Speakers
David McCoy
"Confronting Anti-Politics in Global Health: a difficult but necessary challenge"
David McCoy is Professor of Global Public Health at the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health at Queen Mary University London where he heads up a unit that delivers a suite of undergraduate and postgraduate Global Health taught programmes. From 2012 till 2017 he was also the Director of Medact, a London-based public health charity that works on the underlying social, political and ecological determinants of global health.
He qualified as a medical doctor from Southampton University and spent six years as a clinician in the UK and South Africa, before entering a career in public health. He spent a further seven years in South Africa with the University of Cape Town and the Health Systems Trust, an NGO established to support the post-apartheid transformation of South Africa’s health care system.
Since returning to the UK, he has worked across the NGO sector, academia and the NHS (including a period as a Director of Public Health in London). He has a doctorate from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and is a member of the Steering Council of the Peoples Health Movement, and a Trustee of the Centre for Health in the Public Interest.
Ole Petter Ottersen
"The UiO-Lancet Commission Report, 4 years after"
Ole Petter Ottersen MD, PhD is Professor of Medicine, President of the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden) and former Rector (President) of University of Oslo (2009-2017). Ottersen was Dean of Science at the Medical Faculty, University of Oslo, from 2000 to 2002.
In 2002 he was appointed Director of Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, a Centre of Excellence sponsored by the Research Council of Norway. From 2006 to 2009 Ottersen was Chief Editor of "Neuroscience" - the journal of the International Brain Research Organization (IBRO). Ottersen has received several international awards for his research on brain function and disease. He chaired the Lancet-University of Oslo Commission on Global Governance for Health whose report was launched on February 11, 2014.
Judit Rius
"Challenges and opportunities to reduce health inequities – a practitioner perspective"
Judit Rius Sanjuan is an attorney and policy expert with more than 15 years of experience designing, managing and implementing strategies to promote the public interest through the creation and dissemination of global knowledge goods including medicines and other health technologies. She currently works as a senior consultant on health technology innovation and access with the Bureau of Policy and Programme Support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in New York.
Prior to her current position, Judit was the US manager and legal adviser of the Access Campaign for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) where she coordinated policy and advocacy strategies to increase both innovation and access to medicines for over 7 years. Judit has also worked at Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) in Washington, DC, providing technical assistance to countries on intellectual property law and in advancing the needs of neglected populations in negotiations at the World Health Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
In addition, Judit teaches graduate programs on trade and global health at The New School and was an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School where she co-taught a human rights fact-finding seminar on access to essential medicines in Central America. Judit has also worked in the legal departments of a pharmaceutical company and software and IT companies. Judit has a Law Degree and a Master in International Relations from the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, and an LL.M. in Law, Science and Technology from Stanford Law School.
Rosalind McKenna
"Global Governance for Health – a philanthropic perspective"
Rosalind McKenna is Program Officer with the Access and Accountability Division of the Open Society Foundations’ Public Health Program (PHP), based in New York. Rosalind’s work is focused on Governance for Health and Access to Medicines and Innovation, with a particular focus on enhancing accountability over health financing. Rosalind has previously supported PHP grant-making on social accountability for Roma health, the intersection of social accountability and legal empowerment to advance health rights of marginalized populations, and budget advocacy for deinstitutionalization in the disability sector.
Prior to joining the PHP in 2014, Rosalind was Coordinator of Amnesty International Ireland's program on economic, social and cultural rights. A graduate of the University of Glasgow (LLB) and National University of Ireland, Galway (LLM), Rosalind has previously worked for a UK Member of Parliament and the Scottish Courts Service, as well as coordinating Amnesty International Ireland’s program of work on Human Rights Based Approaches. Rosalind’s work has focused on legal enforcement and monitoring of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the right to health.