Who We Are
Commissioners
Blake Wilson
Commission Chair
Duke University
Prof. Wilson is one of two inaugural Co-Directors of the Duke Hearing Center (the other inaugural Co-Director is Prof. Tucci) and is an Adjunct or Consulting Professor in each of three departments at Duke: Surgery, Biomedical Engineering, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He also is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Texas at Dallas, and an Honorary Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick in the UK. He has been involved in the development of the cochlear implant (CI) for more than four decades and is the inventor of many of the signal processing strategies used with the present-day CIs. One of his papers, in the journal Nature, is the most cited publication in the CI field. He or he and his teams or colleagues have been recognized with a high number of awards and honors, most notably the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize, “for engineering cochlear implants that allow the deaf to hear” (to Wilson and four others), and the 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, “for the development of the modern cochlear implant” (to Wilson and two others). The Russ Prize is the world’s top award for bioengineering and the Lasker Awards are second only to the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for recognizing advances in medicine and medical science. Prof. Wilson is a member of the USA’s National Academy of Engineering and is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (the IEEE) and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. He has served as the Chair for three international conferences and as the Co-Chair for three more international conferences. In recent years he has become keenly interested in improving hearing health care worldwide and that, along with inspiring discussions with Prof. Gerard O’Donoghue on the topic, was the genesis of the invited review in The Lancet by the two of them, Prof. Tucci, and Prof. Michael Merson, on “Global hearing health care: new findings and perspectives,” Lancet 390: 2503-2515, 2017. Three further articles that are relevant to the present project (The Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss) are Tucci, Wilson, and O’Donoghue, “The growing – and now alarming – burden of hearing loss worldwide,” Otol Neurotol 38: 1387-1388, 2017; O’Donoghue, Tucci, and Wilson, “The mounting burden of hearing loss worldwide: gearing up global collaboration,” ENT & Audiology News 26: 65-66, 2017; and Wilson, Tucci, O’Donoghue, Merson, and Dr. Helen Frankish, “A Lancet Commission to address the global burden of hearing loss,” Lancet 393: 2106-2108, 2019.
Debara Tucci
Commission Co-Chair
National Institutes of Health
Dr. Tucci currently is Professor in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University, where she has been on faculty since 1993. On September 3, 2019, she will assume the role of Director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.
While at Duke, Dr. Tucci co-founded, with Dr. Blake Wilson, the multidisciplinary Duke Hearing Center. She has received continuous NIH funding since beginning her academic career. Her primary clinical research interests focus on addressing barriers to hearing health care for older adults, starting with the primary care setting, and establishing a network of academic and community-based research sites to conduct clinical research in hearing and balance disorders. Dr. Tucci has also led NIDCD grants to train and mentor the next generation of clinician investigators in otolaryngology and communication sciences. While at the NIH, she will continue her work to address hearing loss as a global public health problem in her role as co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Global Hearing Loss. Her involvement with the Commission builds on her decades-long interest in establishing infrastructure and priorities for hearing health care, in the US and abroad.
Dr. Tucci has served the specialty of otolaryngology head and neck surgery in many national roles, including Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), President of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, the American Otological Society and the American Neurotology Society, and is active in numerous other professional societies.
Shelly Chadha
Commission Co-Chair
World Health Organization
Shelly Chadha is a native of India and currently serves as the Medical Officer for the World Health Organization (WHO) Programme for Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss. She oversees WHO’s work on prevention of deafness and hearing loss including advocacy for prioritization of hearing care; technical support to countries for development of hearing care strategies and development of tools and guidance; World Hearing Day and the Make Listening Safe initiative.
Shelly trained as an otolaryngologist at the University of Delhi, India and subsequently undertook doctoral studies in public health at the same university. Prior to joining WHO in 2011, she was working as a Professor of Otolaryngology at the Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, India. She has long-standing experience in policy development for hearing care. She served as a member of the national committee for development of National Programme for Prevention and Control of Deafness in India. She was also closely associated with the development of the Sound Hearing 2030 initiative in the South East Asia region.
Bolajoko Olusanya
Commission Co-Chair
Centre for Healthy Start Initiative
Bolajoko Olusanya is the Executive Director, Centre for Healthy Start Initiative, Lagos, Nigeria, a non-governmental organisation in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). She trained as a developmental paediatrician in Nigeria and United Kingdom and holds a PhD in child health and audiological medicine from the University College London (UCL). She pioneered universal newborn hearing screening in Nigeria and has authored over 200 peer-reviewed articles in reputable journals spanning audiology, paediatrics, otolaryngology, general medicine, maternal and child health, and global health policy. Her scientific work is inspired by her personal experience of congenital hearing loss and uniquely focused on the comprehensive, integrated and community-oriented management of developmental disabilities including the identification and prevention of avoidable causes such as severe hyperbilirubinaemia. She is a member of several professional associations, including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), Royal Society of Medicine, Society for Paediatric Research (SPR), International Society of Audiology and International Epidemiological Association. She is a member of the Hearing Loss Expert Group of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study and Coordinator, Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaboration (GRDDC). She was the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Aram Glorig Award from the International Society of Audiology, in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the field of audiology and global hearing healthcare.
Enis Bariş
Commissioner
The World Bank
Enis Barış is a medical doctor with graduate degrees in Public Health (M.Sc.) and Epidemiology (Ph.D.) and a wide range of experience as director, manager and technical expert in development and research in over 30 countries in Europe, East Asia, Middle East and North Africa, Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America. At present, Enis Barış is Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) Region of the World Bank. Previously he was Practice Manager in the Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region, Acting Director for Human Development and Sector Manager for the Middle East and North Africa Region, a position he had come back to after having been Director of the Division of Country Health Systems at the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization between 2008 and 2010.
Dr. Barış joined the World Bank Group in 1999 and worked as a senior staff for about ten years in leading the policy dialogue, technical and analytical work and operations on health and human development in the regions of East Asia and Pacific, Europe and Central Asia and Middle East and North Africa before he moved on to the leadership track as Director in WHO EURO. His technical work at the Bank spans over both public health issues such as HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, indoor air pollution and lung health, as well as broader health policy, system and services pertaining to health sector reform agenda in high and middle income countries.
Before he joined the WBG, Dr. Barış was with the International Development and Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) for six years where he served as Chief Scientist and Senior Scientific Advisor, mainly focusing on health policy systems and services research in the developing world. While with IDRC he was also Executive Director, Research for International Tobacco Control (RITC).
At various stages of his career, Enis Barış has chaired, or served on, the Board of several international organizations, namely as President of the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases and Chair of its Scientific Committee; as Board members of the Council of Health Research for Development (COHRED) and the Alliance for Health System and Policy Research (AHSPR), among others. More recently, he serves, or has served as WBG representative on the Global Burden of Disease Independent Advisory committee (IAC), WHO’s GPW13 Impact Framework Task Force, and Asia Pacific Observatory (APO). He is the editor and author of several books and peer-reviewed publications. He also serves, at present, as Adjunct Professor at the Duke Global Health Institute.
Ricardo Ferreira Bento
Commissioner
University of Sao Paulo
Graduated in medicine in 1978 with a Ph.D. in Ciencies in Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo (1988). He is currently a Professor and Chairman in the Department of Otolaryngology- University of Sao Paulo Medical School, Director of the Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Hospital of the Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, Chairman of the Board of Otorhinolaryngology Foundation, member of the editorial board of the Associação Paulista de Medicina and the Brazilian Journal of Otolaryngology and the journal International Archives of Otolaryngology, Consultant Ad Hoc Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Chairman of Center for Research and Advanced Development in Otolaryngology, consultant of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Foundation for Research Support of São Paulo and Member of the Board of the International Federation of Otorhinolaringological Societs and the American Academy of Otolaryngology. He is internationally known for research and treatment of diseases of the ear with an emphasis on tumors of the ear and cranial base, acoustic neuromas, facial paralysis, tinnitus, cochlear implant, deafness and chronic otitis media. Dr. Bento has conducted more than 500 lectures as a guest in 40 countries and has 435 scientific papers published in Medical Journals. He ministers regular courses of Ear Surgery and more than 1600 doctors specialized in their courses. He was former President of the Brazilian Association of Otorhinolaryngology and Neck Surgery and President of the Latin Societas ENT. President of the Otology and Neurotology Committee of IFOS- International Federation of Otorhinolaryngologic Societies.
Zulfiqar Bhutta
Commissioner
Aga Khan University
Dr. Zulfiqar A. Bhutta is the Inaugural Robert Harding Chair and Ibn Sina Scholar in Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children, Co-Director of the SickKids Centre for Global Child Health and the Founding Director of the Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health at the Aga Khan University. He also holds adjunct professorships at several leading Universities including Johns Hopkins University, Tufts University, Boston University, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Dr. Bhutta is a Distinguished National Professor of the Government of Pakistan, co-Chair of the Maternal and Child Health oversight committee of World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Region, and Chairman of the Coalition of Centres in Global Child Health. He is the past-President of the Commonwealth Association of Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and the Federation of Asia-Oceania Perinatal Societies and, as the current President of the International Pediatric Association, is a leading voice for health professionals supporting integrated maternal, newborn and child health globally.
Dr. Bhutta leads large research groups based in Toronto, Karachi and Nairobi with a special interest in research synthesis, scaling up evidence-based interventions in community settings and implementation of RMNCAH&N interventions in the context of humanitarian settings. His work with community health workers and outreach services has influenced integrated maternal and newborn outreach programs for marginalized populations all over the world and his collaboration with international organizations in developing consensus-based essential interventions for women, children and adolescents is guiding global policy.
In addition to serving on boards and committees with the Global Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations, the WHO, and the UN, Dr. Bhutta is on several international editorial advisory boards including the Lancet, BMJ, PLoS, BMC Public Health and the Cochrane CDPLG and ARI groups. He has published 8 books, 100 chapters, and 850+ indexed publications to date. He is one of the most cited academics in global health (H index 144, i10 index 686). He has been a leading member of major Lancet series including Newborn Survival (2005 & 2014), Stillbirths (2011 & 2016), Early Child Development (2016), and Canada: global leadership on health (2018) as well as Lancet Commissions including Women & Health (2015), Indigenous Health (2016) and Adolescent Health (2016). Dr. Bhutta has won several awards, including the WHO Ihsan Dogramaci Family Health award (2014), the inaugural TUBA Academy of Sciences Award for global contributions to Health and Life Sciences (2015), the Geneva Forum for Health award for contributions to maternal and child health globally (2016), and the President of Pakistan Pride of Performance Award for contributions towards Education and Health (2016), and the BMJ South Asia Award for Outstanding Contributions (2017).
Professor Bhutta obtained his MBBS from the University of Peshawar and his PhD from the Karolinska Institute. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine, and the Pakistan Academy of Sciences.
Katherine Bouton
Commissioner
Hearing Loss Association of America
Katherine Bouton is an advocate and educator for the deaf and hard of hearing. Her most recent book is Smart Hearing: Strategies, Skills and Resources for Living Better with Hearing Loss (October 2018). Smart Hearing is an up-to-the-minute guide to the rapidly changing world of hearing aids, including over-the-counter hearing aids, “hearables,” cochlear implants and assistive listening devices.
She is also the author of Shouting Won’t Help (2013), a memoir of losing her hearing in midlife and how it affected her, and of “Living Better with Hearing Loss” (2013). Katherine’s books are available at Amazon.com or at your favorite independent bookstore.
Her 40-year career in journalism began at The New Yorker and concluded with 22 years at The New York Times. She traveled the world as a free-lance magazine writer in the years between her employment at those two institutions. Her work focused on the scientific process and the people who pursue it. She is currently working on a book about the search for a biological cure for hearing loss.
She is President of the New York City Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America and is a member of the National Board of Trustees of HLAA.
Patricia Castellanos de Munoz
Commissioner
CEDAF Hearing Center
Dr. Patricia Castellanos is the founder and director of CEDAF – Hearing Centre, in Guatemala City. She is well-known throughout Latin America as a leading expert in audiology, with over 25 years of experience in diagnosing and treating hearing loss in various settings: hospitals, clinics, schools, and philanthropic foundations, for patients of all ages from newborn to elderly.
Since beginning her practice in 1990 as a pioneer in the field of audiology, Dr. Paty Castellanos continually expands on the strength of several advanced degrees by attending annual symposia and training courses with the most highly-respected global Associations and manufacturers of hearing loss solutions. Based on international protocols, her innovative options for intervention, together with her extensive knowledge and experience, allow Dr. Castellanos to provide patient services that surpass all other providers in Guatemala and Central America.
CEDAF, Hearing Centre is a full-service integrated audiology center dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis, management, and rehabilitation of hearing loss, serving as a reference of good practice for other clinics in Central and South America. Some of Dr. Castellanos´ achievements are:
- Started the first national neonatal hearing screening in Guatemala
- Trained more than a dozen audiology technicians to increase the outreach of audiological services in rural communities
- Conducted hearing clinics throughout the country, where over 7000 hearing aids have been fitted in children and adults.
- Introduced Cochlear implant technology in Guatemala
Has been awarded by organizations like Audiology Foundation of America: “Professional Leadership Award”; College of Public Health and Health Professions: “International Student Award”; Gallaudet University: Hellen fay Award; Vital Voices: VV100
Charlotte Chiong
Commissioner
University of the Philippines
Dr. Chiong is internationally recognized in otolaryngology, a pioneer in cochlear implantation surgery, lead researcher and advocate for the enactment of a national universal newborn hearing screening programme, principal investigator for genetics of hearing loss as well as biomedical device and teleaudiology applications for improving hearing health care delivery in the Philippines and appointed 17th Dean of the U.P. College of Medicine since June 2018.
She graduated B.S. Zoology in U.P. Diliman (Summa Cum Laude, 1981), Doctor of Medicine from U.P. College of Medicine (Class 1985), Residency in Otolaryngology at UP-PGH (1987-1990), Research Fellowship in Otology, Harvard Medical School-Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, (with Joseph B. Nadol, Jr.,MD 1991-1992), Clinical Fellowship in Neurotology-Skull Base Surgery University of Toronto –Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center (with Julian M. Nedzelski, MD 1992-1993) and PhD in Medical Sciences from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands (2011-2013 with Prof. Emeritus Cor Cremers and Prof. Ad Snik ). She currently serves as Research Professor at the NIH and Clinical Professor at UPCM and Attending Otolaryngologist at the Philippine General Hospital, also Immediate Past Director of the Philippine National Ear Institute and Founding Director of the Newborn Hearing Reference Center at the National Institutes of Health in U.P. Manila. She was the president of the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 2016. She received numerous awards notably The Solita Camara-Besa Award for Academic Distinction (2016), UPMAS Outstanding Educator Award (2013), The Outstanding Filipino Physician Award (2007), Dangal ng Lipi Award (2008), UPAA Distinguished Alumni Award for Health Promotion and Administration (2015), UP Manila Outstanding Researcher Award (2004) , International Award for Otology (2011) and PSOHNS Outstanding Award for Research and Outstanding Family Award in Otolaryngology (2006, 2015).
Carolina Der
Commissioner
University of Chile
Carolina Der M.D., PhD. Is Head of the “Research Center for Hearing, Senses and Communication” at Phonoaudiology School, Faculty of Medicine Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile. She is chief surgeon of the Hearing Implant Program, Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital JUNAEB (Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolar y Becas), Ministry of Education, Chile and external technical advisor, Ministry of Health, Chile. She is also a staff otolaryngologist at Clínica Alemana de Santiago.
Judy Dubno
Commissioner
Medical University of South Carolina
Judy R. Dubno, PhD, has built an extensive research program that has addressed a wide range of key issues pertaining to auditory perception, sensorineural hearing loss, presbycusis, and speech recognition. After earning her PhD in Speech and Hearing Science from the City University of New York Graduate Center, Dr. Dubno completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the UCLA School of Medicine, where she remained as a faculty member for several years. In 1991 she relocated to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina, where she currently is professor and director of research in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
Dr. Dubno’s multi-faceted research program on human auditory system function has made long-lasting contributions regarding the encoding of auditory information in simple sounds and speech, as well as how these abilities change in adverse listening conditions, with age, and with hearing loss. In each of these areas, Dr. Dubno has had a significant impact on our fundamental knowledge of auditory perceptual abilities, and on clinical audiologic methods of assessment and rehabilitation. Throughout her career, Dr. Dubno has tackled complex scientific issues with an interdisciplinary approach, including speech perception, psychoacoustics, electrophysiology, and cognitive neuroscience. Her thorough and meticulous approaches have moved the scientific understanding of hearing loss and speech perception forward in a manner that will serve as the basis for many years of future research. Her classic articles on adaptive procedures in measuring speech recognition, published with Dr. Don Dirks, have been widely adopted as standard research and clinical methods.
Finally, Dr. Dubno has generously given her time to the professional and research communities in audiology, through her extensive service on editorial boards, national scientific boards, and NIH review panels. Along with committee service to national scientific societies, she has served as president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology and the Acoustical Society of America, a member of the NIH National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) Advisory Council, and currently is Treasurer of the Acoustical Society of America. In 2018, she received the Honors of the Association from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science.
Susan Emmett
Commissioner
Duke University
Susan D. Emmett, MD, MPH is an otolaryngologist and public health expert who develops evidence-based solutions to address preventable hearing loss. She studies novel pathways for prevention and applies digital innovations such as mobile screening and telemedicine to extend access to care to even the most remote communities. Collaboration across disciplines and countries is central to her research, fueling a global effort to address a neglected public health concern.
Dr. Emmett serves as Assistant Professor of Surgery and Global Health at Duke University in Durham, NC, USA. She consults for the World Health Organization and is the Founder and Director of the Global Hearing Loss Evaluation, Advocacy, and Research (HEAR) Collaborative, a multidisciplinary group of collaborators from 28 countries that represents the only international research network dedicated to hearing loss. She spends much of her time in remote communities in northwest Alaska, where she co-leads a randomized trial to address childhood hearing loss funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. While at home in North Carolina, Dr. Emmett provides otologic care to patients with hearing loss and trains the next generation of medical students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows in global hearing health research. She was named a TED Fellow in 2017.
Eric Finkelstein
Commissioner
Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School
Dr. Finkelstein is Professor of Health Services and Systems Research Program at the Duke-NUS Medical School and the Executive Director of the Lien Centre for Palliative Care. He also holds appointments at NUS School of Public Health and Duke University Global Health Institute. His research focuses on the economic causes and consequences of health behaviors, with a primary emphasis on the use of traditional and behavioral economic incentives to influence those behaviors in ways to improve the public’s health. Recent research also focuses on studies to better understand the complicated decisions that revolve around end of life care. He has published over 200 manuscripts and 2 books in these areas. Based on google scholar, he has an h-index of 59 and his publications have been cited over 40,000 times, including in the landmark Supreme Court decision upholding the U.S. Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). He was selected by Thomson Reuters and Clarivate Analytics as one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds three years running.
Suneela Garg
Commissioner
Maulana Azad Medical College & Associated Hospitals New Delhi
Director Professor & Head Department of Community Medicine, & Sub-Dean MAM College. Delhi She has been in the field of Community Medicine since the last 36 years. She has professional and research experience with National and International Organizations viz. WHO, UNFPA, Population Council and Rockfeller Foundation. She is Member Global Advisory Group of WHO. She is an advisor to CBM for National & International initiatives on disability. She has been on Board of MCI for curriculum Reforms and advisor to Diplomat of National Board of Examination. She has been involved in capacity building and research related to Geriatrics for over a decade. She has been contributed to development of WHO modules on Strategy development in Ear and Hearing Care .She has conducted Community based research on ear and hearing care and is Hony Secretary Journal of Sound Hearing 2030 a south east initiative of addressing hearing loss.She has organized two world congresses in India and Bali (Indonesia)on ear and Hearing care. She has published and presented over 200 papers International and National peer reviewed journals and conferences. She was conferred fellowship of the Indian Public Health Association and Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine. She has been awarded a WHO Biennium Fellowship in 1992-93 and Fellowship by Overseas Development Agency in 1996, and CBM Fellowship in 2011. She has been conferred with the State Doctor’s Award for her meritorious services and also awarded State AIDS Award for contribution in the field of HIV/AIDS.
Ronna Hertzano
Commissioner
University of Maryland
Dr. Hertzano is an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Anatomy and Neurobiology and an affiliate member of the Institute for Genome Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hertzano’s clinical practice is focused on diseases of the ear and lateral skull base, with a particular interest in hearing restoration and genetic hearing loss. As such, Dr. Hertzano takes care of patients of all ages with hearing loss, diseases of the middle ear, and specifically patients in need of cochlear implants, stapedectomy for otosclerosis, cholesteatoma, tympanic membrane perforations, ossicular chain reconstruction or tumors of the middle ear.
Dr. Hertzano has a strong interest in genetic hearing loss and at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, there are both genetic services for hearing loss as well as an active research protocol for individuals who would like to know the cause of the hearing loss in their family.
In parallel to her clinical practice, Dr. Hertzano has an active research laboratory. The goal of her research is to make significant contributions towards the prevention and treatment of hearing loss. Some of Dr. Hertzano’s contributions to the field include the identification of the roles of several major regulatory molecules in the development of the inner ear and hair cells (Pou4f3, Gfi1, Zeb1, RFX and Ikzf2), molecular pathways in noise-induced hearing loss and sex differences in hearing. More recently, to facilitate dissemination, sharing and analysis of multi-omic data Dr. Hertzano developed the gEAR portal – gene Expression Analysis Resource (umgear.org).
Dr. Hertzano received her medical and PhD degrees from Tel Aviv University, where she studied the molecular basis of hearing impairment and was the recipient of a Foulkes Foundation Fellowship physician-scientist award. She completed her internship, residency and fellowship in the department of otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Hertzano was the recipient of the Triological Society Career Development Grant, Burt Evans Young Investigator Award by the National Organization of Hearing Research, and the Brian E. Emery M.D. Outstanding Teaching Award of the UMSOM Department of Otolaryngology. Dr. Hertzano is a member of the Hearing Restoration Project of the Hearing Health Foundation, a consortium that works collaboratively towards hair cell regeneration.
Mira Johri
Commissioner
University of Montreal
Mira Johri, PhD MPH is Professor in the Department of Health Management, Evaluation and Policy at the University of Montreal, and Principal Scientist at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre (CRCHUM). Dr. Johri’s research seeks to better understand the social and structural determinants of global child health and to identify innovative approaches to address key challenges limiting children’s potential.
Dr. Johri studied economics, ethics and political philosophy at McGill University, and public health at Yale University. She has served as Consultant in the Department of Maternal, Neonatal, Child and Adolescent Health at the World Health Organization, Geneva, and currently serves as Independent Expert to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Her research has appeared in high-impact journals such as The Lancet and the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. Recipient of awards from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations and the Grand Challenges Canada Stars in Reproductive, Maternal, Neonatal and Child Health, She is particularly interested in community-based research and in the potential of community engagement approaches to improve health and development outcomes. Her current work focuses on equitable access to childhood vaccines globally and in India.
Frank Lin
Commissioner
Johns Hopkins
Frank R. Lin, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health and a Professor of Otolaryngology, Medicine, Mental Health, and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Dr. Lin completed his undergraduate degree in biochemistry at Brown University and his medical education, residency in ctolaryngology, and Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins. He completed further otologic fellowship training in Switzerland. Dr. Lin joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 2010 and is a practicing otologist with expertise in the medical and surgical management of hearing loss. His epidemiologic research established the impact of hearing loss on the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and brain aging in older adults and served as the basis of the 2017 Lancet Commission on dementia conclusion that hearing loss was the single largest potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia. He now currently leads the ACHIEVE study which is a $20M NIH-funded randomized trial investigating if treating hearing loss can reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults. As the founder and inaugural director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, Dr. Lin leads a first-in-kind research center resulting from an academic-industry collaboration that is dedicated to training a generation of clinicians and researchers to understand and address the impact of hearing loss on older adults and public health.
Dr. Lin has worked extensively with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to address the need for more accessible and affordable hearing care for adults in the United States. From 2014-2016, Dr. Lin served on sequential NASEM committees (workshop, consensus study) investigating this issue and concurrently advised the White House President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on their report. Recommendations from these groups led to the subsequent introduction and bipartisan passage of the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2017 which Dr. Lin testified on before Congress. This law overturns 40 years of established regulatory precedent in the U.S. and reflects the direct result of Dr. Lin’s prior research and broader policy work on hearing loss and public health. Dr. Lin currently serves as a member of the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies.
Isaac Macharia
Commissioner
University of Nairobi
Dr. Macharia is Professor of ENT, Department of Surgery, University of Nairobi, with expertise in children and adult ENT Surgery, and special interest in Hearing impairment, Sleep medicine, Rhinology, and Laryngology. He is a member of the Kenya Surgical Society, European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, New York Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Kenya Ear, Nose and Throat society & Kenya Medical Association. He is the founder Chairman of the Cochlear Implant Group of Kenya (CIGOK) and one of only two Kenyan Otologists currently performing cochlear implantation. He has been the technical head of the Technical working group that developed the Kenya National Strategy for Ear and Hearing care and was instrumental in starting the East , Central and Southern Africa Forum for Ear and Hearing Care. He is a past chairman of the Kenya ENT society and was the founding chairman of the Allergy Society of Kenya. He has served as an Executive member of IFOS and also as the IFOS Regional Secretary for Africa and the Middle East. He has also served as a member of various WHO Expert committees on Ear and Hearing Care. He is a Fellow of the College of Surgeons of East , Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA) and he has over 25 years of experience as an ENT surgeon. He has had international exposure from India, Britain, South Africa, and the USA.
Mark McClellan
Commissioner
Duke University
Dr. McClellan is the Robert J. Margolis Professor of Business, Medicine, and Health Policy, and founding Director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University. With offices in Durham, NC and Washington, DC, the Duke-Margolis Center is a university-wide, interdisciplinary initiative that is nationally and internationally recognized for its research, evaluation, implementation, and educational initiatives to improve health and health policy. The Center integrates Duke’s expertise in the social, clinical, and analytical sciences with health care leader and stakeholder engagement to develop and apply policy solutions that improve health and the value of health care locally, nationally, and worldwide.
Dr. McClellan is a physician and an economist who has informed and improved a wide range of strategies and policy reforms to advance health care, including payment reform to promote better outcomes and lower costs, methods for development and use of real-world evidence, and strategies for more effective biomedical innovation. Before coming to Duke, he served as a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he was Director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiatives and led the Richard Merkin Initiative on Payment Reform and Clinical Leadership.
With a highly distinguished record in public service and academic research, Dr. McClellan is a former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he developed and implemented major reforms in health policy. These reforms include the Medicare prescription drug benefit, Medicare and Medicaid payment reforms, the FDA’s Critical Path Initiative, and public-private initiatives to develop better information on the quality and cost of care. He previously served as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, senior director for health care policy at the White House, and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the Department of the Treasury.
Dr. McClellan is the founding chair and a current board member of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), where he chairs the Leadership Council for Value and Science-Driven Health care, co-chairs the guiding committee of the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network, and is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is also a Senior Advisor on the faculty of the University of Texas Dell Medical School, co-chair of the Accountable Care Learning Collaborative, and a member of the Healthtech 4 Medicaid Board of Directors. Dr. McClellan is also an independent director on the boards of Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Alignment Healthcare, and Seer. He was previously an associate professor of economics and medicine with tenure at Stanford University, and has twice received the Kenneth Arrow Award for Outstanding Research in Health Economics.
Catherine McMahon
Commissioner
Macquarie University
Professor McMahon is the Director of Audiology and Director of the research centre H:EAR [Hearing, Education, Application, Research] at Macquarie University. She is also the academic co-director of Macquarie University Hearing, a university-wide hearing strategy which aims to transform hearing health locally and globally. Her research centres on understanding the barriers and facilitators to accessing and ultilising hearing healthcare, and the design and implementation of novel care pathways. She is involved in the design and delivery of clinical trials to evaluate new diagnostics and therapies and developing the evidence-base to demonstrate the benefits of interventions. Professor McMahon works closely with the World Health Organisation to develop and collate the evidence-base for the World Report on Hearing, which will be launched in 2020. She was a member of the 12-person Hearing Health Sector Committee that developed the Australian Roadmap of Hearing Health which was endorsed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in March 2019.
Gerry O’Donoghue
Commissioner
University of Nottingham
Gerard O’Donoghue qualified in medicine in University College, Cork in Ireland and undertook his otolaryngology training in London and Oxford, undertaking Fellowships at University Hospital in Boston and at the University of California in, San Francisco. He is Professor of Otology and Neurotology at the University of Nottingham and Consultant Neuro-Otologist at Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham.
In 1989, he established the Nottingham Cochlear Implant Programme and led many multi-centres studies in the field. He has held a Hunterian Professorship at the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1999) and has delivered the Toynbee Memorial Lecture of the Royal Society of Medicine and Royal College of Surgeons of England (2011). He co-founded the British Skull Base Society and is founder member of the European Academy of Otology and Neurotology. He was awarded the Sir William Wilde Medal of the Irish ENT Society (2011), The Brinkman Medal of the University of Nimegen (2009), The Jobson Horne Award of the British Medical Association (2017) and delivered the William House Memorial Lecture of the American Neurotologic Society (2016). In 2008 he co-founded the Nottingham Hearing Biomedical Research Centre of the National Institute of Health Research and current leads a number of multi-centre clinical trials. He has been President of the Section of Otology, Royal Society of Medicine, London (2014) and is currently Master of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology.
Osondu Ogbuoji
Commissioner
Duke University
Dr. Osondu Ogbuoji is an Assistant Research Professor at Duke Global Health Institute, and the Deputy Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health. His primary research interest is in making health systems work better for everyone, especially people living in poor households. His research projects therefore, explore ways to improve the performance of health systems in low- and middle-income countries. Before joining Duke, Dr. Ogbuoji spent several years working on large scale public health interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. During the period, he led the design, implementation, and evaluation of public health interventions including HIV prevention and treatment programs, free healthcare delivery programs, and health systems strengthening programs. His current research projects span several countries including Ghana, India, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. Dr. Ogbuoji holds a Medical Degree (MBBS) from University of Ibadan, a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree and certificate in international health policy and financing from Johns Hopkins University, and a Doctor of Science (ScD) in Global Health from Harvard University.
Saowaros Patarapak
Commissioner
Bumrungrad International Hospital
Dr. Saowaros Patarapak is currently Professor, Department of Otolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok Thailand and the President, The Royal College of Otolaryngologists-Head and Neck Surgery of Thailand (RCOT). In 2018 she also served as the President of The 8th Asia-Pacific Otology/Neurotology Conference hosted by Chulalongkorn University, in cooperation with The Toronto University and UCL (University College London).
Muhammad Pate
Commissioner
World Bank
Muhammad Ali Pate, MD, MBA, MSc. currently serves as Global Director, Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank, and Director, Global Financing Facility. His previous experience also includes senior level positions in Government, Philanthropy and holds appointment as the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
Anne Schilder
Commissioner
University College London
Dr Anne Schilder is Professor of Otorhinolaryngology at the University College London Ear Institute and Director of the National Institute for Health Research UCLH Biomedical Research Centre Hearing Theme. She practices Pediatric ENT at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London. As joint Co-ordinating Editor of Cochrane ENT, NIHR Clinical Research Network Specialty Lead for ENT and Royal College of Surgeons Surgical Research Specialty Lead for ENT, she plays a pivotal role in clinical research in ENT, Hearing and Balance in the UK.
Her research focuses on translation of hearing discoveries into novel treatments for patients with hearing loss. This ranges from designing and delivering first-in-man trials, analysis of routine health data, to health economics and health policy to prepare healthcare systems for the arrival of drug, gene and cell therapies for hearing loss.
She also holds a chair at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, working with primary care researchers on developing evidence-based interventions for otitis media in children. She is a Visiting Professor at Oxford University and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.
George Tavartkiladze
Commissioner
National Research Centre for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation
Director and founder of the National Research Center for Audiology and Hearing Rehabilitation; Head of the Clinical Audiology department of the Russian Medical Academy for Continuing Professional Education, and an academician of the Russian Medical-Technical Academy. Prof. Tavartkiladze graduated from the Russian State Medical University (Moscow), following which he defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Acoustic impedance measurement and tubosonometry in audiological diagnostics’. In 1987 this was followed by his full doctoral thesis ‘Brainstem and cochlear auditory evoked potentials – normal and affected by various types of hearing loss’
G.A. Tavartkiladze is President of the National Audiological Society of Russia. In 2006-2010 he was elected as President of the International Society of Audiology; in 2006-2007 he served as President of Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS). In 2008 he was elected President of the International Academy for Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. In 2012 he was appointed Secretary General of the International Society of Audiology.
Professor Tavartkiladze is member of the American Academy of Audiology, American Auditory Society, European Academy of Otology and Neuro-Otology and other institutions. Since 2004 he has served on the expert board of the World Health Organization. George Tavartkiladze has conducted 8 National Congresses of Audiology, 12 International symposium ‘Modern Problems of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing’, 15 national conferences and seminars. Under his supervision, the prestigious International events took place in Moscow: in 2011 – Symposium of the International Evoked Response Audiometry Study Group (IERASG) and in 2012 – World Congress of Audiology.
Prof. Tavartkiladze is author of more than 450 works published both in Russian and foreign journals. He is honorary chief editor of Folia Otorhinolaryngologiae et Pathologiae Respiratoriae; editorial board member for the Acta Otolaryngologica, International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology, Journal of Hearing Science, Audiology Research and many others.
The bulk of Prof. Tavartkiladze’s research is devoted to issues in experimental and clinical audiology, including mechanisms of primary auditory perception, frequency selectivity of the auditory periphery, micromechanics of the Corti organ via analysis of otoacoustic emissions, development of electrophysiological criteria for diagnosing various types of hearing losses. Among significant interests and outcomes can be counted also development of universal newborn audiological screening; cochlear implantation; objective measures in cochlear implantation.
Shi-Ming Yang
Commissioner
Chinese PLA General Hospital, Chinese PLA Medical School
Dr. Shiming is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery at the Chinese PLA General Hospital in Beijing. He is Head, National Clinical Research Center for Otolaryngology Diseases in China. Dr. Yang is president and editor-in-chief of the Chinese Journal of Otology and Journal of Otology. He is dedicated to constructing the largest auditory implantation center in China and has already gained breakthrough progress in gene and stem cell therapy for deafness.
Fan-Gang Zeng
Commissioner
University of California, Irvine
Fan-Gang Zeng is Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, Cognitive Sciences, Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Director of the Center for Hearing Research at University of California Irvine (2000-present). He is a leader in hearing science and technology, with 268 publications, 13071 citations and an h-index of 54 (Google Scholar, August 8, 2019). He is the Editorial Board Chairman for The Hearing Journal and Advisor for National Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Advisory Council, American Tinnitus Association, Hyperacusis Research, Paris Hearing Institute, Providence Center, and Syntiant Inc. He led development of the Nurotron 26-electrode cochlear implant (SFDA approval in 2011 and CE Mark in 2012) and SoundCure tinnitus suppressor (FDA clearance and CE Mark in 2011).
Advisors
Gavin Yamey
Advisor Chair
Center for Policy Impact in Global Health
Gavin Yamey MD, MPH, MA is the Director of the Center for Policy Impact in Global Health based in DGHI. The Center is an innovative policy lab that addresses critical challenges in financing and delivering global health.
He trained in clinical medicine at Oxford University and University College London, medical journalism and editing at the BMJ and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He was Deputy Editor of the Western Journal of Medicine, Assistant Editor at the BMJ, a founding Senior Editor of PLOS Medicine, and the Principal Investigator on a $1.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the launch of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. In 2009, he was awarded a Kaiser Family Mini-Media Fellowship in Global Health Reporting to examine the barriers to scaling up low cost, low tech health tools in Sudan, Uganda and Kenya.
Dr. Yamey currently serves as a commissioner on the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis. He previously served on two international health commissions, the Lancet Commission on Investing in Health and the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. He has been an External Advisor to the WHO and to TDR, the Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases. Dr. Yamey has published extensively on global health, neglected diseases, health policy, and disparities in health and has been a frequent commentator on National Public Radio. He directs the Global Health Track in Duke’s Program on Global Policy and Governance in Geneva.
Before joining Duke, Dr. Yamey led the Evidence-to-Policy Initiative in the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the UCSF School of Medicine.
Karen Avraham
Advisor
Tel Aviv University
Professor Karen B. Avraham is Vice Dean at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and holds the Drs. Sarah and Felix Dumont Chair for Research of Hearing Disorders. She completed a B.A. in Biology at Washington University in St. Louis, a Ph.D. in Genetics at the Weizmann Institute, and post-doctoral training at the National Cancer Institute. She joined the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry in 1996 and is a member of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and Safra Center for Bioinformatics. Professor Avraham leads the effort in the discovery of disease genes for hearing loss and epigenetics of the auditory system, with an emphasis on precision medicine. She has over 150 publications in international journals and has mentored 110 undergraduate, MSc, PhD, and MD-PhD students. Avraham was awarded the Sir Bernard Katz Prize (Humboldt Foundation, Germany), the Bruno Memorial Prize (Rothschild Foundation), the TEVA Prize for Groundbreaking Research in Rare Diseases, the Teva Founders Prize on Breakthroughs and most recently, the Beutler Research Program of Excellence in Genomic Medicine. She is President of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation for Hearing, based in Paris, the Israel Society for Auditory Research, and co-director of the Tel Aviv University-Aufzien Family Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. She is a board member of the Human Genome Organization (HUGO) and of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). She directs the Single Cell Genomics Core at the Faculty of Medicine, the TAU Summer Research Program in the Sciences for international undergraduate students and coordinates international workshops and conferences, including the Hear@JAX Workshop in 2020 and the Human Genome Meeting in Tel Aviv in 2021.
Maureen M. Black
Advisor
University of Maryland
Maureen Black, Ph.D. is a distinguished fellow at RTI International and the John A. Scholl MD and Mary Louise Scholl MD Endowed Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. At the University of Maryland, she is the founder and director of the interdisciplinary Growth and Nutrition Practice and holds a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and secondary appointments in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and Department of Medicine. Dr. Black has adjunct appointments in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Dr. Black is trained as a pediatric psychologist and conducts research in strategies to promote children’s nutrition and development and to prevent health disparities. She has conducted intervention trials with children exposed to environmental threats including prenatal drug exposure, failure to thrive, nutritional deficiencies, poverty, food insecurity, HIV, poverty, and risk of obesity. She works in low-income communities of Maryland and in low- and middle-income countries throughout the world (e.g., Bangladesh, India, Guatemala, eSwatini). Dr. Black has been an author on three series of papers on Early Child Development published in The Lancet (2007, 2011, and 2016-2017), serving as the lead author for the first paper in the 2016-2017 series, “Advancing Early Childhood Development: from Science to Scale.” That paper reviewed the scientific progress that has been made in global child development over the past 15 years, reported that 249 million children under age 5 years (43% of the children in the world) are at risk of not reaching their developmental potential based on stunting and severe poverty, and proposed an integrated framework of Nurturing Care beginning prior to birth to ensure children’s early health and development. As a principal investigator on Children’s HealthWatch, a network of public health researchers from five medical centers across the country, Dr. Blacl has documented the prevalence and negative consequences of food insecurity on children’s health and development. Following the validation of a 2-item screen for food insecurity, the Hunger Vital Sign, by the University of Maryland Children’s HealthWatch team, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement recommending that all pediatricians implement the screen to identify children in food insecure households. Dr. Black has received funding from multiple federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health; US Department of Agriculture; Maternal and Child Health Bureau; US Agency for International Development; and Center for Disease Control and Prevention. She has served as a regular member (4-year terms) of two NIH study sections and an ad hoc member on approximately 20 study sections. She has served as president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association and on advisory committees for multiple local, national, and international organizations, including NIH’s Science of Behavior Change Committee, UNICEF, WHO, and the World Bank Group.
Robert Califf
Advisor
Duke University
Robert Califf, MD, MACC, is the Vice Chancellor for Health Data Science and the Donald F. Fortin, MD, Professor of Cardiology. He is also Professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology and remains a practicing cardiologist. Effective November 18, 2019, he will transition to a full-time role with the Alphabet Company, serving as Head of Medical Strategy and Policy and working across the Google Health and Verily enterprises, beginning November 18, 2019.
Dr. Califf was appointed Commissioner of Food and Drugs for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016-2017 and served as Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco from February 2015 until his appointment as Commissioner in February 2016. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Califf was a professor of medicine and vice chancellor for clinical and translational research at Duke University. He also served as director of the Duke Translational Medicine Institute and founding director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. A nationally and internationally recognized expert in cardiovascular medicine, health outcomes research, healthcare quality, and clinical research, Dr. Califf has led many landmark clinical trials and is one of the most frequently cited authors in biomedical science, with more than 1,200 publications in the peer-reviewed literature.
Dr. Califf is a Member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine (IOM)) in 2016, one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine. Dr. Califf has served on numerous IOM committees, and he has served as a member of the FDA Cardiorenal Advisory Panel and FDA Science Board’s Subcommittee on Science and Technology. Dr. Califf has also served on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Library of Medicine, as well as on advisory committees for the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Council of the National Institute on Aging.
He has led major initiatives aimed at improving methods and infrastructure for clinical research, including the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), a public-private partnership co-founded by the FDA and Duke. He also served as the principal investigator for Duke’s Clinical and Translational Science Award and the NIH Health Care Systems Research Collaboratory coordinating center and co-PI of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute Network.
Christine K. Cassel
Advisor
University of California San Francisco
Christine K. Cassel, MD is a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She was previously the Planning Dean of the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine and the President and CEO of the National Quality Forum. She is a leading national expert in geriatric medicine, medical ethics, health policy and quality of care. Dr. Cassel was one of 20 scientists chosen by President Obama to serve on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), which advises the President on science, technology, and innovation relevant to responsible and effective policy. Among her many professional achievements and honors, Dr. Cassel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, was President of the American College of Physicians, Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine; President of the American Federation for Aging Research; and was a member of the Advisory Committee to the Director at the National Institutes of Health. She has served on the boards of directors of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Premier Inc., and the Greenwall Foundation.
Howard Francis
Advisor
Duke University
Dr. Howard W. Francis, is the Richard Hall Chaney, Sr professor of Otolaryngology and interim chair of the department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences (HNS&CS) at Duke University Medical Center. As a neurotologist Dr. Francis’ clinical interests span the full scope of this subspecialty including the management of conditions of the ear, skull base and associated nervous system. His research interests include the determination of best practices of acoustic neuroma treatment, the examination of functional outcomes of cochlear implantation in young children and older adults, and the study of best practices in surgical education. He serves on editorial boards of the Cummings Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Text, the World Journal of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Operative Techniques in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. He is a member of the Otolaryngology Residency Review Committee of the ACGME, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He is the past president of the Society of University Otolaryngologists, and Education Director of the American Neurotological Society.
After completing his high-school education in Jamaica, and his bachelor’s degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Dr. Francis earned his medical degree from the Harvard-MIT division of Health, Science and Technology at Harvard Medical School, and then completed his internship, residency and fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He completed his Master’s in Business Administration with a focus in medical services management at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. After 19 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins during which he served as Residency Program Director, Director of the Johns Hopkins Listening Center and Vice Director of the Department, he was appointed chief of HNS&CS at Duke in March 2017. Upon becoming the department of HNS&CS on July 1 2019, Dr. Francis was appointed the interim chair.
Michael Merson
Advisor
Duke-National University of Singapore Global Health Institute
Michael H. Merson, M.D., is the Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health and the Director of the SingHealth Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Global Health Institute. He joined the Duke faculty in November 2006 as the founding director of the Duke Global Health Institute and served in that role through 2017. In addition, Dr. Merson was Vice Chancellor for Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Affairs until 2017 and the Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Affairs at Duke University until 2018. .
In 1978, he joined the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Medical Officer in the Diarrheal Diseases Control Program. He served as Director of that Program from January 1980 until May 1990. In August 1987, he was also appointed Director of the WHO Acute Respiratory Infections Control Program. In May 1990, he was appointed as Director of the WHO Global Program on AIDS. This Program was operational worldwide and responsible for mobilizing and coordinating the global response to the AIDS pandemic.
In 1995, he joined Yale University School of Medicine as its first Dean of Public Health and as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health. In 2001, he was named as the Anna M. R. Lauder Professor of Public Health in the Yale University School of Medicine. From 1999-2006, he also served as Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS at Yale University, which undertakes research on HIV prevention in vulnerable and underserved populations in this country and abroad.
Dr. Merson has authored more than 180 articles, primarily in the area of disease prevention. He is the senior editor of Global Health: Disease, Programs, Systems, and Policies, which is a leading global health textbook in the United States. He recently co-authored the book The AIDS Pandemic: Searching for a Global Response, which examines the 36 year history of the global response to the pandemic. He has served in advisory capacities for UNAIDS, WHO, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, World Bank, World Economic Forum, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has two honorary degrees, and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Jim Saunders
Advisor
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
James E. Saunders is Professor of Otology/Neurotology at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center where he teaches aspects of otology and neurotology to medical students, residents and undergraduate students. He completed an M.D. at University of Oklahoma, his residency and a research fellowship in Otolaryngology at Duke University Medical Center, and a Research and Clinical Fellowship at the House Ear Institute. In addition to clinical practice, he has broad research interests and has published many articles on sudden sensorineural hearing loss, the microbiology of chronic otitis, and hearing loss genetics.
Dr. Saunders has been involved with many projects related to the etiology, prevention and treatment of hearing loss in the developing world including collaborations with the World Health Organization and the Global Burden of Disease Project. He is the past Chairman of the Humanitarian Efforts Committee of the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) and a co-founder of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health and Mayflower Medical Outreach, an organization that supports and trains otolaryngology and audiology providers in Nicaragua.
Devi Sridhar
Advisor
University of Edinburgh
Devi Sridhar is a Professor at the University of Edinburgh Medical School where she holds a Personal Chair in Global Public Health. She is Founding Director of the Global Health Governance Programme and holds a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award.
Recipient of a Rhodes scholarship, Devi holds an MPhil and a DPhil from Oxford University as well as a B.S. from the University of Miami’s Honors Medical Program. Prior to her appointment at Edinburgh, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University and an Associate Professor in Global Health Politics and Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University.
Devi is the author of two books—”Governing Global Health: Who Runs the World and Why?” (OUP, 2017) and “The Battle against Hunger: Choice, Circumstance and the World Bank” (OUP, 2007)—and has published her work in Nature, Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Lancet and the British Medical Journal.
Devi has served on the Board of Save the Children UK, World Economic Forum Council on the Health Industry, Expert review group of the Wellcome Trust and Advisory Board of the Financial Flows Program at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME; UW-Seattle). She was Co-Chair of the Harvard School of Public Health/London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola. She is an editorial board member for the Journal Public Health.
Secretariat
Jean Bolte
Duke University
Ms. Bolte joined Duke in 1995 and has experience in many areas, including operations management, systems implementation, and project management. During her tenure at Duke, she has held a variety of administrative and project management leadership positions at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), the Duke School of Nursing (DUSON), Duke Translational Medicine Institute (DTMI) and now at Duke CTSI. She has been an integral part of many initiatives, including working with investigators in academic clinical research managing study plans and budgets for multi-site clinical trials; developing and expanding the DCRI Project Office, and leading and managing the implementation and maintenance of the enterprise project management system at DCRI. She also served as a senior project leader with the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), was the Executive Director for the Clinical Research Forum and spent a year on detail working in the Commissioner’s Office at the FDA.
Jean’s background is in clinical nursing with a focus on cardiovascular and critical care. She received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Evansville; a master’s degree in nursing from the University of California, San Francisco and a post-master’s certificate in health Informatics from Duke University School of Nursing.
Lisa Davis
Duke University
Lisa Pullen Davis serves as Project Leader and Director of Special Projects at the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute. She is a health behaviorist and received a PhD in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a MSPH from the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Pullen Davis has extensive community-based public health and research expertise in diabetes, pediatric obesity, minority health, qualitative methods, and training design and facilitation. She has been at Duke for 6 years and served as Senior Project Manager for the Durham Diabetes Coalition which was recognized as an international case study honoree by C3 Collaborating for Health based in the United Kingdom. She has trained multiple groups including health care professionals, community members, and students to use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Diabetes Today materials to develop diabetes coalitions in local communities across the United States. She is dedicated to working collaboratively to advance inter-institutional partnerships and implementing programs and initiatives to improve population health and employee well-being.
Anna Nicholson
Doxastic
Anna Nicholson (MA, MPhil, PhD) is the founder and lead writer of Doxastic, a science writing firm based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Her focus is writing and refining scientific communications at the intersection of global and public health research, delivery, and policy. She specializes in supporting clients seeking to disseminate advances in research, to translate knowledge into improved practice and better outcomes, and to shape health policy toward more equitable access to care. Graduate studies in linguistics and philosophy fostered her interest in communicating complex information tailored for diverse stakeholders, from academics to policymakers to people with lived experience.