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Anthony David Harries is Senior Advisor at the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease in France and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK. He is a physician and a registered specialist in the United Kingdom in infectious diseases and tropical medicine. After working for ten years in the National Health Service in UK in hospital medicine, he moved to Africa starting in North-east Nigeria in 1983. In 1986, he moved to Malawi where he was consecutively Consultant Physician, Foundation Professor of Medicine at the new medical school in Blantyre, National Advisor to the Malawi Tuberculosis Control Programme and National Advisor in HIV care and treatment in the Ministry of Health, responsible for scaling up antiretroviral therapy in the country. In 2008, he returned to UK where he works for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Paris, France.
His main interests are in the field of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, non-communicable diseases, tropical medicine and operational research. He has served many years on various WHO committees, and for two years he was the Chair of the WHO-HIV Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC) reporting to the WHO Director General.
His current main work is helping to run SORT IT (Structured Operational Research Training Initiative) courses in Africa and Asia where participants learn about operational research and take through projects from inception to publication. He also provides mentorship for operational research fellows in Asia (India, Myanmar and Vietnam) and Africa (Benin, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe).
My qualifications as advisor to Luke International will in particular be in general development issues and knowledge about Malawi, where I have worked for eight years as Norwegian Ambassador (1999-2004 and 2011-2014). My career has mainly been with the Norwegian foreign service and in the Norwegian Agency for International Development. I headed the Norad Evaluation Department from 2006 to 2011. I have particularly worked with health issues and programmes in Botswana and in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with support for i.a. WHO and UNICEF. I have also at times dealt with support for development research. In 2018, I published a book on Malawi, Malawi. A Place Apart. My main areas of contribution to LIN will therefore be general advice on development issues and research, and Malawi in particular.
Asma Elsony is medical doctor, specialized in chest medicine and Public Health. She is the founder and head of Epi-Lab in Khartoum, Sudan. This is an independent, non-profit NGO bringing public health services and the university sector together for mutual benefit and problem solving. She has particularly experience in cross border health services through her function as secretary of HATCI (Horn of Africa 9 countries). It is interesting to explore the opportunity of replicating the “Epi-Lab model” basically cross-fertilization between Academia and Public Health and bringing on board the IT colleagues to strengthen Knowledge Management. She has served as President of The Union (International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease), Paris (2002-2007). During her presidency, decentralization of the Union took place, from a single office in Paris to opening offices in all 7 regions, to include other major public health challenges, including HIV, tobacco control, asthma, and child lung health and NCDs. ElSony has served many years on various WHO committees, WHO-HIV Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), Global Drug Facility (GDF), TDR STAC, TB Reach advisory Committee, Technical Reviw Panel of GF (TRP), Currruntly is a member of The Glbal GrLC, and Chairs EMRO MDR committee, she is also the Africa Representative of GARD and member of the Global Asthma Network Steering Committee among others.
Gunnar Bjune was educated as a medical doctor and specialized in immunology and microbiology. In 1970ies he worked as a researcher on leprosy at Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Addis Ababa where he later served as medical director. For many years he was leading development and testing of a new Norwegian vaccine against meningitis. From 1992 he worked at University of Bergen starting a international program on tuberculosis research. In 1996 he built a postgraduate program in International Community Health at University of Oslo. Health informatics played an important role. Implementation research was developed in collaboration with Sudan and a sustainable community health research program in Ethiopia both based on previous students from Oslo.
Current Positions (2017.12 – Present)
President, National Health Research Institutes
Education
B.A. in Mathematics, National Tsing Hua Univ., R.O.C. (1973)
M.S. in Statistics, Univ. of South Carolina, U.S.A. (1979)
Ph.D. in Biomathematics-Biostatistics, Univ. of Washington, U.S.A. (1982)
Professional Experience
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Univ. (1982-1986)
Joint Appointment, Dept. of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Univ. (1984-2010)
Associate Professor, Dept. of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins Univ. (1986-1990)
Professor and Graduate Program Director (1996-2003), Dept. of Biostatistics,
Johns Hopkins Univ. (1991-2010)
Vice President, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan (2003-2006)
Acting President, National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan (2006)
President, National Yang-Ming University (2010-2017)
President, National Health Research Institutes (2017—)
Specialties
Statistical Genetics, Genetics Epidemiology
Sven G. Hinderaker is medical doctor. Medical school in Bergen, Norway, and clinician at a hospital in Tanzania for 6 years.
PhD with data from Tanzania about maternal and perinatal health in Tanzania.
Working with the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (TB Union) with TB control since 2000.
Teaching TB control at CIH. Working with the Union and MSF on operational research.
Supervising PhD, master students and medical students.
At CIH since 1997, responsible for coordinating teaching compulsory 1 w course of medical students about international health.
Leading elective course for med.school “Global health”.
Current Position
Professor at Centre for International Health (CIH), University of Bergen, Norway.
Kirsten Løvdal Bjune graduated from National College of Physiotherapy, Oslo in 1967. In 2004 she achieved a Cand. Phil. degree (equivalent to Master of Philosophy) from University of Oslo, Faculty of Theology. Her international experience started in Addis Ababa 1973-1976 at All Africa Leprosy and Rehabilitation Training Centre (ALERT), working as a physiotherapist. In 1993 she was engaged by NORAD in India. She was part of a team evaluating the national leprosy control program with a holistic approach emphasizing possibilities of the daily life of the right holders. From 1997- 2001 she was working in Vietnam for Norwegian Mission Alliance as a Project Coordinator for projects on diaconal community-based development and medical assistance. This was mainly directed towards people affected by leprosy. In this period, she also assisted at some survey in China, Sichuan province. She was engaged by Norwegian Church Aid at the Emergency Preparedness Roster as a Psychosocial Officer in Chad, among refugees from Darfur for three months in 2005, then in Liberia for three months 2006-2007. In March 2005 she was assessing a leprosy institution in Malawi for NCA.
She has been assisting as an advisor for LIN´s Community Development group since 2013.
Chang-Churn Chan is a professor at the Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences College of Public Health, National Taiwan University. He is a member of the board of directors at Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), the chair of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology – Asia Chapter (ISEE-AC), a member of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Global Health Program Advisory Group, and the head of delegations for Taiwan in the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, Universities and National Academies. He is also an advisor to the Taipei City Mayor, a member of the Taipei 2050 Vision Committee.
Chan has held prominent positions in international societies including councilor of the ISEE from 2015 to 2017, councilor of the International Society of Exposure Analysis (now International Society of Exposure Science) from 2008 to 2011, Steering Committee member of APRU Global Health Program from 2014 to 2016, and chairman of the Taiwan Society for Risk Analysis from 2008 to 2015. He was the Director of the Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene at NTU from 1999 to 2005, Associate Dean from 2011 to 2017, and Dean from 2017-2020 of College of Public Health, NTU.
Chan holds a Doctor of Science in Air Pollution Control and Master of Science in Industrial Hygiene and Air Pollution Control from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of Science in Public Health from NTU.
He has been a leading researcher in air pollution for more than twenty years, focusing on environmental epidemiology, exposure and risk assessment, and global health governance, with collaborative projects in Malaysia, Thailand, Mongolia, India, South Korea, Japan, United States, and European Union, and has over 190 publications in SCI journals. He is Vice Executive Officer of the Council for Sustainable Development, Taipei City Government.
Jørn Lemvik did his master‘s in leadership and technology in the University of Bergen, Norway. For some few years he worked as the Head of Computer dept. at the Mekane Yesus Church in Ethiopia. While in Ethiopia, he was appointed to a leadership position, and this triggered his passion for leadership development. He then worked as a leadership and organisational development consultant for around 20 years. After the consultancy work, he joined Digni, and was heading this organisation for 9 years.
Together with Dr Azza Karam, he started a global network on religion and development, and ran it as a UN network (DUF – Donor – UN – Faith) for three years before handing it over to PaRD (Partnership on Religion and Development, Germany).
He is now again a leadership and development consultant. He sees himself as a bridge builder between people, cultures, organisations, and networks, as well as a leadership development facilitator.
Stein Villumstad started his career as teacher and school administrator. Four years with Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) in Sudan led to change of career. He completed his Master in International Administration in the US and continued working with NCA as Head of Emergency Response, and later Director of Department for Policy and Human Rights and NCA Regional Representative for Eastern Africa based in Nairobi. He has been Deputy Secretary General in Religions for Peace based in New York, and later as General Secretary for European Council of Religious Leaders based in Oslo. He finished his job career in Malawi, deeply involved with health issues.
Stein Villumstad brings to LIN experience with general development issues, strategic processes, organisational development, leadership, networking with actors in different professions and levels, cultural and religious dialogue, and knowledge of Malawi.