Global Organizing Committee

Dr. Shereena K. Al Mazrouei is Director, Health promotion & Public health programs, at Abu Dhabi Public Health Center. She is a Medical Doctor by background, graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) / UAE University in Al Ain (June 2003), MPH (UAEU), as well as completed Harvard Medical School Global Clinical Scholars Training (GCSRT) Program (July 2013-June 2014)- Epidemiology concentration. She joint DOH in 2006 and led multiple programs such as the introduction and first implementation of the HPV vaccine in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi; congenital heart diseases screening of the newborn using pulse Oximetry; My Health Coach application in addition to other programs. Worked and participated in forming the policies and standards related to maternal and child health in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. Currently leading the Health promotion & public health programs department/Abu Dhabi Public Health center, leading multiple Public health programs – public health training, research, stakeholder management and health promotion and member of the Local research COVID-19 committee, as well as COVID-19 taskforce in ADPHC.

Stephan Van den Broucke is professor of Health Psychology at the UC Louvain, Belgium. His research expertise includes public health psychology, health promotion, health literacy, patient education, accident prevention, and public health capacity building. He has supervised a large number of national and international research projects, over 20 PhD projects, and more than a hundred master thesis studies; authored over 150 scientific publications; and taught students and health professionals in Europe, North and Latin America, Africa and Asia. Prof. Van den Broucke has served as an evaluator for research projects submitted to the European Commission and to research foundations in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and Québec, Canada. He participated in accreditation committees for training and research programs in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Denmark, and gave policy advice to authoritative bodies on public health in Belgium, the European Commission, the Sultanate of Oman, and the Open Science Foundation, as well as the World Health Organisation and the European Food Safety Authority. He is an elected Board member of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE); Vice-President elect of the International Health Literacy Association; and member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the Asian Health Literacy Association. He is also president of the HealthNest consortium for health literacy in Belgium.

Liane Comeau is the Executive Director of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) since 2018. She has worked in various areas of health promotion for over 20 years, both in non-profit and government sectors. She holds a PhD in Psychology from McGill University (2003). She was Clinical Lecturer at the School of Public Health of Université de Montréal (2013-2018) and has published work in scholarly journals on child development, mental health, and competency-based education, from a health-promotion perspective. Liane serves on the Advisory Board of the UNESCO Chair for Global Education and Health (2019-present) and on the steering committee for the Quebec Health Survey of High School Students (2015-present).

Professor Altyn Aringazina, PhD, ScD, MD is Research Professor at AlmaU School of Health Sciences, Almaty Management University, and Academic Professor at the International School of Medicine, Caspian University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, WHO Consultant, ADB/CAREC National Public Health Expert, and Advisory Board member of WHO Network M-POHL for 2023 -2025, IUHPE European Regional Committee member.

Dr. Altyn Aringazina has been involved in WHO health promotion endeavours since 2005. Aringazina was elected as a member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Health Promotion for 2009-2013. In this capacity, she has actively participated in several WHO activities in the European Region and globally. Dr. Altyn Aringazina has also worked productively as a globally elected member of the IUHPE Board of Trustees and the European Regional Committee member. Altyn Aringazina has led several studies of health promotion capacity in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, and has been an instrumental force in designing elements of the current system health care system and public health infrastructure. Her work is exemplary and provides evidence of her high national and international visibility and the respect within the scientific communities of medicine, public health and health promotion as one of the outstanding academic leaders whose work has been reshaping Kazakhstan’s public health system. She directs the professional preparation programs in public health and health promotion for MPH and PhD students and continuing education professionals from medicine and health administration in Kazakhstan. Altyn Aringazina conducted postdoctoral research as a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University in the City of New York in 2010-2011. Professor Aringazina has published seven books and produced an extensive bibliography of published papers in public health field. She served as a member of the Editorial Board of “Health Promotion International” Oxford Journal for 2010-2017. Dr. Altyn Aringazina has collaborated with many leading professors and practitioners from international centers and universities working on TACIS, CDC, WHO and ASPHER. She has also been a member of many scientific committees at international conferences and organized many international workshops and conferences. Dr. Aringazina has received several international academic awards, including Open Medical Institute, Fulbright U.S. scholarship and Fogarty grant of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. President of the Fulbright Association of Kazakhstan.

Professor Elvis Enowbeyang Tarkang is a specialist in Health Promotion at the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ghana and an Adjunct Professor at University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has been in the field of Health Promotion for over 23 years, and has examined several Theses and supervised several students at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He is a Consultant with FHI 360 on USAID-accelerating social and behaviour change. He is a Registered Health Promotion Practitioner and an Assessor of course accreditation with the International Union of Health Promotion and Education, and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission. He is also a Trustee with the Institute of Health Promotion and Education of the UK.

Dr Bouclaous is an Associate Professor and Director of Student Affairs at the Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, Lebanese American University (LAU), Lebanon. She teaches social medicine, global health, and nutrition in the MD program. Her research focuses on the determinants of health and health inequities among host and refugee populations. She has a number of peer-reviewed publications and ongoing projects on health literacy, collective trauma, access to care, disability, and sexual assault among other topics. She is a review editor for Frontiers, editorial board member of Critical Public Health, guest editor for International Health Trends and Perspectives, and peer reviewer for several top-tier academic journals. She is a member of the Research Committee of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health, and a member of the Standing Committee on Research Standards of the International Health Literacy Association. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Lebanese Medical Students’ International Committee, and heads LAU’s Medical Students’ Association Advisory Council. She supports both organizations in planning and executing awareness campaigns and free medical outreach days for the most vulnerable in society. Prior to joining LAU, she gained extensive experience in healthcare management. Dr Bouclaous holds a PhD in Development Studies, a Master of Public Health, and a Master of Nutrition.

Tulani Francis L. Matenga is a PhD candidate at the university of Zambia, School of Public Health. He has a background in Development Studies and a Master of Public Health-Health Promotion.

Tulani’s commitment to public health is reflected in his various roles, including training healthcare providers and coordinating initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations. His research interests include community-based health promotion, HIV prevention strategies, ethical practices in international health research collaborations and decolonisation of Global Health.

He is currently the global Co-Chair for IUHPE’s Students and Early Career Network (ISECN) from Zambia. Tulani also serves as a lecturer and researcher in the department of Health promotion and is implementation lead for the Piloting Integration, Knowledge and Acceptability of Baby Ultrasounds (PIKABU) study implemented by UNC Global Projects Zambia.

Dr Mumtaz Meeran is a lead Health Promotion Specialist at the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre (ADPHC) since 2020. Her current role focusses on physical activity, workplace wellness and raising awareness of key public health priorities aimed at improving health literacy, lowering non-communicable disease burden and improving quality of life. As the physical activity lead, she played a crucial role in the organization of the very successful 9th International Society for Physical Activity and Health (ISPAH) congress held in October 2022.

Prior to this, Mumtaz worked across several NHS trusts and local authorities in London, United Kingdom covering a wide portfolio ranging from maternal and child health, children’s public health, cancer screening, risk assessment and prevention programs and end of life care. She holds master’s degrees in public health (MSc) and Nutrition (MSc) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and King’s College London respectively. She holds a full General Medical Council registration with licence to practise in the UK and has published work in journals on barriers to cancer screening uptake in ethnic minority groups and public health programs. She is passionate about prevention, tackling health inequalities and provision of high quality health care.

Dr. Aysha Ibrahim Al Dhaheri is a Section Head in Health Promotion Section since 2015, Department of Health Promotion at Abu Dhabi Public Health Center and Department of Health Abu Dhabi. She holds a Bachelor degree in Medicine & general surgery (MBBS), in 2002 and a Master degree in Public Health (MPH), 2014, from UAEU. As well, Certified Public Health Professionals (CPH) from the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE), she had about 19 years of experience with lots of achievements in public health. Technically, led the 9th International Society for Physical Activity & Health (ISPAH 2022) that held for the first time in the middle east. Played a major role in COVID19 crisis advocacy, awareness and volunteers management (2020- 2021). Other assignements: Advisory Board member for Graduate Programs (PhD and MSc) of the Department of Nutrition and Health (DNH), College of Medicine and Health Sciences at the UAEU; Advisory Board member of Master in public health in Zayed university & Abu Dhabi university ; A member of Al Nukbah program under the Abu Dhabi Convention Bureau in the Department of Culture & Tourism; Has been acting as lecturer in the College of Medicine & Health Sciences – UAE University for the past 12 years.

Associate Professor Marguerite (Margo) Sendall (PhD) has more than 20 years of experience in health promotion encompassing health promotion practice in schools, teaching postgraduate health promotion theory and practice, supervising health promotion research students and conducting applied research in settings-based health promotion. Dr Sendall adopts novel research approaches borrowed from community development, sociology and anthropology, unique within the public health discourse, to challenge the status quo about how health is understood. Dr Sendall has significant experience is addressing complex social health problems using innovative, complex and layered qualitative research methodologies to reveal more than prima facie findings. Dr Sendall’s research is focused in four specific settings for health promotion – workplace, education, community and health settings. Dr Sendall’s methodological expertise is qualitative enquiry contributing and co-supervising mixed methods projects common in public health.

AssPro Sendall has earnt $62,000 internal competitive and $1,542,468 external competitive (Cat 2) grant income plus $50,000 commercial grant income. This is a total of more than a million dollars ($AUD1,654,468). Dr Sendall has 88 publications including 10 books (textbook chapters, international handbooks and edited textbook) and 50 peer reviewed journal articles in D1 and Q1 Scimago journals. Most journal articles report findings from research projects and student research published in SJR Q1 or Q2 ranked journals. Of SJR Q1 ranked journals, most are ranked in the top 10% or 20% of journals.

AssPro Sendall has supervised 18 Masters and 16 Doctoral students. Dr Sendall’s students have won competitive scholarships and been nominated for the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award (top 5% of students). In particular, Dr Sendall has experience in supervising international students from countries such as Fiji, Vietnam, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, UAE, Qatar and Iran, with local collaborations who undertake field work in their home country.