Lancet Commissioners — NCDI Poverty Network

The Lancet Commission on Reframing NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion was formed to address what is both one of the most glaring inequities in global health and one of the most critical barriers to reaching global and national goals for universal health coverage and sustainable development — the crushing burden of noncommunicable diseases and injuries on the world’s poorest populations.

Commission Co-Chairs

Ana Olga Mocumbi

Prof. Dr. Ana Olga Mocumbi (MD, PhD, FESC) is the Co-Chair of the NCDI Poverty Network. She is a cardiologist with a particular interest in neglected cardiovascular diseases specifically rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathies, heart failure in young people, and women’s cardiovascular health. She is Professor of Cardiology at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM), Mozambique and is Head of the Division of Non-Communicable Diseases at the National Public Health Institute (INS), at the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.

Dr. Mocumbi obtained an MD in 1992 at UEM. She worked in several rural areas of Mozambique from 1992 - 1997 acting as a general practitioner and health manager, gaining experience on management of National Control Programs for major endemic diseases.

Her post-graduate training in cardiology was done in Mozambique (Central Hospital of Maputo and Instituto do Coração) and France (Hospital Necker-Enfants Malades). She holds a Diploma in Pediatric Cardiology from the University René Descartes, Paris V - France.

Dr. Mocumbi worked as a Research Assistant at the Imperial College London (from 2004 until 2008) where she obtained her PhD investigating the Epidemiology of Neglected Cardiovascular Diseases. Under this program she launched a research project on Endomyocardial Fibrosis, which included large-scale community-based studies and clinical research in a rural endemic area of Mozambique (Inharrime), involving collaboration with the Heart Science Centre and Magdi Yacoub Research Institute in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Mocumbi is involved in several local and international research projects and partnerships including international registries and clinical trials. She is Editor of the Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy Journal and has published original papers in peer-reviewed journals and didactic publications.

She is currently Vice President of the Pan African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR) South Region (and Member of the PASCAR Taskforce on Hypertension), Co-Leader of the Pulmonary Vascular Research Institute for the Sub-Saharan Region and Member of the World Heart Federation’s Scientific Policy and Advocacy Committee.

Gene Bukhman

Gene Bukhman, MD, PhD, is the Network Steering Committee Co-Chair. Dr. Bukhman is a cardiologist and medical anthropologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where he founded the Center for Integration Science and serves as its Executive Director. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he also directs the Program in Global Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) and Social Change. He is the Senior Health and Policy Advisor on NCDs to Partners In Health (PIH), the Director of the BWH Advanced Clinical Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Global Health Equity, and the Director of the BWH Research Fellowship in Type 1 Diabetes and Global Health Equity. Dr. Bukhman completed his medical training and doctorate in medical anthropology at the University of Arizona, an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a cardiology fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Over the past 15 years, Dr. Bukhman has argued that for those living in extreme poverty, NCDs are best understood as part of the “long tail” of global health equity that demands a new “science of integration.” He has translated this critique into practical delivery strategies such as the Package of Essential NCD Interventions – Plus (PEN-Plus), that are now impacting patients' lives in more than a dozen countries.

Dr. Bukhman is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters that apply a range of methodologies from ethnography and archival research to epidemiology and mathematical modeling to identify solutions to the problem of “NCDI Poverty.” Dr. Bukhman was the lead-author and co-chair of the 1996-2020 Lancet Commission on Reframing NCDs and Injuries for the Poorest Billion, and is co-chair of the 22-country NCDI Poverty Network launched in December of 2020 to support implementation of the Lancet Commission’s recommendations.

Commissioners

Bongani M. Mayosi (in memoriam)

Bongani M. Mayosi, MBChB, DPhi (1967-2018) was Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town. He qualified in medicine from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, and trained in internal medicine and cardiology in Cape Town. He was the Nuffield Oxford Medical Fellow in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Oxford from 1998 to 2001. His research interests included genetics of cardiovascular traits, treatment of tuberculous pericarditis, and prevention of rheumatic heart disease. He was the Chairman of the South African National Health Research Committee, President of the Pan-African Society of Cardiology (PASCAR), and Associate Editor for Africa of Circulation. In November 2009, President Jacob Zuma bestowed upon him South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver, for excellent contributions to medical science.

Rifat Atun

Dr. Rifat Atun (MBBS, MBA, DIC, FRGP, FFPH, FRCP) is Professor of Global Health Systems at Harvard University, and the Director of Global Health Systems Cluster at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2006-13, Dr Atun was Professor of International Health Management and Head of the Health Management Group at Imperial College London. In 2008-12 he served as the Director of Strategy, Performance, and Evaluation Cluster at The Global Fund.

Prof. Atun is a co-Investigator at the National Centre for Infection Prevention and Management at Imperial College and a co-Investigator for ‘Organisational Change, Sustainability and Evaluation’ at Imperial College and Cambridge University Health Protection Research Unit for Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection. He has published widely in various peer-reviewed medical and global health journals. Prof. Atun was the Founding Director of the MSc in International Health Management, BSc in Management and Medical Science, and Founding Co-Director of the Masters in Public Health (MPH) Programme at Imperial College.

Prof. Atun has worked with several governments as well as the World Bank, World Health Organization, and the UK Department for International Development to design, implement and evaluate health system reform initiatives. He has led research and consultancy projects for GSK, Pfizer Inc., the Vodafone Group, Hofmann La Roche, PA Consulting, and Tata Consulting Services. Prof. Atun is a member of the MRC (UK) Global Health Group, the US Institute of Medicine Standing Committee on Strengthening Health Systems, and the Research Advisory Committee for the Public Health Foundation of India. He served as a member of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board, the Norwegian Research Council’s Global Health and Vaccination Research Board. He was a Member of the Advisory Committee for WHO Research Centre for Health Development in Japan and the Strategic Technical Advisory Group of the WHO for Tuberculosis. He chaired the WHO Task Force on Health Systems and Tuberculosis Control and was the Chair of the STOP TB Partnership Coordinating Board.

Prof. Atun studied medicine at University of London as a Commonwealth Scholar and completed his postgraduate medical studies and an MBA administration at University of London and Imperial College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (UK), Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK).

Anne Becker

Anne E. Becker, MD, PhD, SM is Dean for Clinical and Academic Affairs, Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

An anthropologist and psychiatrist, Dr. Becker’s areas of research focus include the social and cultural mediation of embodied experience as well as presentation and risk for eating disorders, social barriers to care for mental disorders, and school-based mental health promotion. Her investigation of the impact of rapid social transition on eating pathology and other youth health risk behaviors in the small-scale indigenous iTaukei population of Fiji, has illuminated understanding of how social determinants and cultural exposures moderate risk for eating pathology and has deepened an understanding of the global reach of these serious mental disorders.

Dr. Becker received her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Harvard College (1983) and received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and doctoral degree in anthropology from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (1990). After completing residency training and a fellowship in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, she completed a master’s degree in epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Prior to serving as HMS Dean for Clinical and Academic Affairs, Dr. Becker had served as vice chair of the HMS Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, director of the HMS MD-PhD Social Sciences program, and founding director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program.

Dr. Becker is former co editor-in-chief of Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, former associate editor of the International Journal of Eating Disorders, past president of the Academy for Eating Disorders, and served as a member of the American Psychiatry Association’s DSM-5 Eating Disorders Work Group.

Dr. Becker is a Senior Fellow of the Group for the Advancement for Psychiatry and a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders. She was selected as the 2008-2009 Elizabeth S. and Richard M. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, delivered a Distinguished Scientist Lecture at the 2015 American Psychiatric Association annual meeting, received the 2013 Price Family Award for Research Excellence from the National Eating Disorders Association, and was the recipient of the 2018 Leadership Award in Research from the Academy for Eating Disorders.

Zulfiqar Bhutta

Zulfiqar A. Bhutta (PhD, MBBS) is the Robert Harding Inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, the co-Director of the SickKids center for Global Child Health and the Founding Director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, at the Aga Khan University, unique joint appointments. He is a designated Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan and was the Founding Chair of the National Research Ethics Committee of the Government of Pakistan from 2003-2014. Dr Bhutta is one of the seven member Independent Expert Review Group (iERG) appointed by the UN Secretary General for monitoring global progress in maternal and child health MDGs.

Professor Bhutta was educated at the University of Peshawar (MBBS) and obtained his PhD from the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh & London), the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (London), American Academy of Pediatrics and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He heads a large research team in Pakistan working on issues of maternal, newborn and child survival and nutrition globally and regionally.

Dr. Bhutta is on several international editorial advisory boards including the Lancet, BMJ, PLoS Medicine, PLoS ONE, BMC Public Health and the Cochrane ARI group. He has published eight books, 75 book chapters, and over 600 indexed publications to date, including 110 in the world’s leading journal Lancet alone. He has been a leading member of recent major Lancet series. He has won several awards, including the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence) by the President of Pakistan for contributions towards education and research (2000), the President of Pakistan Gold Medal for contributions to Child Health in Pakistan (2004) and the Outstanding Pediatrician of Asia award by the Asia Pacific Pediatric Association (2006). He is the first recipient of the Aga Khan University Distinguished Faculty Award for Research (2005) and Award of Distinction (2012). Dr Bhutta was awarded the inaugural Programme for Global Pediatric Research Award for Outstanding Contributions to Global Child Health (2009) and the Kenneth Warren prize for the best systematic review of community based interventions by the Cochrane collaboration in 2011. Dr Bhutta was awarded the Global Advocacy Prize by the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health in 2012, the AAP Sam Fomon Award for lifetime contributions to Nutrition Research (2014), and the WHO Ihsan Dogramaci award (2014) for substantial contributions to Family Health globally.

Agnes Binajwaho

Professor Binagwaho is a Rwandan pediatrician who returned to Rwanda in July of 1996, two years after the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi. Since then, she has provided clinical care in the public sector as well as held a number of project management, health system strengthening, and government positions. Professor Binagwaho currently resides in Kigali.

She completed her MD in General Medicine at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and her MA in Pediatrics at the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Dartmouth College and earned a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Rwanda College of Business and Economics, with her PhD Dissertation titled "Children’s Right to Health in the Context of the HIV Epidemic.

Professor Binagwaho was named Vice Chancellor of the Partners In Health initiative, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), in 2017. From 2002-2016, she served the Rwandan Health Sector in high-level government positions, first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission, she then served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and later during 5 years as the Minister of Health. She is a Senior Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, a Professor of the Practice of Global Health Delivery and Professor of Pediatrics at UGHE, as well as an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.

She has held an array of leadership and advisory positions on national and international scale. From 2016 she is a member of the American National Academy of medicine and since 2017 a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Presently, she serves on: the African Advisory Board of the Steven Lewis Foundation; the Global Task Force on Expanded Access to Cancer Care and Control in Developing Countries; the Global He@lth Innovative Task Force; several editorial boards of scientific journals; she was a member of the Advisory Committee of the Disease Control Priorities 3 (DCP3); and multiple past and present Lancet Commissions, including the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health (2012-14), the Lancet Commission for Women and Health (2012-14), the Lancet-O'Neill Institute Georgetown University Commission on Global Health and Law, the Harvard Global Equity Initiative - Lancet Commission on Global Access to Pain Control and Palliative Care, the Lancet Commission for the Future of Health in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology Commission, and the Lancet NCDI Poverty Commission: Reframing NCDs and Injuries of the Poorest Billion.

In 2015, She received the annual Roux Prize and Ronald McDonald House Charities Award of Excellence. With over 180 peer-reviewed publications, her academic engagements include research across areas including, leadership accountability, universal health coverage, health system strengthening, health equity, and access to health services for the general and pediatric population.

Chelsea Clinton

As vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to help create economic opportunity, improve public health, and inspire civic engagement and service across the United States and around the world. In particular, Chelsea focuses on promoting early brain and language development through the Too Small to Fail initiative, and uplifting/empowering female entrepreneurs and women-led businesses around the world through initiatives like the Caribbean-focused Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network. She also serves on the boards of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

In addition to her Foundation work, Chelsea also teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and has written several books for young readers, including the #1 New York Times bestselling She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World as well as She Persisted Around the World, She Persisted in Sports, Start Now! You Can Make a Difference; Don’t Let Them Disappear; and It’s Your World: Get Informed, Get Inspired & Get Going. She is also the co-author of The Book of Gutsy Women and Grandma’s Gardens with her mom Hillary Clinton and of Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why? with Devi Sridhar.

Chelsea holds a Bachelor of Arts from Stanford, a Master of Public Health from Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health, and both a Master of Philosophy and a Doctorate in international relations from Oxford University. She lives with her husband Marc, their children Charlotte, Aidan and Jasper, and dog Soren in New York City.

Katie Dain

Katie Dain (MSc) is Executive Director of the NCD Alliance, a global network of civil society organizations working collectively to transform the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs). She joined the NCD Alliance after four years at the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), a not-for-profit global federation of 220 member associations in 160 countries.

Before joining IDF, Katie was a Gender Policy Adviser in the UK Government Equalities Office (GEO), where she was responsible for strategy, policy, and initiatives on violence against women and girls. Prior to that she held a series of policy posts in UK-based health and development NGOs, including Womankind Worldwide and Terrence Higgins Trust, a HIV and sexual health charity. Katie has a Master’s degree in Violence, Conflict and International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Suraya Dalil

Suraya Dalil (MD, MPH) was born in Kabul in February 1970. She graduated from Zarghona High School of Kabul in 1985 and studied medicine at Kabul Medical University from 1986 to 1991, graduating with highest honors and top in her classIn 2004, Dr. Dalil was awarded a Presidential Scholarship from the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.

She returned to Afghanistan with a Master’s Degree in Health Care Management in 2005. Her experiences include working with the Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) where she participated in provision of health care to thousands of Tajik refugees who had fled fighting in Tajikistan and sought refuge in northern Afghanistan. - winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan from 1992 to 1993 Her next assignment was with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in 1993-94 where she focused on medical assistance to Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan and Iran.

In 1994, Dr. Dalil joined UNICEF Afghanistan and continued her career with UNICEF focusing on maternal and child health until end of 2009. Her work in Mazar-i-Sharif, Islamabad and Kabul with UNICEF Afghanistan enabled her to contribute to her country’s health care and overall wellbeing at a time that the country faced a very difficult political and socio-economic time. In 2002-03, she participated in the Afghanistan Maternal Mortality Study that was carried out by the Ministry of Public Health, Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF - one of the most important public health studies in Afghanistan’s recent history that has greatly influenced policy decisions on maternal health for many years.

In the mid-2007 she was assigned as the Chief of Health and Nutrition Program of UNICEF Somalia taking her experiences and commitment to east Africa. She worked for Somalia until December 2009 where she led a large scale nutrition, immunization and communicable disease control program. In January 2010 she was assigned by the President of Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan as the Acting Minister of Public Health and from March 2012 to December 2014 she was the Minister of Public Health. Her mother tongue is Uzbeki, she can speak Dari, Pashtu and English. She is mother of three children.

Majid Ezzati

Majid Ezzati is Professor of Global Environmental Health at Imperial College London. Majid and his research group have conducted field studies on air pollution in Kenya, Ghana, The Gambia, and China. He led the World Health Organization’s Comparative Risk Assessment Study, which was the first consistent global analysis of behavioural, environmental, nutritional, psychosocial, and metabolic risk factors and formed the scientific core of World Health Report 2002: Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life. Majid leads the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (www.ncdrisc.org) and co-leads NCD Countdown 2030 (www.ncdcountdown.org), worldwide scientific collaborations that aim to strengthen the evidence for more effective NCD prevention and management. He also leads Pathways to Equitable Healthy Cities (www.equitablehealthycities.org), a global partnership that aims to improve population health, enhance health equity and ensure environmental sustainability in cities around the world through co-production of rigorous evidence with policy and civil society partners in cities in six countries. He is a fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences.

Gary Gottlieb

Gary Gottlieb is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

From 2015 through June of 2019, he served as CEO of Partners In Health, a global NGO providing a preferential option for the poor in health care in severely resource constrained settings. He assumed this role after serving on the PIH Board of Directors for a decade.

From 2010 until February of 2015, Dr. Gottlieb was the CEO of Partners HealthCare (now MassGeneral Brigham), the parent of the Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals, the largest health care delivery organization in New England and among the largest biomedical research and training enterprises in the US. From 2002-2009, he was President of Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Previously, he served as President of North Shore Medical Center and as Chair of Partners Psychiatry and Mental Health System.

Dr. Gottlieb served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 2012-2016 and as its chair from 2016-2018. From 2006-2016, he was Chair of the Boston Private Industry Council, the workforce board of the City of Boston.

Prior to coming to Boston, Dr. Gottlieb spent 15 years in positions of increasing leadership in health care in Philadelphia. He established the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s first program in geriatric psychiatry and developed it into a nationally recognized research, training, and clinical program. He served as executive vice-chair of psychiatry and associate dean for managed care at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, and as director and CEO of Friends Hospital, the nation’s first freestanding psychiatric hospital.

Dr. Gottlieb received a B.Sc. cum laude from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.D. from Albany Medical College in a six-year accelerated program and he completed a psychiatry residency at New York University/Bellevue Medical Center. As a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Penn, he earned an M.B.A. with distinction from Wharton.

Indrani Gupta

Indrani Gupta (PhD) is Professor and Head of the Health Policy Research Unit of the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), Delhi, India. Prof. Gupta received her PhD in Economics from the University of Maryland, USA. She set up a centre for health economics and policy research in her institute, the first of its kind in India. The Health Policy Research at IEG remains one among the few places in India that undertakes policy-oriented research on the health sector using tools of economic analysis.

Prof Gupta’s work experience has been diverse, including teaching and academic institutes, the World Bank and the Government of India. Her areas of interest cover a wide range of topics in the area of health economics and policy, and include demand for health and health care, health insurance and financing, poverty and health, costing and cost-effectiveness, economics of diseases, and international agreements and their impact on public health. In addition to India, her country experience has been varied due to her various appointments and affiliations, and she has been working with the South East Asia Region of the WHO in the region on a variety of topics with a core focus on health financing.

In India, she serves on numerous academic, research and policy committees both in the government and outside of it. She has also served on various committees of global organizations such as the WHO and GFATM, and is currently the Co-Chair, WHO Global Coordinating Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases.

Adnan Hyder

Dr. Adnan Hyder is the Senior Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Global Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, USA. For over 20 years, Dr. Hyder has worked to improve global health in low- and middle- income countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East; and pioneered empirical work around road traffic injuries, trauma, health systems, and non-communicable diseases. He has conducted studies focusing on defining the epidemiological burden, understanding risk factors, exploring potential interventions, estimating economic impact, and appreciating the socio-cultural correlates of non-communicable diseases and their risk factors around the world. Currently, he also serves as the founding Director of the Center on Commercial Determinants of Health at George Washington University.

Dr. Hyder has extensive experience leading large capacity development programs in developing countries including several major training grants funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He has co-authored over 350 scientific peer-reviewed papers and numerous world reports with organizations like the World Bank, World Health Organization and UNICEF. Previously, Dr. Hyder served as Associate Chair of International Health and Director of Health Systems at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Associate Director for Global Programs at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics; and founding Director of the Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit. Dr. Hyder received his M.D. from the Aga Khan University, Pakistan and obtained his MPH and Ph.D. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Yogesh Jain

Yogesh Jain, MD, is a public health physician based in Chhattisgarh, Central India. He has been primarily involved in primary health care through founding and running community health programmes in rural Chhattisgarh in central India since 1999. He has been involved in understanding the political economy of illnesses and addressing technical and political issues that determine the health care for the rural poor through clinical care, observational research studies, training, and direct political work based on lived experience. He is a strident believer in the state as the primary provider of social services.

Julie Makani

Julie Makani, MD, PhD, FRCP, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Hematology and Blood Transfusion at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. She is a Consultant Physician and Principal Investigator (PI) for the Sickle Cell Program. With global partnerships, Muhimbili has developed a systematic framework for research, integrated into health, advocacy and education. With prospective surveillance (2004 – 2016) of over 5,000 SCD patients, this is one of the largest single-center, SCD research programs in the world. Scientific themes include clinical research, biomedical research (including genomics) and public health [including ethics, social/behavioral science, population health and health policy]. The aim is to use SCD as a model to establish scientific and healthcare solutions in Africa that are locally relevant and globally significant. Dr. Makani is also a Consultant Physician in Hematology and Blood Transfusion and Principal Investigator (PI) for Sickle Pan African Consortium (SPARCO)/ SickleInAfrica; site PI for MUHAS for H3ABioNet; Co-PI SickleGenAfrica; and a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians of United Kingdom and Tanzania Academy of Sciences.

Margaret Kruk

Margaret E. Kruk (MD, MPH) is Associate Professor of Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Kruk’s research generates evidence for improved health system quality and accountability in low- and middle-income countries. Her work focuses on the intersection of health care delivery and population expectations for health services with the aim of making health systems more responsive to users. In collaboration with academic colleagues and governments in low-income countries, she studies health care utilization and quality, maternal health, and population preferences for health service delivery. Dr. Kruk is also interested in the development of novel evaluation methods for assessing the effectiveness of complex interventions and health system reforms. She has worked in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Uganda, Zambia, Ghana, and Kenya.

Dr. Kruk served as Commissioner on the Lancet Global Health 2035 Commission on Investing in Health and currently serves on the Institute of Medicine Committee on Health System Strengthening. She is an editor of the Essential Surgery volume of the Disease Control Priorities Project, 3rd Edition. Prior to joining Harvard, Dr. Kruk was Associate Professor of Health Management and Policy and Director of the Better Health Systems Initiative at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She was previously Policy Advisor for Health at the United Nations Millennium Project, an advisory body to the UN Secretary-General on implementing the Millennium Development Goals. She holds an MD degree from McMaster University and an MPH from Harvard University.

J. Jamie Miranda

J. Jaime Miranda (MD, PhD, FFPH) is a physician trained as clinical epidemiologist in Peru, US and the UK with interests in research and public health. Dr. Miranda is Research Professor at the Department of Medicine, School of Medicine and Director of the CRONICAS Center of Excellence in Chronic Diseases at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH) in Lima, Peru.

Dr. Miranda has extensive experience with local and international collaborations in the non-profit sector, public sector and academia. His work brings together epidemiological and health policy aspects of chronic noncommunicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries with an emphasis on obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. Dr. Miranda is a Member of PLoS International Advisory Group, Councillor for Latin America & Caribbean of the International Epidemiological Association (2011-2014), and Co-Chair of the Joint Technical Steering Committee of the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases. In 2012, he was elected as a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom. Dr. Miranda trained in medicine at UPCH and earned a PhD in epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK).

Ole Frithjof Norheim

Ole F. Norheim is a physician and professor of medical ethics, Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care, University of Bergen, and adjunct professor of global health at the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. He directs the Bergen Centre for Ethics and Priority Setting (BCEPS) at the University of Bergen. Norheim chairs WHO's Technical Advisory Group on Health Benefit Packages (2019-21).

Norheim’s wide-ranging research interests include theories of distributive justice, inequality in health, priority setting in health systems, and how to achieve Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goal for health.

Norheim chaired the World Health Organization’s Consultative Group on Equity and Universal Health Coverage (2012-2014) and the third Norwegian National Committee on Priority Setting in Health Care (2013-2014).

Rachel Nugent

Rachel Nugent (PhD) is a senior professional with 30 years' experience in international development, including 13 years in global health policy. She joined the University of Washington in April 2011, and currently serves as Project Director of the Disease Control Priorities Network (DCP3) and Clinical Associate Professor in Global Health. Dr. Nugent is also a Disease Control Priorities 3 (DCP3) Series Editor, as well as editor for Volume 1 (Disease Control Priorities), Volume 5 (Vascular and Respiratory Disease), and Volume 7 (Environmental Health and Injury Prevention).

Dr. Nugent was formerly Deputy Director of Global Health at the Center for Global Development (CGD), Director of Health and Economics at the Population Reference Bureau (FRB), Program Director of Health and Economics Programs at the Fogarty International Center of National Insitutes for Health (NIH), and senior economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. She has advised the World Health Organization, the U.S. Government, and non-profit organizations on the economics and policy environment of NCDs. She was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Cardiovascular Disease Epidemic in Developing Countries, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Chronic Diseases and Well-Being, and a contributor to the Disease Control Priorities Project in Developing Countries, published in 2006. Her recent research includes tracking donor funding on NCDs and the linkages between agriculture and NCDs.

Nobhojit Roy

Nobhojit Roy (MD, MPH, PhD) trained as a General and Trauma surgeon in Mumbai, India and the U.K. He also holds a MPH from John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MA, USA and a PhD from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden on Injury epidemiology, trauma registries and health systems in resource-poor settings. He was Professor and Chief of Surgery at BARC Hospital, HBNI University (Govt of India) providing universal health care to 100,000 people in suburban Mumbai. His department is the designated WHO Collaborating centre for research in Surgical care delivery in the LMICs (SEARO region), which focuses on accessibility, burden of disease, preventable deaths and outcomes of NCDs. Thereafter, he was the National Advisor, Public Health Planning and Evidence at the think-tank of the Indian Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW), the National Health systems Resource centre (NHSRC). Currently, he is the Director of Health Systems Strengthening team at CARE-India, which is the Technical support and resource unit to the Health department of the state of Bihar with a population of 110 million. He has been one of the Lancet commissioners for Global Surgery (2013-2015).

Cristina Stefan

Cristina Stefan (MD, PhD) pediatrician who also qualified as an oncologist, completed a Masters in Epidemiology at York University in the UK, a PhD in medical education and a MBA at the International School of Management in Paris, France.

She chaired for a number of years the pediatric hematology oncology unit at Tygerberg Hospital, Stellenbosch University, where she founded the African Cancer Institute, following her continuous involvement and work with numerous African countries. Her activity included the first twinning program in oncology between two African countries, cancer education and research activities, leading pediatric cancer registry as well as contributions to various African National Cancer Control Plans.

She worked as Vice President of South African Medical Research Council, where she was responsible for the strategic planning of research (with a special focus on NCDs) as well as education, building up capacity, providing leadership and assuming accountability for the strategical and operational planning of the organization.

She received the award of the most influential woman in business in Africa in 2016, and continued her work as executive director of African Medical Research and Innovation Institute in Cape Town.

Following her interest in global oncology, she joined as an adjunct professor the department of global health, at SingHealth Duke NUS in Singapore in 2019, where she focused on teaching and research in a number of countries in South East Asia. She was recognized among the top 100 women healthcare leaders in Asia.

Among her global oncology initiatives, currently she supports the efforts of education and research in cancer in Eastern Europe, as she co-chairs classes in pediatric oncology at the European School of Oncology and is developing a new research and innovation center at the Institute of Oncology in Bucharest.

Lee Wallis

Lee Alan Wallis (MD) is Head of Emergency Medicine for the Western Cape Government, and Professor and Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Cape Town.

After graduating MBChB from Edinburgh University in 1993, he undertook his training in the Royal Navy. He moved to Cape Town in January 2002, then completed his qualification as a Fellow of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (London) in 2003, and graduated his MD in paediatric disaster triage in 2006.

In the Western Cape, he is responsible for clinical governance for the provincial EMS system and 40 hospital Emergency Centres, and has led the re-design of 10 new Emergency Centres. His division comprises undergraduate medical students, 48 specialty registrars, 100 Masters and 25 PhD students.

He is founder and President of the African Federation for Emergency Medicine, Editor in Chief of the African Journal of Emergency Medicine, and has authored several book chapters and over 250 journal articles. He edited the Oxford University Press AFEM handbook of Acute and Emergency Care, has been involved in the development of emergency care systems in several Africa countries, and consults widely for academic institutions and governments in the region. Lee was President of the International Federation for Emergency Medicine from 2016-2018.

Richard Horton

Richard Horton (BSc MB FRCP FMedSci) is the Editor-in-Chief of the Lancet. He was born in London and qualified in medicine from the University of Birmingham in 1986. In 1990, he joined The Lancet as an assistant editor, becoming Editor-in-Chief two years later. He was the first President of the World Association of Medical Editors and is a Past-President of the US Council of Science Editors. He is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London, and the University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Founder Fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences.

He currently chairs the Royal College of Physicians' Working Party on Physicians and the Pharmaceutical Industry; co-chairs a WHO Scientific Advisory Group on Clinical Trials Registration; is a Council Member of the Global Forum for Health Research; is a Board Member of the Health Metrics Network; sits on the External Reference Group for WHO's Research Strategy; and is an External Advisory Board Member for the WHO European Region.

In 2004, The Lancet won the UK's Medical Publication of the Year and, in 2007, he received the Edinburgh Medal for professional achievements judged to have made a significant contribution to the understanding of human health and wellbeing. In 2008, he was appointed a Senior Associate of The Nuffield Trust, a think tank for research and policy studies in health services. He has been a medical columnist for The Observer and writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and New York Review of Books. A book about controversies in modern medicine, Second Opinion, was published in 2003.