Never Again? The Ebola Epidemic’s Warning about Critical Infrastructure Gaps
Speakers
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Assistant Secretary-General, Department of Field Support, United Nations
Mr. Anthony Banbury (USA) was appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) in September 2014. Under Mr. Banbury’s leadership, UNMEER provided the operational framework and unity of purpose to ensure the rapid, effective and coherent action necessary to bring an end to the ebola crisis.
Mr. Banbury has now resumed his position as Assistant Secretary-General for Field Support where he is responsible for providing operational support to United Nations peacekeeping and special political missions around the world. Mr. Banbury has a long and varied international career, including having served as acting Principal Deputy Special Representative in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, World Food Programme’s Regional Director for Asia, and in UN field operations in Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.
In addition, Mr. Banbury has worked in the United States Government as Head of the Democracy, Human Rights and International Operations Directorate at the National Security Council, and served as a Senior Policy Advisor on Balkans issues in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
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Director, Global Health Delivery & Diplomacy, UCSF Global Health Sciences
Eric Goosby has dedicated his professional life to fighting HIV/AIDS from treating patients to running international programs. After serving four years in the US State Department as Ambassador-at-Large and US Global AIDS Coordinator, overseeing the implementation of the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Office of Global Health Diplomacy, Ambassador Goosby returned to the University of California, San Francisco where he is Professor of Medicine and Director for Global Health Delivery and Diplomacy.
As CEO and Chief Medical Officer of Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, 2001-2009, he played a key role in the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS national treatment scale-up plans in South Africa, Rwanda, China and Ukraine.
Dr. Goosby was recently appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as the UN Special Envoy on Tuberculosis (TB). In his capacity as Special Envoy, Dr. Goosby works toward raising the profile of the fight against TB and promoting the adoption, financing and implementation of the World Health Organisation’s global End TB Strategy after 2015.
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HEALTH SECTOR POOL FUND MANAGER DEPUTY INCIDENT MANAGER EBOLA RESPONSE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL WELFARE
I am a Liberia, trained Licensed Registered Nurse with bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Cuttington University College (2003) and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from BRAC University in Dhaka Bangladesh (2012). I have completed courses in International Health and Community development from Boston University, Managing Health Emergencies in Large Population- Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Health and Human Rights- Harvard School of Public Health, Tropical Epidemiology- Prince Leopold School of Tropical Medicines and Communicable diseases in Health Emergencies –at the University of New South Wales –Sydney –Australia.
I have worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo, The Sudan (Darfur) and South Sudan with Merlin- and Malaria Consortium - UK based organizations in managing various large scale health projects.
I currently serve as the 1st Liberian Health Sector Pool Fund and also the Deputy Incident Manager for the Incident Management System – Ministry of Health, the Command and Control structure for the Ebola Response in Liberia.
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Medical anthropologist and physician Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to improving health care for the world's poorest people. He is Co-founder and Chief Strategist of Partners In Health (PIH), an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. Dr. Farmer and his colleagues in the U.S. and abroad have pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings.
Dr. Farmer holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he is the Kolokotrones University Professor and the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; he is also Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Additionally, Dr. Farmer serves as the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti.
Dr. Farmer has written extensively on health, human rights, and the consequences of social inequality. He is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Margaret Mead Award from the American Anthropological Association, the Outstanding International Physician (Nathan Davis) Award from the American Medical Association, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and, with his PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Since April 2017, Richard Besser, MD, has been president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is the former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and ABC News’ former chief health and medical editor.
At RWJF, Besser leads the largest private foundation devoted solely to improving health in the US. They focus on building a comprehensive Culture of Health that provides everyone in America with a fair and just for health and well-being. Access to healthy food, clean air and water, safe housing, secure employment at a living wage, transportation, education, and the elimination of barriers from discrimination are all-important contributors to health and well-being.
The author or co-author of hundreds of presentations, abstracts, chapters, editorials and publications, Besser has earned many awards for his work in public health and for his volunteer service. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He received the Surgeon General's Medallion for his leadership during the H1N1 response and the Dean's Medal from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2012, he received an Overseas Press Club award for coverage of global maternal health issues, and two Peabody Awards for coverage of Hurricane Sandy and Robin Roberts’ health journey. In 2017 and 2018, he received an Emmy award for “Outstanding Morning Program” as part of the Good Morning America team. His book, “Tell Me the Truth, Doctor: Easy-to-Understand Answers to Your Most Confusing and Critical Health Questions,” was published in 2013.
Besser received his Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Williams College and medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency and chief residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore.
He practices as a volunteer pediatrician at the Henry J. Austin Health Center in Trenton, N.J. He and his wife Jeanne, a food writer, have two sons, Alex and Jack.
