Dr. Gina Samaan

Dr Gina SAMAAN is the Regional Emergency Director of the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific. She is an infectious disease epidemiologist with a career focus on pandemic risk management. She has served WHO at the country, regional, and headquarters levels, where she coordinated global initiatives to strengthen preparedness and resilience, the Global Genomic Surveillance Strategy, and Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework, among others. During COVID-19, she led country support, technical monitoring, and liaison with the UN country teams through the UN Development Coordination Office. She previously worked and consulted for agencies including US-CDC, USAID, DFAT and DOHA Australia, IOM, RTI International to implement public health initiatives and refugee health programmes. In 2022, she was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Global Award for Excellence. She is also an awardee of the Prime Minister’s Australia-Asia Endeavour Award.