Global Health Security Forum

Dr. Maria D. Van Kerkhove is the Director a.i., Epidemic and Pandemic Management, Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Programme at the World Health Organization.

She has played a pivotal role in global health, notably as COVID-19 Technical Lead and as global Incident Manager during the 2024 mpox outbreak, declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. With over 20 years of experience in infectious disease epidemiology, Dr. Van Kerkhove is known for her expertise in emerging diseases such as Ebola, Zika, MERS, and avian influenza. 

She is widely recognized for her leadership, diplomacy, and ability to translate complex science into clear, actionable public health guidance. Her work focuses on the human-animal interface in disease transmission, driving policies that improve pandemic preparedness and response. Through science-based leadership, she has shaped global health strategies and supported coordinated international responses to major health emergencies. 

Dr. Shannon Waters is Coast Salish and a member of Stz’uminus First Nation on Vancouver Island. She completed the First Nations Family Practice program at the University of British Columbia and worked as a family doctor in Duncan, BC.

While honored to work close to home, Shannon became frustrated with seeing people when they were unwell and wanted to focus on maintaining health and well-being. She returned to school and completed her specialty training in Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

She has worked in this field federally, provincially and at First Nations organizations. Shannon was honored to come full circle and work in her home territory as the local Medical Health Officer with Island Health. Her priorities in her work were connection to the environment, mental wellness, and maternal/child/family health. In 2024 Dr. Waters became the first ever Deputy Provincial Health Officer, Planetary and Water Health, in the province of BC. 

*profile based on Dr. Larson’s bio from the Vaccine Confidence Project website

Prof. Heidi J. Larson, PhD, is an anthropologist and Director of The Vaccine Confidence Project (VCP); Professor of Anthropology, Risk and Decision Science, Dept. Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); Clinical Professor, Institute of Health Metrics & Evaluation, University of Washington; Guest Professor at the University of Antwerp, and a Chatham House Centre on Global Health Security Fellow.

Prof. Larson previously headed Global Immunization Communication at UNICEF, chaired Gavi’s Advocacy Task Force, and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on vaccine hesitancy. She is author of STUCK: How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don’t Go Away  (Oxford University Press, 2020). In 2021, she was awarded the Edinburgh Medal and BBC named her as one of the 100 most influential women in the world.

Dr. Larson previously headed Global Immunisation Communication at UNICEF, chaired GAVI’s Advocacy Task Force, and served on the WHO SAGE Working Group on vaccine hesitancy. The VCP is a WHO Centre of Excellence on addressing Vaccine Hesitancy. 

Prof. Larson’s research focuses on the analysis of social and political factors that can affect uptake of health interventions and influence policies. Her particular interest is on risk and rumour management from clinical trials to delivery – and on building public trust and public cooperation during emergencies such as disease outbreaks, natural disasters, terrorism and conflict. She served on the FDA Medical Countermeasure (MCM) Emergency Communication Expert Working Group, and is Principle Investigator of the EU-funded (EBODAC) project on the deployment, acceptance and compliance of an Ebola vaccine trial in Sierra Leone. Her research focuses on managing risk and rumours.  

Prof. Larson has recently joined the Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination (CEV) (University of Antwerp) as associate professor, as the CEV at the Antwerp University will host the European regional Office of the Vaccine Confidence Project as of May 15, 2019, and will closely collaborate with VCP partners at European level on implementing the Vaccine Confidence Index and developing and evaluating interventions to address vaccine hesitancy.She is author of STUCK: How Vaccine Rumors Start – and Why They Don’t Go Away  (Oxford University Press, 2020).

Tara Kirk Sell is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and an Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

Dr. Sell’s work focuses on public health preparedness and response; risk communication; and combating misleading health rumors. She leads the US CDC funded Region 3 Center for Public Health Preparedness and Response, which works on improving communication and community engagement; coordination across agencies, community organizations, and systems; and workforce recruitment, retention, and competencies growth.  She also led work on the TRUST in Public Health project and the Practical Playbook to Address Health Rumors, also funded by US CDC. She also works in practice locally, chairing her county health board. Prior to her work in academia, she was a professional athlete and won a silver medal in the 2004 Olympics.

Dr. Naveed Janjua is the Executive Director of Epidemiology & Intelligence Services at the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) and Director of the University of British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (UBCCDC). He leads research initiatives at BCCDC, shaping research strategies and strengthening applied public health research capacity to prevent diseases, protect health, and promote well-being across British Columbia. Working in close collaboration with the BCCDC team, as well as provincial, national, and international partners, he plays a pivotal role in advancing public health research and policy.

Dr. Janjua is also a Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Public Health (SPPH).

As the Executive Director of Epidemiology & Intelligence Services at BCCDC, Dr. Janjua provides strategic leadership in population health surveillance and monitoring. Under his guidance, his team develops and maintains advanced surveillance systems that leverage diverse big-data streams for real-time population health monitoring. This approach supports precision public health strategies for effective disease prevention and management. His team has been at the forefront of COVID-19 surveillance, generating critical public health intelligence to inform pandemic response strategies.

Dr. Janjua’s research focuses on infectious diseases (hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and COVID-19), health disparities, health outcomes, and the safety and effectiveness of prevention and treatment interventions to generate real-world evidence. He utilizes real-world big data cohorts, such as the BC COVID-19 Cohort  and the BC Hepatitis Testers Cohort, to conduct high-impact research that informs clinical and public health policies both in Canada and globally.

At the national level, Dr. Janjua serves as Co-Director of the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C (CanHepC), where he leads initiatives to support hepatitis elimination through research, knowledge generation, capacity building, and expert guidance in prevention, care, and treatment. Additionally, he is a Co-Lead Health Services pillar for the Long COVID Web and a Steering Committee Member of the Canadian HIV Trials Network.

His contributions to public health research and policy continue to shape strategies for disease prevention, surveillance, and health equity in Canada and beyond.

Dr. Crowcroft is a public health medical practitioner with more than 25 years’ experience in public health at local, national and global levels, and two decades of senior management and leadership experience in infectious disease surveillance, prevention, control and outbreak response. She also has extensive media experience. She has published over 250 peer-reviewed scientific papers including in Lancet, BMJ, NEJM, with an h-factor of 47 (Google scholar). Her research aims to maximize the health benefits of immunization. With a strong track record of research funding, she reviews for a variety of national and global funding bodies and was an Associate Editor for Eurosurveillance until 2020.

Dr. Crowcroft’s expert role in Canada up to 2020 included as co-chair of the Canadian Association for Immunization Research, Evaluation and Education (CAIRE), and member of the Canadian Immunization Research Network. Globally, she has been an expert member of committees for the World Health Organization (WHO), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and the WHO South East Asia Regional Office, and also served on the Independent Review Committee of Gavi.

Dr. Crowcroft trained in medicine and public health at the Universities of Cambridge and London, UK, and in field epidemiology in the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) in Belgium. From 1997-2007 Dr. Crowcroft was a medical consultant in the Immunisation Department at the national centre for England. In 2007 she was recruited to be one of the founding leadership group at Public Health Ontario, Canada, helping to rebuild the public health system post-SARS. She became Director of Surveillance and Epidemiology in 2008, Chief of Infectious Disease in 2012, Chief of Applied Immunization Research and Evaluation in 2015, and Chief Science Officer in 2019. In 2019, Dr. Crowcroft launched the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Toronto as its inaugural Director. In June 2020, Dr. Crowcroft joined WHO as the Senior Technical Adviser (Measles and Rubella Control).

*profile based on Dr. Nguyen’s bio from the International Livestock Research Institute website

Dr. Hung Nguyen has been appointed as the Regional Director, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) Asia, with effect from 1st August 2025. 

Dr. Nguyen is a Senior Principal Scientist at ILRI and leads the One Health under the CGIAR Sustainable Animal and Aquatic Foods (SAAF) Science Program. His research focuses on the intersections of agriculture and health, with particular emphasis on food safety, infectious and zoonotic diseases, and the application of risk assessment and interventions in informal and traditional markets. A strong advocate for operationalizing and investing in One Health, he applies this approach across his work to address complex global health challenges.

At ILRI and CGIAR, Dr. Nguyen previously served as Health Program Leader (2020–2025) and as Regional Representative for East and Southeast Asia (2017–2020). He has held key research leadership roles across CGIAR, including leading the CGIAR Initiative on One Health, the Food Safety Flagship of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), and contributions to the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub.

He is a member of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP). He was a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) and was a WHO expert to investigate the origins of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China in 2021.

With over 20 years of professional experience across Asia, Africa, and Europe, Dr. Nguyen combines strong scientific expertise with a proven track record in building institutions and partnerships. Before joining ILRI, Dr. Nguyen worked at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and at Sandec/Eawag in Switzerland. He co-founded and directed the Center for Public Health and Ecosystem Research (CENPHER) at the Hanoi University of Public Health in Vietnam and coordinated the regional initiative on Ecohealth field-building in Southeast Asia. He is from Vietnam and holds a PhD in Life and Environmental Sciences from France. He has widely published in One Health, food safety, agriculture, and livestock. He is an Associate Editor and a guest editor of a number of journals.

Dr. Bonnie Henry was appointed as British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer in 2018 following three years as the Deputy Provincial Health Officer. As BC’s most senior public health official, Dr. Henry is responsible for monitoring the health of all British Columbians and undertaking measures for disease prevention and control and health protection. Most recently Dr. Henry has led the province’s response on the COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdose emergency.  

Dr. Henry’s experience in public health, preventive medicine and global pandemics has extended throughout her career. She served in a number of senior roles at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Toronto Public Health, including as the operational lead in the response to the SARS outbreak in Toronto.

She has worked internationally with the WHO/UNICEF polio eradication program in Pakistan and with the WHO to control the Ebola outbreak in Uganda and has been actively involved in mass gathering health planning in Canada and internationally.

She is a specialist in public health and preventive medicine and is board certified in preventive medicine in the U.S. She graduated from Dalhousie Medical School, completed a Masters in Public Health and residency training in preventive medicine at University of California, San Diego and in community medicine at University of Toronto. She is an associate professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Réka Gustafson is the Vice President, Population and Public Health and Chief Medical Health Officer at Island Health. In this role, Dr. Gustafson leads programs that aim to improve and reduce inequities in health for residents of Island Health through prevention, promotion and protection programming and advancing health public policies. She leads Island Health programs in population health assessment, communicable disease control, immunization, maternal and child health programs, health protection and environmental health, community care facilities licensing, population health promotion and harm reduction

Dr. Gustafson joined Island Health from the Provincial Health Services Authority where she held two senior leadership roles of VP, Public Health & Wellness, and Deputy Provincial Health Officer, where she provided leadership to the BCCDC. Prior to that she was the Medical Health Officer for the City of Vancouver and Deputy Chief Medical Health Officer for Vancouver Coastal Health. She is a Professor at the UBC School of Population and Public Health, where she originally completed her Master of Science, Master of Health Science and MD degrees. She holds a fellowship in Public Health and Preventative Medicine and certification in Family Medicine.

Dr. Erica Pan serves as director and state public health officer for the California Department of Public Health, a role she assumed on February 1, 2025. As CDPH director, Dr. Pan strives to embody and promote the values of dignity, equity, compassion and humility. She works with collaborative partnerships to communicate and empower communities and institutions to transform policies and systems to include a “health in all policies” approach, acknowledging that addressing the social determinants of health are fundamental to achieving healthy communities with thriving families and individuals. As California’s public health officer, Dr. Pan exercises leadership and legal authority to protect health and prevent disease.

Prior to becoming director, Dr. Pan was the deputy director of CDPH’s Center for Infectious Diseases and state epidemiologist beginning in July 2020. Dr. Pan was also the CDPH acting state public health officer from August 10, 2020 to January 3, 2021.

Before joining CDPH, Dr. Pan gained experience at the local level with a focus on infectious disease control & prevention, and public health emergency response. She served multiple roles at the Alameda County Public Health Department between 2011 and 2020, including health officer, director of communicable disease control and prevention, and deputy health officer. Dr. Pan also held several positions at the San Francisco Department of Public Health between 2004 and 2011.

Dr. Pan is a clinical professor for pediatric infectious diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. She maintained her clinical work in infectious diseases at San Francisco General Hospital and at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland.

Dr. Pan received her MD and MPH degrees from Tufts University School of Medicine, and completed her undergraduate education at Stanford University.

Stefan Raos is the General Manager for Moderna in Canada. Previously, he was Head of Public Affairs and Partnerships. Born in Montreal, Stefan served in the Canadian armed forces before pursuing his studies in Economics at Concordia University. After starting his career in finance, Stefan became interested in the pharmaceutical industry and in 2001 joined AstraZeneca.

In his 23 years in the pharma industry, he has developed extensive experience in a variety of commercial leadership roles, from sales to commercial training and regional business leader, and has held senior-level roles as a director of market access, government affairs and marketing.

Stefan’s career has been focused in large part on specialty care and vaccines. He has been an integral part of helping provide patients with access to innovation and shaping a conducive life sciences ecosystem that promotes the health of Canadians and ensures quality investments in R&D across the country. Stefan’s mandate is to continue working collaboratively with stakeholders to foster a forward-thinking, innovative approach to providing mRNA solutions for the benefit of all Canadians.

Dr. Jat Sandhu is an experienced public health professional who has provided strategic leadership to regional and provincial initiatives since 2007. He oversees a portfolio that includes strategic planning and implementation, data analytic services, public health information governance, communications and knowledge translation, stakeholder management and collaborative partnerships, and sustainability of strategic and transformative population health initiatives. In 2022, he earned recognition for his contribution to public health in B.C. by the Health Officers Council of BC and the UBC School of Population and Public Health.

Prior to joining BCCDC, he was the founding director of the Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) Public Heath Surveillance Unit (2007-2016) and then Executive Director of Data Analytics and Decision Support at VCH (2017-2021). His experiences include British Military Hospital Pathology, Hong Kong; WHO regional training centre for Medical Education in Sydney, Australia; the Australian Red Cross; the Provincial Laboratory for Public Health in Alberta; and various agencies of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom.

He holds a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Bristol and an MBA from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine Business School. Jat is also a Clinical Associate Professor with the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.