Speakers

Dr. Aliou Abdourahmane DIA is the Director of School Health in Senegal. He is responsible for coordinating, with the support of the 14 school medical inspections, all activities aimed at promoting prevention and monitoring student care throughout the country. His work focuses on areas such as vaccination, water, hygiene, sanitation, nutrition, and the fight against neglected tropical diseases.

Haik Nikogosian, MD, PhD, DSc, Prof. has long been involved in leading roles in public and global health. He led work for innovative services and policies, counteracting major global health challenges, cutting-edge developments and international cooperation for health.

Prof. Nikogosian has been Senior Affiliate with the Global Health Centre, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland since 2017. Writes, speaks and lectures on global health matters internationally. Areas of focus include global health instruments, diplomacy and governance, the interface of multilateral and multisectoral policies for health and the intersection of regional and global health. Most recently, co-author of the Guide to Global Health Diplomacy, the first systematic guide in the field, and author and co-author of a series of publications on a pandemic treaty.

In 2001-2017 worked in senior positions in the World Health Organization (WHO), including (2004-07) as Head, Noncommunicable Diseases and Lifestyles, WHO Europe and (2007-14) as founding Head (currently Head, Emeritus) of the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), WHO’s first global health treaty. In 1990s, before his move to international work, served as Minister of Health, and as founding Chairman of the National Institute of Health of Armenia.

Dr. Nikogosian received an MD, as well as a PhD and Professorship in medicine and health services and a Doctorate in healthcare organization and public health. Served as Faculty Chair and chair and member of several academic and expert councils and spoke at numerous international events, including at ministerial conferences, world congresses and high-level panels.

Dr. Joseph Keawe’aimoku (Keawe) Kaholokula is a Professor and Chair of Native Hawaiian Health at the John A. Burns School of Medicine of the University of Hawai‘i. He is a clinical health psychologist and translational behavioral scientist who leads multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research projects to improve Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander health. He has leveraged community and cultural assets to develop culturally responsive health promotion programs to improve cardiometabolic health. His research collaborations span the Pacific and North American regions including Aotearoa New Zealand, the United States, and the Pacific Region. He also oversees the Center of Pacific Innovations, Knowledge, and Opportunities (PIKO) whose mission is to improve the health and well-being of Indigenous Pacific People and other medically underserved populations. He served on the National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities and Chaired the Intervention Research to Improve Native American Health (IRINAH), a network of NIH-funded investigators working with American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, and on the data disaggregation subcommittee of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. He formerly co-chaired the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Interest Group of the NIH Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL). In 2024, he was elected into the National Academy of Medicine for his pioneering evidence-based interventions using indigenous cultural values and practices to improve cardiovascular, diabetes, and obesity disparities for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Louise Potvin is professor of health promotion at the School of Public Health, Université de Montréal. Currently, she holds the Canada Research Chair in Community Approaches and Health Inequalities, she is the Scientific Director of the Centre de recherche en santé publique. She completed a Bachelor in Psychology (BPs, Université de Sherbrooke, 1979) a Master in Psychology (MA, Concordia University, 1983) and a Doctorate in Community Health (Université de Montréal, 1987). She is known as a founder and pioneer of Population Health Intervention Research, a domain of scientific endeavour that seeks to develop a cumulative body of knowledge on public health interventions, their planning, implementation, scaling up and sustainability. She is also a leading figure in health promotion research, more specifically through her work on the role of local environments in health inequality and local intersectoral action. She published more than 350 research articles, commentaries, editorials and book chapters. She edited 11 books among which the two volumes of the Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research. From 2014-2023, she was the Editor in Chief of the Canadian Journal of Public Health. She is a member of the Canadian Public Health Association and of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education, for which she is the current Vice-President for Capacity Building, Training and Education. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She received the 2017 Pierre-Dansereau Award from the Association canadienne française pour l’avancement des sciences (ACFAS), the 2019 Canadian Institute of Health Research – Institute of Public and Population Health, Trailblazer Award and the 2021 R.D. Defries Award from the Canadian Public Health Association for outstanding contributions in the field of public health.

Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, a cardiologist and epidemiologist by training, is the founder past President of the Public Health Foundation of India (2006-2022), presently serving as an Honorary Distinguished Professor of PHFI. He was earlier Head of Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. Prof. Reddy was the first Bernard Lown Visiting Professor of Global Cardiovascular Health at Harvard (2009-13) and is presently an Adjunct Professor at Harvard, Emory, Sydney and Pennsylvania universities. He serves on the Advisory Boards of the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University and the Centre for Global Health Equity, University of Michigan.

He is an International Member of the US National Academy of Medicine. He was President of the World Heart Federation (2013-14) and is co-chair of the Health Thematic Group of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He served on a several WHO expert panels and Technical Advisory Groups. He chaired the High-Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage constituted by the Planning Commission of India (2010-11). He is a member of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition. He served as Advisor on Health to the state governments of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, with a cabinet rank.

Tanguy BOGNON is a Senior Public Health Specialist with over 17 years of extensive expertise in health promotion, health program management, and health system strengthening. He has strong experience in coordinating scientific meetings, training, and research departments. Tanguy previously worked at the Ministry of Defense, specifically at the National Military Teaching Hospital, where he led the Center of Excellence in Paediatric AIDS Global Care. He currently serves as Senior Technical Advisor to the Director General of the Hospital for health information and strategic innovation.

As the coordinator of international conference reporting for the Society for AIDS in Africa for over ten years, he developed several innovative tools for conference reporting and participated as a speaker in 15 international conferences.

Tanguy has a multidisciplinary background in medical and social sciences, public health, health promotion, health communication, and environmental management. He is currently a PhD candidate in Environmental Management and has completed over 300 certificates in various fields, including community health, health in all policies, cluster coordination, advocacy, health impact assessment, emergency preparedness/response, infodemic management, and research ethics. He is fluent in both French and English and possesses multifaceted skills that make him an asset to any organization.

As an activist with more than 20 years of experience in public policy analysis, social inequality assessment, and the fight against social exclusion, Tanguy is dedicated to impactful and sustainable health interventions. He is particularly passionate about the social determinants of health, health inequalities, and climate change.