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Speaker Biographies
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Alexandre Robert
Registered Nurse, Master of Science
Alexandre is a French registered nurse and Planetary Health specialist who recently worked as a co-facilitator and co-founder of the French-speaking association Alliance Santé Planétaire. Previously, Alexandre worked as a policy advisor at the European Federation of Nurses Associations in 2021 and for more than 5 years for the United Nations in different roles in health emergency management (Ebola, COVID-19). He studied public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was a student and alumni ambassador for the Planetary Health Network. In his MSc thesis, Alexandre produced a narrative synthesis on the implementation of the 'One Health' approach to health emergency preparedness in Guinea and Senegal. His current work covers preparedness and response to health and environmental crises, and the critical implementation of holistic approaches, such as 'One Health', Planetary Health or Health in All Policies, related to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Arnau Queralt Bassa
Chairman, European Network of Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC)
Arnau Queralt-Bassa has been serving as Chairman of the European network of Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC) since January 2015. Arnau Queralt-Bassa also is director of the Advisory Council for the Sustainable Development of Catalonia. He has a background in Public Management and in European Studies.
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Ashlee Cunsolo
Founding Dean, School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies
Ashlee Cunsolo, PhD, is the founding Dean of the School of Arctic and Subarctic Studies and the Labrador Campus of Memorial University, a former Canada Research Chair, and a Member Emeritus of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Artists, Scholars, and Scientists. She is a leading voice internationally on climate change, mental health, and ecological grief, a regular contributor to media and policy, and editor of Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Grief and Loss.
Caro Park
PhD Student, Harvard University
A New Jersey native, Caro received her undergraduate at Harvard in stem cell biology. Through the Fulbright Anne Wexler Scholarship in Public Policy, she received a Master of Philosophy in Medicine at the University of Melbourne, specifically focusing on how vulnerable populations respond to climate-influenced food insecurity. She continues this work as a PhD candidate back at Harvard.
Courtney Howard
Clinical Associate Professor, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
Dr Courtney Howard is an Emergency Physician in Yellowknife, in Canada’s subarctic, and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. She is a nationally- and globally-recognized expert on the impacts of climate change on health, and in the broader field of Planetary Health.
Louise Ivers
Director, Harvard Global Health Institute
Dr. Louise Ivers is director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health, and the David Bangsberg MD, MPH Endowed Chair in Global Health Equity at Mass General Hospital. She is a professor of global health and social medicine, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ivers works on the implementation of health programs with the goal of advancing health equity and access to care and social services for impoverished communities, supported by research and advocacy. She is a practicing infectious diseases physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mass General Hospital.
Hahrie Han
Director, SNF Agora Institute
Hahrie Han is the Inaugural Director of the SNF Agora Institute, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Professor of Political Science, and Faculty Director of the P3 Research Lab at Johns Hopkins University. She is an award-winning author of four books and numerous articles published in leading scholarly outlets including the American Political Science Review, the American Sociological Review, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and elsewhere. She has also written for outlets like the New York Times, the Washington Post, and others. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was named a 2022 Social Innovation Thought Leader of the Year by the World Economic Forum's Schwab Foundation. She is currently working on a fifth book, to be published with Knopf (an imprint of Penguin Random House), about faith and race in America, with a particular focus on evangelical megachurches.
Hindou Ibrahim
President, Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT)
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an expert in the adaptation and mitigation of indigenous peoples to climate change. She is a member of the Mbororo pastoralist people in Chad and President of the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT). Oumarou Ibrahim is an advocate for the greater inclusion of indigenous people and their knowledge and traditions in the global movement to fight the effects of climate change. Oumarou Ibrahim received the Pritzker Emerging Environmental Genius Award and was appointed as a United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Advocate. She serves as a Member of the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues; Member of the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC); Member of the Advisory Committee to the Secretary-General’s 2019 Climate Action Summit; and Conservation International Senior Indigenous Fellow. In 2019, she was listed by Time Magazine as one of 15 women championing action on climate change.
Jemilah Mahmood
Professor and Executive Director, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health
Dr. Mahmood is a Professor of Planetary Health at Sunway University. A medical professional with more than two decades of experience managing health crises in disasters and conflict settings, her previous appointments include: Under Secretary General for Partnerships at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC); Chief of the World Humanitarian Summit secretariat at the United Nations; and Chief of the Humanitarian Response Branch at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
In 2020, she was appointed a Senior Fellow of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Centre to help reach the goal of making one billion people more resilient to climate change, migration, and human security challenges by 2030. She was also the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia on Public Health, a member of the Government of Malaysia’s Economic Action Council and Climate Action Council, and most notably the founder of MERCY Malaysia, a Southern-based international humanitarian organisation.
Mandeep Dhaliwal
Director of the Health Group, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bureau for Policy and Programme Support
Dr. Mandeep Dhaliwal is the Director of UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Group. Dr. Dhaliwal brings to the organization over 20 years of experience working on HIV, health, human rights and evidence-based policy and programming in low-and middle- income countries.
Dr. Dhaliwal, a physician and lawyer, joined UNDP in 2008 as the Cluster Leader: Human Rights, Gender and Sexual Diversities in the HIV/AIDS Group. She was the architect and lead for the Global Commission on HIV and the Law which UNDP convened on behalf of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS. Prior to joining UNDP, she was a senior adviser to the Dutch Royal Tropical Institute’s Special Programme on HIV/AIDS and the lead on HIV care and treatment at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Matthew Smith
Research Scientist, Harvard University
Dr. Matthew Smith is a research scientist in the Department of Environmental Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. His work uses global models of major environmental changes — rising CO2, shrinking pollinator populations, dwindling wild fish stocks — to quantify their impacts on diets, nutrition, and health. With this research, he explores how the accumulation of anthropogenic environmental pressures affects our ability to adequately feed the entire global population in this century, and the consequences for human health if we fail. Dr. Smith received his PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington in 2012 and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard before becoming a research scientist.
Melvine Anyango
Next Gen Fellow, Planetary Health Alliance
Melvine Anyango Otieno is a 2019 Planetary Health Campus Ambassador turned PHA Next Generation Fellow, working to inspire, activate and convene the next generation of Planetary Health Campus Ambassadors from around the world, as well as conduct outreach to facilitate local and international collaborations through her leadership in growing the Planetary Health Eastern Africa regional hub. She attained a BSc in Environmental Biology and Health and currently pursuing MSc in Environmental health at the University of Eldoret.
In addition to her efforts in growing the PHA's next gen and regional hub efforts, Melvine is coordinating the Planetary Health Session at the upcoming World Health Summit regional meeting in Africa (Kampala, Uganda). She is a Research Assistant for BGS-UoE-MU research on dynamics of Environmental Geochemistry and Health in the Lake Victoria Basin, where she investigates the transfer of micronutrients and potentially toxic elements into the Winam Gulf, LVB catchment, which is attributable to changes in land-use and subsequent implications for planetary health. Melvine is also a member of Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Africa Network for Internationalization of Higher Education (ANIE). She aspires to participate with the global community in building planetary health and one health to find solutions to environmental health challenges and imbalances.
Mohamed Bakarr
Lead Environmental Specialist, Global Environment Facility
Dr Mohamed Bakarr is Lead Environmental Specialist in the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Secretariat in Washington DC, where he oversees all major GEF programs designed to advance holistic and integrated solutions to global environmental challenges. His expertise covers a broad range of issues related to the natural resource management in the tropics, but focuses mainly on linkages among biodiversity conservation, agricultural land use, and human well-being. Prior to joining the GEF, Mohamed was at Conservation International where he served in several capacities including as Senior Vice President and Executive Director of the Center for Applied Biodiversity Science. He also served as Director of Strategic Initiatives and Assistant Director General at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) based in Nairobi, Kenya. Mohamed is from Sierra Leone and holds a B.Sc. degree in Biological Sciences from Njala University, and MS and PhD degrees in Tropical Ecology from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida.
Nicole Redvers
Associate Professor & Director of Indigenous Planetary Health, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentisty at Western University
Dr. Nicole Redvers, ND, MPH, DPhilc, is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation in Denendeh (NWT, Canada) and has worked with Indigenous patients, scholars, and communities around the globe her entire career. She is a coming associate professor and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. Dr. Redvers is co-founder and past board chair of the Canadian charity the Arctic Indigenous Wellness Foundation based in Yellowknife, NWT, providing traditional Indigenous-rooted Land-based wellness supports to northerners. She has been actively involved at regional, national, and international levels promoting the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in both human and planetary health research and practice. She is author of the trade paperback book titled, ‘The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles’
Phil Landrigan
Professor and Director, Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, Boston College
Philip Landrigan, MD MSc is a pediatrician and epidemiologist. He directs the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College. His research examines health impacts of toxic environmental hazards. His studies of lead toxicity demonstrated that low-level exposure reduces children’s IQ and contributed to EPA’s 1975 decision to remove lead from paint and gasoline, actions that reduced lead levels by 95% and increased the IQ of all American children born since 1980. His documentation of children’s exquisite sensitivity to pesticides contributed to fundamental revision of federal pesticide legislation in the United States to protect children’s health. He co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Pollution & Health, which reported in 2018 that pollution causes 9 million deaths annually and that pollution prevention is feasible, cost-effective and saves lives. Since 2019, he has led the Monaco Commission on Human Health and Ocean Pollution.
Raina Plowright
Professor and Cornell Atkinson Scholar, Cornell University
Raina Plowright is a Cornell Atkinson Scholar and a Professor in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Her research program develops the science of pandemic prevention through transdisciplinary leadership, innovation, and translation. Her work advances a One Health approach by bridging the best available science in disease dynamics with effective public health practice and meaningful policy. Plowright’s holistic and multi-level approach is best exemplified by the Bat One Health Research Group, for which she serves as Principle Investigator. Her systematic and interdisciplinary approach focuses on five areas of inquiry: Transmission of pathogens between species, Links between land-use change and pathogen spillover, Dynamics and drivers of viral pathogens in reservoir host populations, Prevention of epidemics, and Implementation of science for the protection of ecosystem and human health.
Reuben Clements
Professor and Associate Dean (Research), School of Medical and Life Sciences, Sunway University
Professor Gopalasamy Reuben Clements is a conservation scientist by training. He is currently the Associate Dean of Research and Postgraduate Studies in the School of Medical and Life Sciences in Sunway University and a Senior Fellow with the Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development. He received his PhD in conservation science from James Cook University and obtained his MSc and BSc in biology from the National University of Singapore. Reuben’s research focuses on forest and biodiversity conservation and has published over 90 articles that include Nature, and his work has been featured in the BBC, New York Times and National Geographic. He has also co-founded a local non-profit research organization known as Rimba, which conducts applied research on the conservation of threatened species and ecosystems in Peninsular Malaysia. In 2018, Reuben’s team worked with the Terengganu state government to create a legislation to gazette a 30,000-hectare protected area known as the Kenyir State Park. He is now focusing on developing conservation finance mechanisms to fund the management and expansion of this State Park.
Ruediger Krech
Director of Health Promotion, World Health Organization (WHO)
Dr Ruediger Krech is the Director for Health Promotion at the World Health Organization. He leads WHO’s work on tobacco and alcohol control, physical activity and enhanced wellbeing; and the programs on public health law and fiscal policies for health. Ruediger has previously been directing the work on health systems and universal health coverage, and he has been instrumental in developing the public health work on social determinants of health. Before joining WHO, he was leading Germany’s development work on social protection. His distinguished career is guided by his vision for the role of global health in societal development.
Sandeep Maharaj
Global Outreach Fellow, Planetary Health Alliance
As the PHA's Global Outreach Fellow, Sandeep works to support and strengthen the emerging network of Planetary Health Regional Hubs around the world, mainly through convening and cross-fertilizing current hubs and facilitating the creation of new hubs where desired. Dr. Sandeep Maharaj is a pharmacist by profession who did his graduate studies in the area of health care sustainability. While finishing is doctoral thesis on the development of a contextual framework for healthcare sustainability, Dr. Maharaj recognized that planetary health is key facet to achieving this very elusive goal.
At an academic level, Sandeep serves as a lecturer in the School of Pharmacy at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, and administratively, he serves as the Associate Dean for Distance Education and Planning and Director of the Entrepreneurship and Business Transformation Office for the Faculty of Medical Science at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus.
In the realm of public service, he has been the Deputy Chairman of the Eastern Regional Health Authority and Chairman of the Nation Health Service Company Limited in his native country of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2005 and 2006 he won the Ministry of Health quality award and in 2007 was nominated the Ministry of Health Individual of the Year.
Planetary health is his passion and he strongly believes that the concepts must be well integrated into daily societal operations so that the future generation can thrive and not be placed in a significant disadvantage.
Sione Tu'itahi
Executive Director of the Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand, Runanga Whakapiki Ake I Te Hauora o Aotearoa (HPF)
Sione Tu’itahi is the Executive Director of the Health Promotion Forum of New Zealand, Runanga Whakapiki Ake I Te Hauora o Aotearoa (HPF). He is also the Global President of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) for 2022-2025. He is also the founder and Co-Chair of the IUHPE Global Working Group on Waiora Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing. An educator, writer, and international health promotion leader, his areas of interest in health promotion include planetary health, determinants of health, human rights, community development, public policy, and workforce development. Under his leadership, HPF successfully co-hosted the 23rd World Conference on Health Promotion in Rotorua in 2019 with IUHPE. This was the largest public health conference to be held in Aotearoa New Zealand. He is a member of several boards and advisory groups at the national and international level in public health, education and development. Sione’s work is informed by his life-long learning in three, broad knowledge systems: indigenous, spiritual, and western education. In recognition of his significant contributions to health promotion and public health at the national and international levels, Sione was awarded the 2019 New Zealand Public Health Champion Award by the New Zealand Public Health Association.
Rebecca Patrick
Co-Lead, PHA Oceania Hub; Vice President, Climate and Health Alliance Australia
Dr Rebecca Patrick is Co-lead, Planetary Health Alliance (Oceania Hub) and Vice President, Climate and Health Alliance Australia. She is Director, Sustainable Health Network and Co-lead, Health Nature Sustainability Research Group at Deakin University, Melbourne. Her research expertise is in climate-related mental wellbeing and sustainable healthcare.
Patrick Frick
Global Coordinator, Global Commons Alliance
Patrick is a founding member of The Value Web, which is an international network of process designers and facilitators with the mission to expand the field of collaborative design for the common good. Since 2016, Patrick is the lead facilitator and global coordinator of the Global Commons Alliance, a network of influential leaders and organizations that aims to empower citizens, cities, companies and countries to become stewards of our global commons. The global commons provide the air we breathe, water we drink, nourishment, and shelter, underpinning the health and wellbeing of humans, and all life. Patrick has been delivering collaborative engagements for leaders and their organizations around the world that seek solutions to social and environmental problems since 2004.
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Iris Blom
PhD Candidate LSHTM | Medical Doctor Hons. | Liaison Officer to the WHO
Iris Blom is a 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researching how to make health systems more sustainable and resilient in the context of climate change. She is a medical doctor from the Netherlands with a Master's Degree in Global Affairs from Tsinghua University in Beijing, China as a Schwarzman Scholar. She has attended the COP25, COP26 and the first-ever UN Youth Climate Summit to advocate for planetary health. She is the first next-generation representative on the Steering Committee of the Planetary Health Alliance. She has worked to ensure the meaningful engagement of youth voices at the highest level of global health decision-making as the Liaison Officer to the World Health Organization of the International Federation of Medical Students' Associations. Iris has helped set up and and been part of the Steering Committee of the new WHO Youth Council.
Anjali Narayanan
Founder & Executive Director, Recycle FAN
Anjali is a senior in high school from Houston, Texas and was inspired to take environmental action after Hurricane Harvey. She started Recycle FAN a green non-profit to empower youth to take their first steps for environmental justice. She was very successful with her movement with over 500 members in 10 countries. Recycle FAN has diverted more than 2,500 lbs of waste and educated 15K people about sustainable living. She was also a youth delegate at the UN Stockholm +50 Conference and was a speaker at the Youth Assembly.
Michelle Tigchelaar
Research Scientist at Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University
Dr. Michelle Tigchelaar is a Research Scientist with the Center for Ocean Solutions at Stanford University. She is an interdisciplinary climate scientist whose work focuses on the impacts of climate change on food systems, spanning the aquatic and terrestrial and the ecological and human. Michelle obtained a MSc in Climate Dynamics from Utrecht University, and a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Hawaii. At the Center for Ocean Solutions, she coordinates the Blue Food Assessment (http://bluefood.earth), an integrative assessment of the role of aquatic foods (food from marine and freshwater systems) in transformations towards healthy, sustainable, just and resilient food systems produced by a coalition of researchers from dozens of institutions around the world. Her active research involves developing tools for assessing blue-green climate risk to nutrition and identifying climate impacts and adaptations for food worker health. Michelle is passionate about leveraging scientific findings for positive impact through policy engagement and strategic communication. Her work has been covered extensively in popular media such as The Guardian, CBS News, The Atlantic, and PBS Newshour.
Sonia Y. Angell
MD, MPH, Visiting Professor of the Practice at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Sonia Angell is an expert in public health, policy and systems change. She has over 15 years experience in government, from the local to global level and is a practicing primary care physician. She is a Visiting Professor of the Practice at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and provides leadership for the Bloomberg American Health Initiative’s work on food systems change. She is the former Director of the California Department of Public Health, a former Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Health, and was a senior advisor on Global Noncommunicable Diseases at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Angell is board certified in internal medicine. She received her medical degree from the University of California San Francisco, and completed Internal Medicine residency at Brigham Women's Hospital. She has a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Renzo Guinto
Chief Planetary Health Scientist and Co-Founder, Sunway Centre for Planetary Health
Renzo Guinto, MD DrPH is the Chief Planetary Health Scientist and Co-Founder of the newly established Sunway Centre for Planetary Health in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Concurrently, he is the Associate Professor of the Practice of Global Public Health and Inaugural Director of the Planetary and Global Health Program of the St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine in the Philippines. He is also a member of the National Panel of Technical Experts of the Climate Change Commission of the Philippines, and convener of Planetary Health Philippines – a community of Filipino scholars and practitioners for advancing the new discipline of planetary health.
An Obama Foundation Asia-Pacific Leader and Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow, Renzo has been a member of four Lancet Commissions: Lancet-University of Oslo Youth Commission on Global Governance for Health; Lancet–Chatham House Commission on Improving Population Health post COVID-19 (University of Cambridge); Lancet One Health Commission (University of Oslo); and Lancet– O’Neill Institute Commission on Racism and Structural Discrimination in Global Health (Georgetown University). He also has been a member of several international and national groups including: Advisory Council of Global Health 50/50 (University College London); Advisory Board of Climate Cares (Imperial College London); Global Advisory Council of Primary Care International; Advisory Board of Health in Harmony; Advisory Circle of Child Family Health International; Climate Resilient and Sustainable Health Systems Thematic Working Group of Health Systems Global; and Board of Trustees of the Philippine Society of Public Health Physicians.
Currently, Renzo is the President of the Calamba City Medical Society and Chair of the Committee on Environmental Health and Ecology of the Philippine Medical Association. He also has served as consultant for various organizations including: World Health Organization; WHO Foundation; World Bank; USAID; International Organization for Migration; Health Care Without Harm; Chilean Ministry of Health; and Philippine Departments of Health (DOH) and Tourism (DOT). Renzo also sits on the editorial boards of several international journals, including: The Lancet Planetary Health; PLOS Global Public Health; Journal of Climate Change and Health; Journal of Migration and Health; Globalization and Health; and Journal of Health and Pollution.
Renzo obtained his Doctor of Public Health from Harvard University and Doctor of Medicine from the University of the Philippines Manila, and received further training from Oxford, Copenhagen, Western Cape, and East-West Center (Hawaii). He also received prestigious fellowships from Health Systems Global (Emerging Voice in Global Health); World Heart Federation (Emerging Leader); National University of Singapore (Raffles Fellow); and Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp.
Carlos Alvarado Quesada
48th President of the Republic of Costa Rica
Carlos Alvarado Quesada served as the 48th President of the Republic of Costa Rica from May 2018 to May 2022, when his constitutionally limited term ended. Under President Alvarado's leadership, Costa Rica contributed to global efforts to combat climate change and defended human rights, democracy, and multilateralism. President Alvarado is a recipient of the 2022 Planetary Leadership Award by the National Geographic Society for his outstanding commitment and action toward protecting the ocean and in September 2019 he received on behalf of his country the Champion on the Earth Award for policy leadership, presented by the United Nations Environment Program. In November 2019, he was named one of TIME’s 100 Next emerging leaders around the world who are shaping the future and defining the next generation of leadership. President Alvarado's prior government leadership service includes a tenure as Minister of Labor and Social Security (2016-2018) and as Minister of Human Development and Social Inclusion (2014 – 2016) and Executive President of the Joint Social Welfare Institute, responsible for implementing social protection and promoting poverty alleviation programs. Before entering politics, he worked for Procter and Gamble, Latin America.
Laetitia Sieffert
Programme Management Officer, UNEP Convention on Biological Diversity
Laetitia works as Programme Management Officer on biodiversity and health at the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, hosted by UNEP in Montreal. She has 10-year professional experience in external relations and programme management roles with the UN system. She most recently worked with Unitaid - a global health innovation agency hosted by WHO in Geneva, GROUPE SOS - a social entrepreneurship group – in Mumbai, and UNOPS’ office in Washington DC. A dual citizen of France and Switzerland, Laetitia holds a master’s in public affairs from Sciences Po and an executive master’s in international strategy and leadership from the Graduate Institute.
Siila Watt-Cloutier
Former Chair, Inuit Circumpolar Council
Sheila Watt-Cloutier resided in Iqaluit, Nunavut for 15 years and now has returned back to her hometown of Kuujjuaq, Quebec. She was born in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (northern Quebec), and was raised traditionally in her early years before attending school in southern Canada and in Churchill, Manitoba. She is the past Chair of Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), the organization that represents internationally the 155,000 Inuit of Canada, Greenland, Alaska, and Chukotka in the Far East of the Federation of Russia. She has received and been nominated for many awards, including a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
Vanessa Goes
Integrative Health Professional
Vanessa Goes is an Integrative health professional and artist with a multidisciplinary approach. Dancer, Registered dietitian, Wellness mentor and Pilates instructor, operates within the fields of arts, health and education. Member of the Brazilian College of Lifestyle Medicine, she’s professor of Nutrition Science at the post-graduation course in preventive and Lifestyle medicine at IPEMED, Brazil. PhD student in Food Science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where she studies topics related to biochemistry, dietary bioactive compounds, antioxidants, placental redox status, metabolomics in the context of non communicable disease. A Planetary Health ambassador, having started in 2021 at the brazilian program at the Institute for Advanced Studies at University of São Paulo (IEA-USP), where she’s a mentor junior now. Continuing in 2022 at the PHCA program hosted by Planetary Health Alliance at Harvard. Member of the Southeast Brazilian Planetary Health Club. She’s Executive secretariat at the transdisciplinary mentoring research network MRN at ACOPPHE (African Community of Planetary Partners for Health and Environment), where she develops collaborative research in the areas of Food, food systems, nutrition, Lifestyle, Microbiome, holistic Health, anthropocene, Decolonization and Indigenous Knowledge systems.
Antonio Saraiva
Steering Committee; Professor, University of São Paulo, Head of the Planetary Health Brazil, Institute of Advanced Studies
Antonio M Saraiva has been involved in transdisciplinary research for more than 30 years, bridging computing engineering, agriculture, biodiversity, environment and health. He has created and led pioneer research groups in Brazil on agricultural automation, on biodiversity and computing and, more recently, on planetary health. His works has always been solutions-oriented to safeguard our future.
Antonio is the head of the Planetary Health Brazil, hosted at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University of São Paulo (USP), that brings together members from various Brazilian institutions. He has been representing USP in the Planetary Health Alliance since USP joined PHA, in early 2016, and is currently a member of PHA steering committee.
He is a co-PI at the USP/IBM Center for Artificial Intelligence, leading its AgriBio Challenge, and he coordinates the USP node of the University Blockchain Research Initiative, UBRI, funded by Ripple.
Antonio’s current work and interests span several areas of planetary health, including: 1. Safeguarding crop pollination and pollinators in Brazil and South America: plant-pollination interaction data standardization and database development; citizen science & pollinators; data quality in citizen science; 2. Spatiotemporal data analysis of suicides in Brazil; 3. Data analysis of dengue cases and control in Brazil to help develop more effective policies; 4. Decision-making for a more sustainable agriculture and for mitigating hunger using data science and AI; 5. Use of blockchain to foster transparency, traceability and new businesses in agriculture, biodiversity and health.
Antonio has degrees in Electrical Engineering (1980) and on Agronomy (1987) from University of São Paulo, a Master and Ph.D. in Electric Engineering, also from USP, with a focus in IT applied to agriculture and the environment. He is a faculty at USP since 1989, and has served in many positions, including vice research provost. He is a full professor since 2008. He has also served other national and international organizations such as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES – task group on knowledge and data), Biodiversity Information Standards/TDWG (Executive Committee, Data quality Interest Group chair, Biological interactions data IG chair), FAO (Global Pollination Project, consultant), International Commission on Agricultural Engineering / CIGR (Section VII, Information Technology chair).
Kelly Meza Prado
Planetary Health Alliance Youth Steering Committee Representative
Kelly Meza Prado hails from the Peruvian Andes and drives environmental work that is targeted at improving human health. She currently works at the Climate Change and Health Unit of the WHO supporting countries to deliver on their goals of making health systems low-carbon and resilient to climate change. Before that, she supported 5 Latin American countries in identifying priority conservation and restoration areas to improve water quality and quantity. She has worked at the Natural Capital Project and the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School of Public Affairs and received the Davis Project for Peace, Hawkinson Fund for Peace and Justice, and Global Rotary Scholarship awards. Kelly holds a BA in Economics and Environmental Studies from Saint Olaf College and a Master of Public Health in Environment and Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Faries Gray
Sagamore (War Chief), Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag
Faries Gray is the Sagamore (War Chief) of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag. In addition Faries is one of the Massachusett tribal historians. For the last 20 years Faries has worked with multiple cities, towns, schools, colleges, and universities to educate them about the Massachusett Tribe during the early years of colonization.
Presently Faries is working with all the historic tribes within the Commonwealth to lobby for schools and our representatives to ban the use of Indigenous mascots in all public schools in the Commonwealth. Faries works part time for the NITHPO office of the MedicineMan for the Narragansett Tribe. This work includes identifying ceremonial landscapes in the effort to prevent these landscapes from being developed.
Manuel
Postdoctoraal Associate, College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University
Manuel Ruiz-Aravena is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. His field of research focuses on understanding the ecological drivers of host-pathogen ecology and evolution, and how they influence risk of cross-species transmission and emergence of infectious diseases from wildlife into humans. His work integrates veterinary sciences, epidemiology, ecology, and evolutionary biology to inform and propose preemptive actions to protect wildlife, livestock, and human health. Manuel completed his veterinary degree at Chile’s Universidad Austral, before moving to Australia for his PhD at the University of Tasmania.