Speaker Series N°8 - Protecting the World: Moving Rapidly Together
Effectively monitoring global health threats requires gathering insights from diverse information sources. These include contextual information that improves our interpretation of the complex interplay of factors influencing health outcomes, such as socioeconomic conditions, environmental influences, geographical information, and patterns of movement, among others.
Contextual information is the backbone of effective public health intelligence. Co-hosted with the Charité Center for Global Health, the Speaker Series N°8 will delve into harnessing contextual insights for better public health intelligence, spotlighting the importance of leveraging diverse contextual information for effective public health interventions. The session will explore common challenges and enablers in utilising contextual insights for better public health intelligence, showcase relevant country experiences and case studies, and encourage meaningful multidisciplinary collaborations to enhance public health intelligence and decision-making as we prepare for future health emergencies.
Participants can join the event either in person in Berlin or online via WHO YouTube Livestream. Due to space limitation in the event venue, on-site registration is on a first come, first served basis. You are encouraged to register for the event at your earliest convenience.
Speakers introduction:
Dr Esther Hamblion | Speaker
Unit Head, Public Health Intelligence, World Health Organization (WHO)
Dr Esther Hamblion is an epidemiologist in the World Health
Organisation’s Health Emergencies Programme and is currently the unit
head of the Public Health Intelligence unit at WHO HQ in Geneva,
Switzerland. Previously Esther was at the WHO’s Regional Office for
Africa supporting the response to outbreaks with a focus on
strengthening surveillance systems for data collection, collation and
analysis to better target intervention activities. Prior to that she was
based at the WHO country office in Liberia where she led the WHO
epidemiology team during the Ebola response and subsequent recovery and
health system strengthening phases. Esther previously worked at Public
Health England in their field epidemiology services.
Haley West | Speaker
Senior Programme Officer, Health in Emergencies, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Haley West is the International Organization for Migration’s Senior Programme Officer for Health in Emergencies within the Migration Health Division based in Geneva, Switzerland, a role she has held since 2018. Within this role, Haley supports the coordination and provision of technical and operational guidance for IOM’s health response to humanitarian and public health emergencies globally. Additionally, part of her role focuses on supporting capacity building of IOM health teams in humanitarian and public health emergencies, with a particular focus on harnessing IOM’s comparative advantage around understanding public health programming through a mobility lens. Haley has over 10 years of experience working in the space of humanitarian and public health emergencies.
Sophie Mower | Speaker
Senior Manager for Strategic Engagement and Growth, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT)
Sophie Mower currently leads strategic partnerships at the Humanitarian OpenStreetMapTeam (HOT) to enhance the creation, management, and utilisation of open map data, driving impactful decision-making. Working with HOT since April 2020, she brings with her years of dedication as a volunteer, and over 8 years of experience in international development and 12 years in community development. Sophie's passion lies at the intersection of people and technology, utilising her skills in human-centered design and design thinking to craft programs tailored for lasting impact, driving positive change at the community level.
Sophie’s background spans community development, sustainable development, and inclusive innovation. She has notable experience, including establishing a Maker Space at the Bahir Dar Institute of Technology in Ethiopia and co-founding the First Steps Project, a UK-based non-profit that provided workshops and training programs for young people in deprived areas.
Mohammad Bailor Jalloh | Speaker
Chief Executive Officer, FOCUS 1000
Mohammad Bailor Jalloh is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of FOCUS 1000, a leading national non-governmental organization in Sierra Leone, dedicated to transforming social and traditional norms to enhance opportunities for vulnerable children and their families across the country.
Jalloh has 50 years of work experience including 13 years with the Government of Sierra Leone, 25 with UNICEF at both national and international levels, and 12 with FOCUS 1000. He has participated in the only two global disease eradication campaigns undertaken so far – Smallpox and Polio. He also played crucial roles in the fight against Ebola and COVID 19 in Sierra Leone, especially by the development of strategies to engage religious and traditional healers in ending the epidemics. He has co-authored several articles on various public health issues.
Jalloh holds a master’s degree in public health (MPH). In 2017 he was awarded a Member of the Order of the Rokel (MOR) by the President of Sierra Leone for his services to the country, especially during the Ebola epidemic.
Sara Hersey | Moderation
Director of Collaborative Intelligence at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence
Sara Hersey is an infectious disease epidemiologist who has served in global public health leadership roles over the past two decades with the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, and Resolve to Save Lives (RTSL). Her professional experience spans more 50 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean where she has led efforts in surveillance, outbreak preparedness and response, infectious disease prevention and treatment, strategic planning, policy, financing and program management.
Sara joined WHO in 2023 as the Director of Collaborative Intelligence for the Division of Health Emergency Intelligence and Surveillance Systems in the WHO Health Emergencies Programme. In this role, she is based in Berlin with the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence where she leads external partnerships, collaborations, and networks.
Previously, Sara was a senior advisor on health security and COVID-19 seconded to the World Bank by RTSL. Sara was the first US CDC Country Director in Sierra Leone, leading their Ebola response and establishing the Global Health Security Agenda program for the US Government. She was also the US CDC Country Director in South Sudan through the 2013-14 civil war. Sara has worked as an epidemiologist with the US CDC in Malawi and South Africa, with UNHCR responding to complex emergencies, and with FHI 360 in the Asia Pacific region. Sara started her international career with the US Peace Corps in Malawi and her public health career with Planned Parenthood.
Dr Philip El-Duah | Moderation
Junior Research Group Leader & Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Charité
Philip El-Duah is a junior research group leader at the Institute of Virology, Charité, associated to the Charité Center for Global Health. He is also affiliated with the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, where he completed his PhD. His studies focused on the role of livestock as intermediate hosts for the transmission of coronaviruses with zoonotic potential.
Since his PhD, he has been working on collaborative projects between the Charité and partners in Africa. Currently, he is researching the epidemiology of zoonotic viruses and diagnostic solutions for emerging and re-emerging viral pathogens. Philip led a team at KCCR undertaking training in Next Generation Sequencing and Serological techniques during the pandemic. He serves as the deputy lead for diagnostics and research reagents of the Centre for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, East and Central Africa (CREID-ECA)
Philip also is a Scientific Coordinator for the German-West African Centre for Global Health and Pandemic Preparedness (G-WAC) and a Co-Principal investigator in studying the needs, effectiveness and impact of pandemic non-pharmaceutical interventions in the Global South with Ghana as an example.