M8 Alliance Governance

Christina Mitchell trained as a physician scientist specializing in clinical hematology. Her work for the last twenty years has focused on characterizing the function of unknown genes that regulate cell proliferation and growth, and when mutated or deleted lead to human disease.

Dr Chammas is currently a full Professor of Oncology at Universidade de São Paulo, where he directs the Center for Translational Research in Oncology at Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo. He got his MD degree at Universidade de São Paulo (1988) and his Ph.D. degree at the same university. As a post-doctoral fellow, He trained in glycobiology in Ajit Varki's lab at the University of California in San Diego (1994-1997). His lab focuses on emerging mechanisms for tumor cell resistance to different forms of treatment, including aspects of tumor physiology, such as vasculature tone and function. He serves as an academic editor for Frontiers in Oncology, Cancer Biomarkers, and Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, and as a member of the American Association of Cancer Research, he serves in the Latin-American subcommittee for International Affairs.

Dr Gouveia is a trained physician with and MSc in Epidemiology and a PhD in Public Health. He is a full Professor of Global Health, currently Head of the Department of Preventive Medicine and vice-President of the International Affairs office of the University of São Paulo Medical School. His research interests include climate change, urban health and a wide variety of environmental exposures, primarily ambient air pollution. 

Chief of neurology at the "Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal" (CHUM) since 2014, Dr. Cossette is the founding head of department of neurosciences at the University of Montreal. He holds a master's degree in neuroscience from University of Montreal and a PhD in human genetics from McGill University. 

Since 2022, Jean-François Côté, PhD, is President and Scientific Director of the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM). Dr. Côté has been a researcher at the Institute for over 18 years where he directs the Cytoskeleton Organization and Cell Migration research unit. He is a Full IRCM Professor and has held the position of Vice President Research and Academic Affairs. He is also a Full Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Montreal, an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill University and a Research Scholar of the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Santé. 

Professor Cao Xuetao major interests are immunobiology of APCs (dendritic cells, macrophages), TLR signaling and immune regulation, cancer immunotherapy and gene therapy. In recent years he is investigating the mechanisms for immune recognition and TLR signaling.

Professor Depei Liu's central research interests are medical molecular biology and research in gene regulation. He executes various prestigious positions, including former President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) & Peking Union Medical College (PUMC).

Antoine Cazé is a Professor for American Literature. Since joining the University Paris Diderot in 2008, he has run the MA Program in Professional Literary Translation, and led the “Observatoire de la Littérature Américaine,” a research unit devoted to the study of cutting edge innovative American literature which, over the years, has collaborated with many leading contemporary U.S. writers. In 2014, he joined the team of the President of University Paris Diderot and was appointed Dean of Humanities, then Vice-President for International Affairs. Since 2020, when the University of Paris was founded, he has remained on the president’s team as Senior Adviser for European Affairs, mainly in charge of Circle U., the European University Alliance of which the Université de Paris is a member.

Xavier Jeunemaitre received his MD and PhD in human genetics at the University P&M Curie, Paris, France. He was trained as an internist and specialized in cardiology before being trained in molecular genetics at the College de France in Paris and in human genetics during a post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute of Human Genetics, Salt Lake City, University of Utah, USA. As a Professor in Genetics at Université de Paris (Descartes), he headed the Department of Genetics at the Hospital Pompidou and a research team “Genes and rare cardiovascular diseases” at the Paris Cardiovascular Research Centre, UMRS-970, Paris France. Former vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the Université Paris Descartes, he has been appointed in 2019 as the Dean of the Faculty of Health of the University of Paris.

Franco-Scottish, Elizabeth Macintyre trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology in the UK, did her PhD in Paris and her Post-Doctoral studies at Harvard. As a Professor in Diagnostic Hematology at Université de Paris (Descartes) she headed Diagnostic Hematology at Necker–Enfants Malades Hospital from 1999-2018 and co-directs the INSERM « Normal and Pathological Lymphoid Differentiation » Team in the Necker Enfants Malades Institute. She is University Vice-President for International Strategy, President of the European Hematology Association (EHA) from June 2021-23 and a member of the Biomed Alliance in Europe board.

Peter van Endert is a professor of immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris and head of the department of immunology, microbiology and hematology at the Institut Necker Enfants Malades, a large highly interdisciplinary research institute of the Université de Paris. He is a physician-scientist native of Germany who, after medical school in Marburg, trained in immunology at the German Cancer Research Center and at Stanford University before joining the Paris Necker campus in 1993 and taking a position as INSERM staff scientist and then professor. His research interest focuses on the cell biology of antigen presentation by MHC molecules and on autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes.

Prof. Heyo Kroemer assumed his role as CEO of Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin in September, 2019. He was previously Chairman of the Managing Board of the Göttingen University Medical Center and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Prof. Kroemer’s medical background is in pharmacology, with a research focus on drug metabolism and transport. He represents the shareholder Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin in the WHS Foundation GmbH.

Axel R. Pries is the President of the World Health Summit and a Professor of Physiology. He was Dean of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin until 2022. His major research fields are microcirculation, organ perfusion, endothelial function, endothelial surface, vascular adaptation, angiogenesis, tumor microcirculation and blood rheology.

A physician by training, Amirhossein Takian (MD MPH PhD FHEA) is Professor and Founding Head at the Department of Global Health & Public Policy, and Vice-Dean at the School of Public Health (SPH), Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), Iran. He is Plenipotentiary Representative of TUMS' Chancellor to M8 Alliance, and Senior Advisor for health Policy to TUMS' Board. Amir is a Founding Member of the Council of Virchow Foundation for Global Health and Chief Research Officer at the Health Equity Research Centre (HERC)- TUMS. He was Secretary of the World Health Summit Regional Meeting 2019, Kish Island- Iran.

After conducting research on Human Anatomy at Sapienza University from 1983 to 1986, Eugenio Gaudio began teaching at the University of L’Aquila in 1987 and served as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery from 1997 to 2000. He returned to Sapienza as a Professor of Human Anatomy. From 2008 to 2010, he was Director of the Department of Human anatomy. Since 2010, he has been President of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine and President of the Permanent Conference of Italian Faculties and Schools of Medicine and Surgery. 

He is author of more than 200 scientific articles published in international journals and coordinator of several research projects in the field of pharmacology. He has extensive experience in international relations and he is currently Vice-Rector for European University Networks of Sapienza University and President of the UNICA network of the Universities from the Capitals of Europe.

Shunichi Fukuhara received his clinical training at the University of California at San Francisco, and was board-certified in Internal Medicine. He practices cardiology in Japan. His main research interests are clinical evaluative research and health services research. In 2000, Fukuhara founded Kyoto University’s Department of Healthcare Epidemiology.

Dr. Shadi Saleh is the Founding Director of the Global Health Institute (GHI) and a Professor of Health Systems and Financing at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Dr. Saleh served as the Associate Vice President for Health Affairs at AUB as well as Chairperson of the Department of Health Management and Policy at AUB. Before joining AUB, Dr. Saleh was a Professor of Health Systems at the State University of New York at Albany, where he directed the Certificate Programs. Dr. Saleh’s areas of expertise are in developing and evaluating innovative interventions for health systems and health system financing. Dr. Saleh served as an elected board member of the Consortium of Universities in Global Health and represents GHI on the M8 Alliance. He also served as an appointed member of the National Emergency Social Protection Project and the Committee on Universal Health Coverage with the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon. 

Amílcar Falcão was previously Director of the Faculty of Pharmacy (2010-2012) and the Interdisciplinary Research Institute (2013-2019). He was also Vice Rector of the University of Coimbra (2011-2019). He is the author of more than 230 articles in scientific journals. He was directly involved in the development of the first Portuguese medicine (Eslicarbazepine Acetate - Zebinix®) as a consultant for BIAL Laboratories.

Graduated in Law, Faculty of Law of University of Coimbra, 1985. Postgraduate in Hospital Administration, National School of Public Health, UNL, 1987-89. Postgraduate in Health Management and Economics, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, 2005-2006. XVIII Program of Top Management of Health Institutions (PADIS) AESE, Direction & Business School, September to December 2013, Porto, Portugal. Leadership in Healthcare Delivery, NOVA School of Business & Economics, UNL, February to June 2015. Executive Member of the Board of Directors, Portuguese Institute of Oncology Coimbra (IPO Coimbra), from 2001 to 2017. CEO of IPO Coimbra from May 2017 to June 2018. Executive Member of the Board of Directors, Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC) from June 2018 to june 2020. Present CEO of Centro Hospitalar e Universitário de Coimbra (CHUC).

Professor Ivan Dedov is the president of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He devoted much time to fundamental and applied problems of endocrinology and is one of eminent organizers in medical science in Russia.

Professor Evgeniy I. Sidorenko is a member of the Russia State Medical Academy and President of the Russian Pediatrics Ophthalmology Association. His scientific activity is mainly devoted to the use of infrasound in medical practice; hypoxia and its role in ophthalmopathology; retinopathy of prematurity; refractive surgery; laser therapy; and surgery.

Professor Yeoh's research interest is in the early detection of gastric and colorectal cancers. He is the Lead Principal Investigator of the Singapore Gastric Cancer Consortium, a national flagship research group. He also chairs the National Colorectal Cancer Screening Committee of the Health Promotion Board, Ministry of Health.

He is a statistician and obtained a First Class Honors degree from the Imperial College, UK, graduating top of his cohort on a Singapore Government Scholarship awarded by the Public Service Commission. He has gained international recognition for his work in genomics. He has developed several landmark statistical methods and genomic databases, and these have elevated genomics research in Singapore to international standards.

Dr Stefan Swartling Peterson is a medical doctor with degrees in medicine, public health and a PhD in international pediatrics. Dr Peterson was appointed Associate Director, Programme Division, and UNICEF Chief of Health in April 2016. Prior to his appointment, Dr Peterson was a Professor of Global Health at Uppsala University, Sweden, and, prior to that, at the Global Health Division of Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.  He has also been a visiting professor at Makerere University in Uganda. As a health systems researcher and medical doctor, Dr Peterson did extensive field work in Tanzania and Uganda, and worked with different ministries of health, and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO). He implemented projects supported by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), the Gates Foundation, and the European Union. He was a co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières Sweden and the CCM Task Force Operations Research Group.

A professor of Public Health at University Descartes, Sorbonne Paris Cité, he is chair of the Centre Virchow Villermé de Santé Publique Paris-Berlin, co-chairs the European Academic Global Health Alliance, is president of the European Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation and Founding Director of the Institute of Global Health, University of Geneva. In 2016, Antoine Flahault was the International President of the World Health Summit.

Prof. Cem Gabay is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Geneva, as well as Director of Education and Research and Head of the Division of Rheumatology at Geneva University Hospitals. He is an expert in the field of rheumatology, with research focusing on various aspects of cytokine biology of the interleukin-1 family, and clinical aspects of rheumatoid arthritis.

Bruno Lab is active in the field of international affairs and on behalf of the HUG he coordinates projects in the areas of humanitarian aid and international cooperation in partnerships with teaching hospitals/academias/IO/NGO from low and middle income countries. He directs the Medical Education Reforms project in Kyrgyzstan which is sponsored by the Swiss Development and Cooperation agency since 2014. He is co-director of the Geneva Health Forum of which the HUG is one of the founder, together with the Geneva University. He is the secretary to the Board of Directors of MSF Switzerland since 2019. Nurse by background with additional training in public health and project management, he has more than 30 years of work experience in global health matters.

Lawyer by training, he worked at the International Committee of the Red Cross on field missions as delegate, chief of under-delegation, legal advisor for Asia and Latin America, representative of the ICRC at the United Nations in New York, and was in charge of policies for the disabled and substance dependence. In 2004, he became Director General of the Hospice General. In 2013 he was appointed new Director General of the Geneva University Hospitals.

Chang-Chuan Chan is joint-appointed Investigator of the Division of Environmental Health and Occupational Medicine, National Health Research Institutes. He is a known expert for topics like air pollution, epidemiological studies on industrial pollution and global health research.

Hsien-Ho Lin trained in medicine and epidemiology. He is a Professor in the Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine and the Director of Global Health Program in NTU. He also served as the secretary general for Taiwan Public Health Association (2017-2022). His research focuses on infectious diseases epidemiology, especially tuberculosis and COVID-19. He is also involved in the National Burden of Disease study in Taiwan and other research in the field of global health.

A trained historian, he is Rector of the Istanbul University and Chairman of the Board of Overseers of the Haliç University. 

Mustafa Oral Öncül is a Professor at the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine. Since 2019 he holds the position as Vice Rector of Istanbul University.

Dr. Charles Ibingira was the Principal of Makerere University College of Health Sciences until 2020. Before ascending to this office, he was the Dean School of Biomedical Sciences at the College of Health Sciences. Dr. Ibingira is an active General Surgeon and an Assoc. Professor of Anatomy and is a senior researcher in surgery, anatomy, and bioethics. He has mentored and supervised several graduate students and junior faculty and published several papers in international journals.

Professor Ashby holds the Chair in Medical Statistics and Clinical Trials at Imperial College London, where she is Director of the School of Public Health and formerly Co-Director of Imperial Clinical Trials Unit. Her research interests are in clinical trials, risk-benefit decision making for medicines, and the utility of Bayesian approaches in these areas.

Liam Smeeth is professor of clinical epidemiology and Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is also a practicing doctor in general practice. During his career he was supported by fellowships from MRC, NIHR and Wellcome. He was previously a Trustee of the British Heart Foundation and a non-executive director of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. He is a member of the strategic oversight committee for UK Biobank and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Much of his research is based on making better use of computerised clinical data for research, and he co-led the creation of the OpenSafely resource in response to the Covid pandemic. His broad interests include disease aetiology, drug effects, genetics and non-communicable diseases in low income settings.

Dr. Adnan Hyder is Senior Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Global Health at the Milken Institute School of Public Health of George Washington University. For over 25 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 health systems, ethics, non-communicable diseases, and injury prevention in over 90 countries around the world. He has authored over 400 scientific peer-reviewed papers and numerous world reports with organizations like the World Bank, World Health Organization and UNICEF. Dr. Hyder did is MD from the Aga Khan University, Pakistan and his MPH and PhD from Johns Hopkins University, USA.

A nationally renowned researcher and a veteran academic leader, her research focuses on the impact of health services and policies on the short-and long-term consequences of traumatic injury. She has contributed to the development and evaluation of tools for measuring both the severity and outcome of injury which have been used to evaluate the organization, financing and performance of trauma systems and rehabilitation services.

Prior to his assuming the role of President and CEO at the Association of Academic Health Centers in July 2018, Steven L. Kanter, MD, served as dean of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, where he was professor of medicine and biomedical and health informatics and he held the Merl & Muriel Hicklin/Missouri Endowed Chair in Medicine. Dr. Kanter draws from a diverse background of experience that includes clinical medicine, medical informatics, scholarly publishing, medical school administration, and academic health center growth and development.

Mr. Rajat Khosla has two decades of expertise working at the intersection of global health, equity, and human rights, and has contributed to the Institute for Global Health at United Nations University (UNU-IIGH) as a Principal Visiting Fellow. Prior to his appointment at UNU-IIGH, he served as Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, and Policy at Amnesty International as well as a Human Rights Adviser with the World Health Organization (WHO), leading on research and normative work for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and human rights, in particular on women’s rights and issues related to sexual and reproductive health.

Dr. Ann Kurth is an epidemiologist and nurse-midwife whose research focuses on global health system strengthening, in the context of climate change and other planetary stresses.  She is Dean and Lorimer Professor, Yale University School of Nursing (YSN); a Fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, and of the American Academy of Nursing; and chair of CUGH, and of the National Academy of Medicine Board on Global Health, 2018-2020.

Professor Valdivia is Co-Director and founder of the Global Health Programme of the School of Public Health, University of Chile. Previously, he chaired the School’s Department of Health Promotion and Education (2005-2010). He completed a successful career in international development cooperation in the United States, having worked for UNFPA, PAHO/WHO, IPPF, and USAID. 

From 2006-2013, Professor Atun was Head of the Health Management Group at Imperial College London. From 2008-2012 he served as a member of the Executive Management Team of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as the Director of Strategy, Performance and Evaluation Cluster. His research focuses on the design and implementation of health systems transformations and their impact on outcomes.

Ben Canny is Head of the School of Medicine at the University of Tasmania, where he has responsibility for Medicine, Pharmacy and Paramedicine.  Prior to this he was the convenor of the Medical Degree at Monash University.  Ben has always had a vital interest in Medical Education and Medical Science, and has led the Medical Education initiative of the M8 Alliance.  At present, he is leading the development of a harmonized curriculum of Global Health Education for Health Professionals to be shared by members of the M8 Alliance.  He is also Vice-President of the Australian and New Zealand Associate for Health Professional Educators.

Dr John Eu-Li Wong, Isabel Chan Professor in Medical Sciences, is Senior Vice President (Health Affairs) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Chief Executive of the National University Health System (NUHS). A medical oncologist-haematologist, Dr Wong obtained his medical degree from NUS and did his residency and fellowship at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where he was the Chief Resident in Medicine, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He is actively involved in the development of Health and Biomedical Sciences as a key pillar of Singapore's economy and serves as a member of the National Health and Biomedical Sciences Executive Committee. He is involved in the US National Academy of Medicine’s Planning Committee to develop ‘Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity’, the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Association of Academic Health Centers - International, the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers where he was Past President of the World Health Summit in 2013, the Global Genomic Medicine Collaborative, the International Editorial Board of the American Journal of Medicine, and the Advisory Board to the Government of Qatar on Academic Medicine and Sidra Medicine.