Commissioners
Sarah Baird | George Washington University
Sarah Baird is a Professor of Global Health and Economics and Vice Chair in the Department of Global Health in the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. Professor Baird is a development economist whose research focuses on the microeconomics of health and education in low- and middle-income countries with an emphasis on gender and youth.
Alex Ezeh | Drexel University
Alex Ezeh is a Professor of Global Health in the Department of Community Health and Prevention at the Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University. Professor Ezeh brings decades of experience in research, research capacity strengthening, and policy advocacy on a range of global health and development issues. Read more.
Russell Viner | University College London
Russell Viner is a Professor of Adolescent Health at the UCL Institute of Child Health in London. He is a population and policy researcher in child and adolescent health, with a particular focus on mental health in schools and obesity in young people. He directs the UK Department of Health Obesity Policy Research Unit. Read more.
Peter Azzopardi | MCRI
Professor Peter Azzopardi leads a program of research around global adolescent health, with a strong focus on health equity. He was a contributor to the Lancet Commission on Adolescent health and wellbeing and has consulted on adolescent health to governments in Australia and the region, as well as DFAT, UNICEF, UNFPA and WHO.
Shakira Choonara | WHO & UN Women
Dr Shakira Choonara is a multi-award-winning public health practitioner, the 2017 Woman of the Year in Health in South Africa and a bold activist. She is widely recognised for her work and experience youth development issues, gender equality, sexual & reproductive health rights and universal health coverage.
George Patton | Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
The late George Patton AO was a Professorial Fellow in Adolescent Health Research at the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. His research focused on child and adolescent health, growth and development. Read more.
Susan Sawyer | University of Melbourne
Professor Susan Sawyer holds the Geoff and Helen Handbury Chair of Adolescent Health at the University of Melbourne and is Director of the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital. A paediatrician by training, she is internationally recognised for her leadership in adolescent health.
Twitter: @susansawyer01
Prerna Banati | WHO
Dr. Prerna Banati is Scientist with the Adolescent and Young Adult Health team at the World Health Organization. She has over 20 years of international development experience as a researcher and advisor. Her work involves evidence generation and translation to support development and scaling of quality, inclusive adolescent and youth policies and programmes. Read more.
Twitter: @BanatiPrerna
Judith Bessant | RMIT University
Judith Bessant is a Professor in School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University. She is widely published, and in 2017 was awarded an ‘Order of Australia’ (AM) for her or significant service to education as a social scientist, advocate and academic specialising in youth studies research. Read more.
Twitter: @BessantJudith
Olivia Biermann | Karolinska Institutet
Dr Olivia Biermann is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Transformations for Sustainable Health at the Department of Global Public Health. Dr Biermann is a health policy and systems researcher focusing on gaps between evidence & policy, and policy & implementation in LMICs. Her current work includes a political economy analysis of adolescent mental health and wellbeing. Read more.
Tony Capon | Monash University
Professor Tony Capon directs the Monash Sustainable Development Institute and holds a chair in planetary health in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. A public health physician and authority in environmental health and health promotion, his research focuses on urbanisation, sustainable development and human health.
Mariam Claeson | Karolinska Institute
Dr Mariam Claeson is a globally recognized expert in maternal and child health, and the former director of the Global Financing Facility for Every Woman Every Child at the World Bank. Prior to the GFF. She is currently serving as senior project leader of political economy of adolescent mental health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm. Read more.
Twitter: @MariamClaeson
Pamela Collins | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Pamela Collins is Chair of the Department of Mental Health and a Bloomberg Centennial Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a psychiatrist and mixed methods researcher with 25 years of experience in global public health & global mental health research, education, capacity-building, and science policy leadership. Read more.
Twitter: @PCollins_gmh
Nicole De Wet-Billings | University of the Witwatersrand
Associate Professor Nicole De Wet-Billings is currently an Associate Professor in the Demography and Population Studies department and the Assistant Dean for Research in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa). Read more.
Twitter: @NicoleDeWet1
Surabhi Dogra | Centre for Environmental Health
Surabhi Dogra has a background in Social Work in Public Health and Mass Communications. She is passionate about harnessing health communications to address public health concerns. She has worked with adolescents, young people, children, and women in rural and urban low-income communities in India. Her current work entails raising awareness about environmental health issues in the country.
Twitter: @SurabhiDogra
Yanhui Dong | Peking University
Assistant Professor Yanhui Dong is a young researcher at the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Peking University. His research interests include adolescent health in chronic and infectious diseases.
Twitter: @Dong_Yanhui
Kate Francis | MCRI
Kate Francis is a biostatistician at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute where she is involved in statistical analysis supporting global adolescent health and wellbeing research. Kate also provides statistical expertise for clinical trials aimed at improving outcomes for newborn infants.
Luwam Gebrekristos | PhD candidate
Luwam Gebrekristos is a PhD student studying Epidemiology at Drexel University School of Public Health. Her research interest lies in examining the social and structural factors that drive racial and gender inequalities in HIV risk in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the U.S.
Allison Groves | Drexel University
Dr Ali Groves is committed to promoting social justice and decreasing gender inequalities in health through multilevel interventions. She has engaged in interventions and research across a diverse array of settings and her work focuses on the social and structural factors that perpetuate poor sexual and reproductive health across the globe.
Simon Hay | University of Washington
Simon Hay is a Professor in the Department of Health Metrics Sciences, in the School of Medicine at the University of Washington, and Director of Research Strategy at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. His career has focused on spatial and temporal aspects of infectious disease epidemiology to support the more rational implementation of disease control and intervention strategies.
David Imbago Jácome | YIELD Hub
Dr David Imbago-Jácome is a medical doctor with a Master of Public Health, currently leading the YIELD Hub, an independent Adolescent and Youth Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights initiative hosted by Rutgers International. In addition, David is a Board member of PMNCH. His work focuses primarily on youth participation in global health. Read more.
Aaron Jenkins | Edith Cowan University
Dr Aaron Jenkins from ECU’s Centre for People, Place and Planet, has highly regarded expertise in crosscutting development themes including integrated conservation & development, wetland management for health, nutrition & climate change mitigation, WASH & waterborne disease management.
Caroline Kabiru | APHRC
Dr Caroline Kabiru leads the Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (SRMNCAH) Unit at the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC). Dr Kabiru has over ten years’ experience designing, conducting and managing research projects in sub-Saharan Africa focusing on adolescent health, female genital mutilation (FGM), and gender. Read more.
Twitter: @CwKabiru
Elissa Kennedy | Burnet Institute
Dr Elissa Kennedy is a Co-Program Director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health at Burnet Institute, and Co-Head of the Global Adolescent Health group. Dr Kennedy has more than a decade’s experience in global public health, with a focus on adolescent sexual and reproductive health, mental health, research, policy and programming in LMICs. Read more.
Twitter: @elissakennedy
Luo Li | PhD candidate
Luo Li is a PhD student with the University of Melbourne. She is an aspiring public-health focused graduate researcher and advocate who is also a passionate volunteer who has been involved in some not-for-profit organisations and university community.
Chunling Lu | Harvard Medical School
Chunling Lu is an Associate Professor of Medicine, and of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on providing rigorous scientific evidence for designing health care financing strategies that will effectively improve health outcomes for disadvantaged populations. Read more.
Jun Ma | Peking University
Professor Jun Ma is the Director of the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Peking University. The institute is responsible for policy- and regulation-drafting, scientific research, technical guidance, professional consulting, and expertise training for nationwide activities in child and adolescent health and school health.
Augustina Mensa-Kwao | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Tina Mensa-Kwao is passionate about addressing gaps in health equity, mental health care, and increasing access to quality health services, particularly in low-income environments. She has experience working in international settings such as Haiti, Africa, and America on mental health care, chronic disease, HIV/AIDS prevention, and maternal and child health. Read more.
Twitter: @MensaKwao
Terry McGovern | University of New York
Professor Terry McGovern serves as the Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs at the University of New York Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. Her research focuses on health & human rights, sexual & reproductive rights and health, gender justice, and environmental justice. Read more.
Sanyu Mojola | Princeton University
Sanyu Mojola is a Professor of Sociology & Public Affairs, and the Director of the Office of Population Research. Her research examines how societies produce health and illness with particular interest in how gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status and the life course shape health outcomes. Much of her work focuses on the HIV pandemic as it unfolds in Kenya, South Africa and USA.
Jason Nagata | University of California
Dr Jason Nagata is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent & Young Adult Medicine and affiliated faculty with the Institute for Global Health Sciences and the Center for Sexual & Gender Minority Health. Dr Nagata's research focuses on the downstream health effects of adolescent & young adult behaviours. Read more.
Twitter: @jasonmnagata
Adesola Olumide | University of Ibadan
Dr Adesola Olumide is a Researcher and Consultant Community Physician at the Institute of Child Health ICH, University of Ibadan and University College Hospital, Ibadan Nigeria. Her main research interests are in adolescent and young people’s health and in non-communicable disease (injury and substance abuse) epidemiology.
Olayinka Omigbodun | University of Ibadan
Professor Olayinka Omigbodun is Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her research is in the field of Child and Youth Psychiatry and Mental Health. She has also researched into psychological interventions for children and adolescents with mental disorders and carried out anti-stigma interventions in schools.
Molly O’Sullivan | MCRI
Molly O’Sullivan is an experienced public health professional with over 10 years as a research coordinator, health communicator, and program manager. Molly has expertise in youth engagement, health and research communications with a focus on research translation and impact. Skilled in managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects and fostering international collaborations in adolescent health research.
Audrey Prost | UCL
Audrey Prost is Professor of Global Health at University College London (UCL) and Co-Director of the UCL Centre for the Health of Women, Children and Adolescents. Audrey is trained in social anthropology and epidemiology. She conducts research on participatory community interventions to improve child and adolescent health in the context of a changing climate. Read more.
Twitter:@audreyprost2
Jennifer Requejo | Johns Hopkins
Dr Jennifer Requejo is a Senior Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Senior Advisor at the Global Financing Facility (GFF), World Bank.
Yusra Shawar | Johns Hopkins
Yusra Shawar is an Associate Scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research concerns the global governance of health and the politics of health policy processes. She examines the role that knowledge-based communities play in agenda-setting processes, both at global and national levels. Read more.
Twitter: @yrshawar
Jeremy Shiffman | Johns Hopkins University
Professor Jeremy Shiffman is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Health Policy at Johns Hopkins University, with joint appointments in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. A political scientist by training, his research focuses on the politics of health policy processes in low-income countries and in global governance. Read more.
Avi Silverman | FIA Foundation
Avi Silverman is the Deputy Director of the FIA Foundation, a UK registered international philanthropy founded in 2001. Avi has also worked for UNICEF as the Global Coordinator of UNICEF’s Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention programme.
Twitter: @avisilverman
Yi Song | Peking University
Associate Professor Yi Song is deputy director at the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, Peking University. Her research focuses include the social determinants of child and adolescent health and development, students’ Constitution and Health (based on CNSSCH) and its inequality, and the implementation research of common diseases interventions among children and adolescents.
Sharlene Swartz | HSRC
Professor Sharlene Swartz is the head of education and economics research at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa, and an adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Fort Hare Town. Her expertise centres on youth development and social justice for young people in adversity, and on restitution and redress in the South African context and elsewhere. Read more.
Twitter: @SharleneSwartz
Rita Tamambang | University of Ibadan
Rita Tamambang is a medical doctor from Cameroon. She is currently a Research Associate at the Centre for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CCAMH), and her research focuses on the physical and mental health of infants and their mothers with a special interest in adolescent mothers.
Henrik Urdal | Peace Research Institute Oslo
Professor Henrik Urdal is Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). He is past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Peace Research. His research focuses on the impact of population and environmental change on armed conflict, including security implications of urbanization, ‘youth bulges’, and climate change. Read more.
Twitter: @h_urdal
Joseph Ward | University College London
Dr Joseph Ward is a general paediatrician based in central London and has recently completed an MRC funded PhD in Epidemiology at UCL. His academic background includes analyses of Global Burden of Disease study data, and other large datasets, to understand global and national trends in adolescent health and wellbeing. Read more.
Twitter: @_joe_ward
Molly O’Sullivan | MCRI
Molly O’Sullivan is an experienced research coordinator, health communicator, and program manager with an extensive and varied history of working in public health and clinical trials. Molly has expertise in youth engagement, health and research communications with a focus on research translation and impact.
Molly coordinated the previous Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing.