Closing The Gap: Tackling Global Health Challenges
Speakers
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Senior Research Fellow at Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford
Dr Tapela is a physician, public health researcher and global health advocate passionate about reducing reducing premature and avoidable deaths of those most vulnerable in the world. She is a Senior Research Fellow at University of Oxford’s Nuffield Department of Population Health, focusing research on understanding burden of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) in sub-Saharan Africa, and developing innovative patient-centered solutions to healthcare service delivery. Her research is informed by multi-disciplinary, hands-on experience in the public, non-profit, and academic sectors. She has served as special advisor on NCDs to the Rwanda Ministry of Health, as Director of NCDs Program with Partners In Health-Rwanda, and most recently led the National NCDs Program in the Ministry of Health and Wellness of her home country Botswana. Dr Tapela trained at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. She maintains appointments as Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Research Associate at Botswana Harvard Partnership. Her work as a global health innovator has been recognized in her selection as Aspen New Voices Fellow and an African Cancer Leaders Institute Awardee.
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A medic, public health specialist and social entrepreneur, Dr Peter Drobac is the Executive Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford Said Business School. For nearly two decades, the Skoll Centre has equipped entrepreneurial leaders for impact within and beyond business.
Having worked for many years with Partners In Health to transform health systems in some the world's poorest communities, Peter was co-founder and first Executive Director of the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda. Ever the builder, Peter arrived in an 800 year-old university only to join Oxford's first 21st century college, Reuben College.
In addition to teaching systems leadership and social innovation, Peter is currently focused on initiatives to build better systems in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. He frequently comments on global health issues for CNN, BBC and other outlets, in addition to hosting the Reimagine podcast.
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Associate Director for Special Populations, National Institute of Mental Health
Dr. Pamela Y. Collins is Associate Director for Special Populations and director of the Office for Research on Disparities & Global Mental Health and the Office of Rural Mental Health Research at the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Prior to her arrival at NIMH, while a faculty member at Columbia University, Dr. Collins’s research focused on the intersections of HIV prevention, care, and treatment and the mental health needs of people in the US, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Collins currently oversees NIMH’s research efforts to increase mental health equity locally and globally. She was one of the editors of the 2011 Lancet series on Global Mental Health, she is a leader of the Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health initiative, and recently led the development of the 2013 PLoS Medicine Policy Forum series on global perspectives for integrating mental health. Dr. Collins is an Echoing Green Foundation alumna.
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CEO and President, International Center for Research on Women
Peggy Clark is President and CEO of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the leading women’s research organization in the world. Throughout her career Peggy has worked to tackle and address gender inequality, including women’s economic security, health, and well-being. She is currently leading a major restructure of ICRW to build a global network of Gender Centers of Excellence to support the next generation of expertise and solutions to build a more gender equal world. Prior to ICRW, Peggy was the Executive Director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group, Executive Vice President of the Aspen Institute, Managing Director of Realizing Rights, Chair of the Women’s Policy Group and Program Officer, Ford Foundation, and Director of Small-Scale Enterprise and Credit at Save the Children. Peggy is Chair, African Leaders Malaria Alliance ;Vice Chair, Ashesi University Ghana; Board Emeritus, Calvert Impact Capital; Board Member Last Mile Health.
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Chris Underhill MBE is a professional mentor and an expert in the field of community mental health. In founding BasicNeeds he developed the Model for Mental Health and Development to serve communities in Low Income Countries. Now called the BasicNeeds Model it is managed and championed by CBM UK. He created the wellbeing and resilience organisation www.thrive.org.uk (gardening to change lives) and went on to found www.add.org.uk (global disability rights in development). He runs www.mentorservices.org.uk and is co-founder of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs www.elderscouncil.net, and is Chair of the Catalyst-2030 Mental Health Collaboration. He is a Skoll Foundation awardee in Social Entrepreneurship, an awardee in Social Entrepreneurship of the Schwab Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of Ashoka and was honoured with an MBE by the Queen.
