EV4GH around the globe

I am a researcher, consultant and advocate in population and global health. My specific areas of interest include infectious diseases, cancers, adolescent and youth health, maternal and child health. I have built capacities in the design, implementation and the evaluation of public health programs and interventions. Throughout my academic and work experiences, I have provided leadership and technical assistance on diverse projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, France, the United-Kingdom and Canada. Selected as an Emerging voice for Global Health 2020, I belong to a generation of young African leaders who are achieving cutting-edge work while advocating for health equity and social justice. Since 2018, I have co-developed the Women in Global Health Francophone initiative to advocate for Francophone Women inclusion in population and global health decision making for health equity, social equality and environmental justice. I am leading this initiative in West Africa where intersectional factors (language, culture, religion…) limit women participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and their contribution to decision making. I have also co-founded two NGOs in Burkina Faso: “African Crossroad development” (working to improve access to care and the living condition of populations in rural areas) and “African Group Organized for action and Research in Health” ( a health-dedicated think tank with the mission to contribute to better health governance through research, advocacy, and actions). Born in Burkina Faso, I holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Epidemiology and Public Heath from the University of Burgundy (France); and a Doctoral Degree in Pharmacy from the Mohammed V University in Rabat (Morocco). I am benefiting from a post-Ph.D. training in transdisciplinary research on public policies promoting health and for health system improvement at McGill University and the “Institut national de santé publique du Québec” as part of The Canadian Institutes of Health research Health System Impact Fellowship (HSIF) program. As a research associate at the Public Health Institute and the University Joseph Ki-Zerbo in Burkina Faso, I am co-chair of the O.R. Tambo Africa Research Chair in Research and Action Against Cancer as part of the ORTARChI.

I am a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Antwerp and a researcher based at the National Institute of Public Health, Cambodia. My areas of focus are NCDs health service delivery, health system research, and universal health coverage. I have experience in using quantitative data to generate the cascade of care for maternal and child health and hypertension care. During COVID-19 pandemic, I am a member of the sub-committee of rapid response and investigation into a person with COVID-19 and executive research team for vaccination study.

Ahmad Firas Khalid is a medical doctor, a health policy and system researcher and lecturer, and a knowledge translation professional. Firas completed his medical degree at St. George’s University School of Medicine and his PhD in Health Policy at McMaster University. Firas worked as a Senior Research Manager at Evidence Aid working on creating a World Health Organization (WHO) Knowledge Hub on emergency disasters research management and with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on the creation of Resilient Health Systems collection to advise member states. He is also a CIHR Health System Impact Fellow and a Mitacs Elevate Training Fellow working on Implementation of efforts to support real-time evidence use in humanitarian practice at The Canadian Red Cross. Firas is a Board Member for Doctors Without Borders where his responsibility is to set the strategic direction for the entire Canadian branch of the organization. In the past, Firas worked as a Senior Research and Learning Consultant at the Canadian Red Cross working on Epidemic Prevention and Control COVID-19 research. In addition, Firas previously worked as a Health Policy Researcher at the Research Unit on Humanitarian Stakes and Practices (UREPH) at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Geneva, Switzerland. He also worked in the department of Child and Maternal Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Firas is the Founder and Executive Director of Knowledge Translation Hub – a knowledge synthesis hub designed to meet the demands of decision-makers and organizations. Find Firas on Twitter: @Ahmadfiraskhali Find Firas on Instagram: drfiraskhalid Find Firas on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/firaskhalid/ Website: https://www.knowledgetranslationhub.com YouTube: https://youtu.be/YV-56y5_fpo

An MPhil/PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Arush Lal’s research explores the politics and governance of global health diplomacy, including fragmentation between health systems for global health security and universal health coverage. He has policy, advocacy, and research experience in health emergencies, pandemic preparedness, primary health care, health workforce, gender equity, digital health, and youth leadership. In addition, he has worked in government and civil society roles at community, national, and global levels, including the World Health Organization, U.S. HHS Office of Pandemics & Emerging Threats, Partners in Health, and IntraHealth International. Lal serves as inaugural Board Vice Chair for Women in Global Health, where he supports the global campaign across 90 countries and 40,000+ members to build a gender-transformative, intersectional, and equitable health and care workforce. In addition, he was selected as a Community and Civil Society Representative for the ACT-Accelerator for COVID-19 tools; in this role on the Health Systems and Response Connector, he pushes for the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, oxygen, tests, PPE, and therapeutics globally, ensuring they are sustainably integrated into long-term health systems strengthening efforts. Finally, as an independent consultant, Lal has supported a variety of projects including on COVID-19 response, access to essential health services, and strategy for health systems strengthening for clients ranging from local NGOs to multilateral institutions. Lal is a Gates Foundation Goalkeeper, WHO/UNICEF Primary Health Care Young Leader, Georgia Tech 40 Under 40 Honoree, Women Deliver Young Leader, and former Fellow at Emerging Voices for Global Health and Global Health Corps. Having published in journals including The Lancet and BMJ Global Health, Lal has an MSc in Health Policy, Planning & Financing from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine as a Rotary Global Scholar and a BSc in Business Administration from the Georgia Institute of Technology as a Stamps President’s Scholar. Connect with him on Twitter @Arush_Lal. See his publications at https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=a3vzqS4AAAAJ&hl=en.

I am marry with two kids. Obtained master in Global Health from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and worked as a social science research at Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, University of Liberia.

Mehr Manzoor is a Fulbright Scholar and a Ph.D. candidate at Tulane University in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Mehr is a strong advocate for gender equality, intersectionality, and women’s leadership in global health and beyond. Her research work includes gender and intersectionality analysis of global health organizations and explores issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces. She is a co-lead author on the technical report “Delivered by women, led by men: A Gender and Equity analysis in the Global Health and Social Care Workforce”, which explores issues of decent work, organizational segregation, gender pay gap, and leadership in global health workforce and was published by the Gender Equity Hub at the World Health Organization. She taught Social Aspects of Health to incarcerated women in Louisiana in 2020 as part of the Newcomb College Institute and Tulane’s College in Prison project. She was selected as WLGH Leadership Fellow for the inaugural Women Leaders in Global Health (WLGH) conference in 2017 in Stanford, California, and in 2018 was selected as an Emerging Voice for Global Health (EV4GH) program fellow. She volunteered and served as a research director at Women in Global Health from 2016- 2019. She has received Changemaker Catalyst Award from the Taylor Center at Tulane University for her work on women’s leadership in global health and her social venture on women’s leadership in low-and middle-income countries was selected in Taylor Center’s Changemaker Institute at Tulane University in 2021. She holds an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from the National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan.

Olivia Biermann is a health policy and systems researcher with a PhD in Medical Science from Karolinska Institutet and work experience from the World Health Organization. Her mission is to do research that is relevant and useful for informing decision-making in health, and to build capacity for research and research use, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Olivia is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, focusing on the political economy of adolescent mental health. She is also a knowledge translation consultant at the World Health Organization. Previously, she was a Fellow at the Boston University-Rockefeller Foundation Commission on Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-making (2020-2021). She also worked as a consultant in knowledge translation at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe where she provided technical support to the Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe (2014-2017). She worked and studied in Ecuador, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, South Africa and Vietnam. In addition to her academic activities, she serves as President of the non-governmental organization Foundation Human Nature, supporting community-based rural health and development work in Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal and Rwanda.