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 Abdourahmane Diallo, CEO, Roll Back Malaria
Dr Abdourahmane Diallo is a Medical Doctor with a Master`s degree in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and has extensive clinical and international public health experience.
Dr Diallo took office as the CEO of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria in April 2019.
Dr Diallo was previously appointed as Minister and Health Advisor to the President of Guinea. Earlier, he served as Minister of Health of Guinea for two and half years. Before joining the government, Dr Diallo was the Director of Public Health and Supply Chain Systems Strengthening for the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented by John Snow, Inc. Dr Diallo oversaw the technical work of more than 22 country offices, leading USAID core funded activities.
Prior to that, Dr Diallo served as Country Director for the U.S. President Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funded by the Supply Chain Management System project in Tanzania. He was responsible for the overall management of country office strategic, technical, administrative, and financial activities.
Dr Diallo’s vast work has covered Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
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 Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, UNAIDS
Winnie Byanyima is the Executive Director of UNAIDS and an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations. A passionate and longstanding champion of social justice and gender equality, Ms Byanyima leads the United Nations’ efforts to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Ms Byanyima believes that health care is a human right and was an early champion of a People’s Vaccine against the coronavirus that is available and free of charge to everyone, everywhere.
Before joining UNAIDS, Ms Byanyima served as the Executive Director of Oxfam International, a confederation of 20 civil society organizations working in more than 90 countries worldwide, empowering people to create a future that is secure, just and free from poverty.
Ms Byanyima was elected for three terms and served 11 years in the parliament of her country, Uganda. She led Uganda’s first parliamentary women’s caucus, championing ground-breaking gender equality provisions in the county’s 1995 post-conflict constitution.
Ms Byanyima led the establishment of the African Union Commission’s Directorate of Gender and Development and also served as Director of Gender and Development at the United Nations Development Programme. She founded the Forum for Women in Democracy, an influential Ugandan nongovernmental organization, and has been deeply involved in building global and African coalitions on social justice issues. A global leader on inequality, Ms Byanyima has co-chaired the World Economic Forum and served on the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, the International Labour Organization’s Global Commission on the Future of Work and the Global Commission on Adaptation.
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.