multi-national Mpox, and Marburg responses. Throughout her 27-year career at the CDC, Dr Christie has consistently displayed commitment to improving global health outcomes, successfully leading local, national, and international public health programs. Dr Christie has expertise in outbreak response, disease control, and policy. She has received many awards for her service, including the Watsonian Public Health Advisor of the Year, the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, and the American Red Cross’ Spirit of Excellence.