Ms Gabriela Cuevas, Co-Chair, UHC2030 Steering Committee
Active in politics since she was 15 years old, she was elected Federal Member of Parliament for the first time at age 21. She has been a Federal Member of Parliament three times, Local Member of Parliament, and a Constituent Member of Parliament in the Constituent Assembly of Mexico City. Additionally, she was the first woman to be elected Mayor of the Miguel Hidalgo Delegation. She also chaired the Foreign Relations Commission when she served as Senator.
Currently, she is Co-Chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee and Co-Chair of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission’s Task Force on Humanitarian Relief, Social Protection, & Vulnerable Groups. She is also part of the Task Force on Global Health Diplomacy and Cooperation, and the Regional Task Force for Latin America. In addition, Ms. Cuevas is a member of the Unite Global Parliamentarians Network to End Infectious Diseases and the International Parliamentary Network for Education. She is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science.
In 2017, Gabriela Cuevas Barron became the youngest and the second woman President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). She sought to increase the prominence and prestige of the IPU as the global institution for parliamentarians. She also received the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the Government of France, and the Cavaliere di Gran Croce, Ordine Equestre di Saint’ Agata on behalf of the Government of the Republic of San Marino.
Dr Justin Koonin, Co-Chair, UHC2030 Steering Committee
Justin Koonin has represented Global North Civil Society Organisations on the UHC2030 Steering Committee since 2017. He is co-chair of the WHO-hosted Social Participation Technical Network, co-chair of the SDG3 Global Action Plan Civil Society Advisory Group, and civil society representative to the Access to COVID Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and the Health Data Collaborative Stakeholder Representative Group
At a national level, Justin Koonin is President of ACON (formerly AIDS Council of New South Wales), Australia’s largest civil society organisation working on HIV prevention, care and support, and the health of sexuality and gender diverse people more broadly. He is a former chair of the New South Wales Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby, the peak advocacy body for gay and lesbian people in that state.
Justin Koonin’s work spans a diverse range of sectors. In addition to his efforts in health and human rights, he has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in mathematics at the University of Sydney, as a data scientist at PwC, and (currently) as a fund manager at Allan Gray. He holds a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics from the University of Sydney and is a Chartered Financial Analyst charter holder, as well as a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Dr Svetlana Akselrod, Director, Global NCD Platform
Dr Svetlana Akselrod is Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Noncommunicable Diseases (NCD) Platform and leads a coordinated multisectoral and multi-stakeholder action in the fight against major killers of our time – NCDs. The Global NCD Platform brings together the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on NCDs and the Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs and oversees a number of other cross-cutting initiatives on NCDs at global, regional and country levels. Before that, Dr Akselrod held the position of WHO’s Assistant Director-General for NCDs and Mental Health, leading WHO’s work in tackling NCDs and their major risk factors. She led the preparatory process for the Third United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on NCDs, coordinated the work of the WHO Independent High-level Commission on NCDs and co-chaired the WHO Civil Society Working Group on NCDs. Before joining WHO, Dr Akselrod served for more than 11 years in high-level roles at the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, holding the position of Deputy Director at the Department of International Cooperation and Public Affairs. Among Dr Akselrod’s key professional achievements were the inclusion of NCDs, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, antimicrobial resistance and malaria as key priorities in the national and international agendas of the Russian Federation.
Ms Helga Fogstad, Executive Director, PMNCH
Helga Fogstad is the Executive Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH). Strongly committed to human rights, public health and gender issues, Ms. Fogstad has extensive experience in forging partnerships for the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents. She is a health economist with more than 30 years of public health experience, which includes developing countries at the sub-national, national and global levels.
Prior to PMNCH, Ms. Fogstad was the Director of the Department of Global Health, Education and Research at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), where she guided the rapid scale-up of proven cost-effective interventions focused on the health MDGs for women and children. In this capacity, she was actively engaged in political mobilization and advocacy initiatives, including the Global Strategy for Women’s and Children’s Health
Helga continues to be involved on many Boards and committees as an active advocate and influencer in the global health sector.
Dr. Corine Karema, Interim CEO, RBM Partnership to End Malaria
Dr. Corine Karema has been the Interim CEO of RBM Partnership to End Malaria since 2022 and President-Elect of the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTMH) Committee on Global Health (ACGH) since 2021. She was the Director of the National Malaria and NTDs Control Programme in Rwanda for more than 10 years, leading the development of malaria and NTDs control strategies and guiding the implementation of malaria and NTDs control interventions that resulted in substantial reductions in malaria and NTDs morbidity and mortality in Rwanda. She has also served on many high-level scientific advisory committees and WHO and RBM technical expert groups and was the team leader of the malaria experts on the Global Fund Technical panel review for the 2017-2021 allocation periods. Before her role at RBM, she was the special advisor to the Board Chair of the Global Fund, where she sought to end malaria, AIDS, and tuberculosis epidemics. Corine served for many years as an independent consultant, providing technical assistance to African NMCPs. She has an MD and MSc in Epidemiology and has received diverse training in malariology and planning and management of tropical diseases control programs.
Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership
Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership is a Romanian physician, accomplished professional and leader in the global fight against tuberculosis (TB) and other communicable diseases.
Dr. Ditiu is driven by the firm belief that we should "leave no one behind" and is one of the strongest advocates within the international community in the fight against tuberculosis. A firm believer in innovation, flexibility, change, breaking the rules and thinking out of the box, Dr. Ditiu is dedicated to driving political commitment and engagement to accelerate the efforts to end TB.
Dr. Angeli Achrekar, Deputy Executive Director for the Programme Branch, UNAIDS
Dr. Angeli Achrekar is the Deputy Executive Director of the Programme Branch at the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and an Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Prior to joining UNAIDS in January 2023, Ms Achrekar served as the Principal Deputy U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator for the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Over the past 20 years with the U.S. government and PEPFAR, she has held prominent positions helping to lead the largest global health effort of the U.S. government to ensure life-saving HIV prevention and treatment services to millions of people around the globe and strengthen health and community systems across 50 countries.
She is a passionate public servant, dedicated to advancing global health and development, across sectors, especially for women and girls. Over the years, she has helped evolve the program for more person-centered care, protecting and increasing HIV/AIDS gains while also capacitating countries for broader healthcare delivery. Her deep program, policy and partnership development experience at the global and country levels has cultivated strong multi-sectoral partnerships for large-scale and transformational impact, fundamental to ending the AIDS pandemic.
She holds a Doctorate of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Master of Public Health from Yale University, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Ms Katie Dain, CEO, NCD Alliance
Katie Dain is Chief Executive Officer of the NCD Alliance, a global network of civil society organisations dedicated to transforming the fight against non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Katie has worked with the NCD Alliance since its founding in 2009.
Katie is widely recognised as a leading advocate and expert on NCDs. Katie co-chairs the WHO Civil Society Working Group on NCDs, and has served as a commissioner on the WHO Independent High-Level Commission on NCDs, The Lancet Commission on NCDIs of the Poorest Billion, The Lancet Commission on Global Oral Health, and The Rockefeller-Boston University Commission on Health Determinants, Data and Decision-making (3-D Commission). Katie is also a member of the Steering Committee for the Coalition for Access to NCD Medicines and Products.
Her experience covers a range of sustainable development issues, including global health, gender equality and women’s empowerment, violence against women, and women’s health. Before joining the NCD Alliance, she held a series of policy and advocacy posts in international NGOs and government, including the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) in Brussels, leading their global policy and advocacy programme; the UK Government as a gender policy adviser; Womankind Worldwide, a women’s rights organisation; and the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), a HIV and sexual health charity.
She has a BA in History from Sheffield University, and a Master’s degree in Violence, Conflict and International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London.