Chisinau, Republic of Moldova 15-17 October 2014 Biographies of speakers
COURSE DIRECTORS Ilona Kickbusch Professor and Director of the Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland Ilona Kickbusch is the Director of the Global Health Programme at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva where she has developed the field of global health diplomacy and works on issues of global health governance. She advises international organisations, government agencies and the private sector on policies and strategies to promote health at the national, European and international level. She has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization, at both the regional and global level. She then joined Yale University as the head of the global health division, where she contributed to shaping the field of global health and headed a major Fulbright programme. She is the editor of the Global Health Diplomacy series with WSP. Details can be found on her Website: www.ilonakickbusch.com Mihály Kökény Senior Fellow, Global Health Programme, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland and former Minister for Health of Hungary Mihály Kökény, M.D. (1950), a Hungarian, is trained in medicine, cardiology, health care management and political sciences. He joined the staff of the Hungarian Health Ministry in 1979. He was elected to the Hungarian Parliament in 1994 and served there between 1994 and 2010. He has served in various government positions including Secretary of State (1994-1996, 2002-3), Health and Welfare Minister (1996-1998, 2003-2004), and Government Commissioner for public health coordination (2004-2006). In the Parliament he was the Chairman of the Health Committee (1998-2002, 2006-2010). Dr. Kökény helped develop the first national public health programme in Hungary (1987) as an advisor to the deputy prime minister. As Health Minister he initiated major reforms including downsizing the hospital sector and regulating the pharmaceutical market, as well as involving the private sector in health development. He also submitted significant pieces of health legislation to the Parliament. His international activities cover a broad field, including health promotion, environment and health, and health care reforms as a consultant to WHO, EU, OECD and the World Bank and as a speaker at major conferences. From 2008 until 2011 he served as a Member of the Executive Board of WHO, and from 2010 he was the Chairman of the Board. Currently he works as a health policy consultant. He is a Senior Fellow of the Global Health Program at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva, Switzerland) and contributes to global health diplomacy education and research. He is also a lecturer at the University of Debrecen, Faculty of Public Health in Hungary (on global health and health policy). As a Senior Policy Advisor to the Regional Director of the WHO s European Region he assists national health policy planning in selected Member States in addition to working on selected regional projects.
WHO Executive Course on Health Diplomacy in Action SPEAKERS Eugenia Berzan, Head of Foreign Relations and European Integration Department, Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova Originally a medical doctor, with a Master degree in Public Health, Ms Eugenia Berzan has been working for more than 7 years as Head of Foreign Relations and European Integration Department at the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova, being responsible for coordination of activities related to implementation of the Sectoral Policy on European Integration, and those that arise from the membership of the Republic of Moldova within International and Regional Intergovernmental Organizations in the field of health; negotiation of bilateral and multilateral cooperation agreements in the field of health; as well as coordination and monitoring of the Official Development Assistance provided to the health sector by the donor community. As an integral part of her responsibilities, Ms Berzan was nominated by the Ministry of Health as a WHO National Counterpart, being a contact person for communication on strategic and technical issues between the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova and WHO Regional Office for Europe and WHO Country Office. Before joining the Ministry of Health, Dr Berzan worked at the National Centre for Health Management, as well as at the School of Management in Public Health from Chisinau. Her preferred fields of work are as follow: International Development Cooperation/Official Development Assistance; Health Diplomacy; Programme/Project Management; Health Policy Development, Monitoring & Evaluation; Public Health. Goran Cerkez, Assistant Minister, Federal Ministry of Health of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Chair of the SEEHN Executive Committee Dr Goran Cerkez, Assistant Minister of Health, Federal Ministry of Health of Bosnia and Herzegovina is medical doctor, specialist of social medicine, organization and economics o of health care has over 15 years of experience in public health, with special focus on policy and strategy and community care development. He was head of the WB project for the rehabilitation of war victims; consultant for human resource development as well as consultant for community rehabilitation services. As a mental health expert he worked with the WB, WHO and CoE. He has been actively involved in the South Eastern Europe Health Network (SEEHN) since its establishment in 2001, working on a number of projects and public health initiatives in the region. He was also member of several expert groups for development of health policies and strategies. He was Head of Steering committee of CCM Global Fund, Federal Institute of Public health as well a member of several other steering committees. In 2012, he was elected Chair of the Executive Committee of SEEHN. Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in the Republic of Moldova Dr Jarno Habicht is WHO Representative and Head of WHO Country Office in Republic of Moldova since January 2011. A national of Estonia, Dr. Habicht has been working for WHO for more than decade at country level. At the same time he has been involved to health care and public health initiatives in various countries of Eastern Europe and European Union on health system development, health financing and service delivery, policy dialogues, as well as in the organization of the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Health Systems in 2008. Previously he has served as Health Specialist for Estonian Health Insurance Fund; and consultant and researcher for various health projects and health information initiatives of the Department of Public Health (University of Tartu) and Ministry of Social Affairs in Estonia, among many others. He holds a Diploma in Medicine (MD) and Doctor Medicinae (PhD) from University of Tartu, Estonia.
WHO Executive Course on Health Diplomacy in Action Ivana Ivanković, Senior Advisor, Office of the Prime Minister, Croatia Ivana Ivanković started working as a journalist in Croatian daily on her second year of studying journalism on the Faculty of Political Science in Zagreb. After graduating and working as a producer on national commercial TV station, she received the Chevening scholarship to finish her MA course in International Multimedia Journalism in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. She returned home to Zagreb and entered governmental administration sector. After two years as a Spokesperson of a State Administration Office, she became Head of Online Department in the Office of the Prime Minister in the Government of the Republic of Croatia. The Department was founded in January 2012 and has received many awards since. This year, in the annual study Twiplomacy, it was named the most prolific government on Twitter in the EU and the third in the world. Elke Jakubowski, Programme Manager for Public Health Services, WHO Regional Office for Europe Elke Jakubowski manages the Public Health Services Programme at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. She is responsible for overseeing and supporting the dissemination and application of the European Action Plan on strengthening public health capacities and services. She is working with public health experts and policy makers in WHO s Member States, with country networks and with partner organizations to strengthen public health capacities across the European Region. On behalf of the WHO Director for Health Systems and Public Health, Elke coordinates the WHO partnership to the South East European Health Network. She has been working in European health policy and public health for the past 20 years and has worked in the majority of the European Member States of WHO. Before joining WHO, Elke worked as an international health policy consultant, as a health advisor to the Senate of Hamburg, and lecturer in European public health at the Hannover Medical School. Shei is a Medical Doctor with a postgraduate degree in health policy, planning and financing. Vedran Kranjčević, Chief of operations, Crisis Headquarters, Ministry of Health Vedran Kranjcevic is the current Chief of operations of the Crisis HQ at the Ministry of health in Croatia, where he started working in 2004. He has a B.A. in international relations and diplomacy and is currently at his Master s course in the same field of academic. He is the liaison to NATO within the Ministry of health and a nominated member of JHAFG (Joint health, agriculture and food group) under the umbrella of the NATO Civil emergency planning committee (CEPC). Within NATO he is a civil expert for the CEPC. In NATO school Oberammergau he was certified in NATO Civil emergency planning and NATO Crisis management. He also obtained several other certificates from INTERPOL, IAEA and he attended the Croatian armed forces Training center for international peacekeeping operations (CAPSOC). At the Ministry of health he also holds the position of the deputy security adviser to the Minister and the confidential data manager of the Ministry. Alex Leventhal, Director of Department of International Relations, Ministry of Health of Israel Prof. Leventhal (MD, MPH, MPA) is the adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Health for international relations after serving for seven years as the director of the Department of International Relations in the Ministry of Health of Israel. Previously he served for almost 16 years as the head of the Public Health Services in the Ministry. Prof. Leventhal is a physician who received his M.D. and M.P.H. degrees at Hadassah Hebrew University Schools of Medicine and Public Health in Jerusalem; and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard's Kennedy m School of Government. He holds diplomas in Surgical Urology, Public Health and Health Administration. He is an adjunct clinical
professor in the Hebrew University and Hadassah School of Public Health. His research interest fields are: public health policy, infectious disease surveillance, comparative health systems and international and global health. He has published 150 articles in the literature. Prof. Leventhal has involved in various Public Health projects, seminars and steering committees in the European Region of WHO (World Health Organization) and is a member of its Standing Committee. He is one of the founders and chairman of the Executive Board of the Middle East Consortium of Infectious Disease Surveillance (MECIDS), member of the Executive Committee of SEEHN (South East European Health Network), chairman of the Executive Board of CORDS (Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance). He strongly believes in public health as a bridge between nations and people for peace and development. Neda Milevska Kostova, Executive Director, Center for Regional Policy Research and Cooperation Studiorum Executive Director of health policy think tank Studiorum, 2007 to date. Since 2009 she is Assistant Professor of Policy and Management at the University American College Skopje. Between 2002 and 2007 she was Program Director of the Department of Public Health at Studiorum, and Executive Editor of the Journal for European Issues Evrodijalog. She began her career in 2000 as Program Manager at the Department of Pharmacogenomics, Cancer Research Hospital Ganken, Tokyo, Japan. She holds MSc degree in Functional Pharmaceutics from the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, and Master of Public Policy and Management degree from the Graduate School of Policy and International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Currently she is completing PhD degree at the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR), University of Sheffield, UK. Tomica Milosavljevic, Professor of Medicine Tomica Milosavljevic is a full-time professor at the Gastroenterology and Hepatology Clinic, Clinical Center of Serbia. He is also teaching in the Public Health School, at the Medical Faculty. In 2013 and 2014 he was serving as a WHO coordinator on SEEHN Project. He was serving as a Minister of Health of Serbia 2002-2003, 2004-2006, and 2007-2011. He was member of Executive Board of WHO 2009-2012, and a member of the Standing Committee of WHO Euro 2005-2008, as well as a president of the 57th Session of RC WHO Euro, in 2007. He is a member of the Council of EAGEN (European Association for Gastroenterology, Endoscopy and Nutrition) since 2008, and he is serving as a member of UEG General Assembly (2012-15), representing EAGEN. He was president of the Serbian Association of Gastroenterologists (2009-2013), and he is a past president of the Yugoslavian Coloproctology Society (2003-2007) and a past president of the Yugoslavian Association for Digestive Endoscopy (1996-2000). He has been a speaker, chairman and organizer at numerous national and also international symposia and congresses. László Nikicser, Former Hungarian Ambassador to France Ambassador László Nikicser was Ambassador of Hungary to France from 2006 to 2010. From 2005 to 2006 he served as diplomatic advisor to the PM of Hungary. A career diplomat, László's foreign postings include Tallin, Nicosia, and Tunis. His posts at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Budapest include serving as EU Coordinator (COEST, PSC, FAC - Neighbourhood Policy, Eastern partnership, Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine), Director for Foreign Policy strategic planning and analysis as well as Director for Western Europe. A graduate from the Institute of international relations in Moscow, Ambassador László Nikicser joined the Hungarian Foreign Service in 1979. He is fluent in English, French, Russian, Italian and Estonian.