R2HC ADVISORY GROUP

Jimmy Whitworth

Chair, R2HC Advisory Group

Jimmy Whitworth is Professor of International Public Health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), specialising in infectious diseases, epidemiology and public health. Previously he was Head of International Activities and Population Health at the Wellcome Trust.

Alastair Ager

Professor Alastair Ager holds academic appointments as Director of the Institute for Global Health and Development at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh (where he is Director of the NIHR Research Unit on Health in Situations of Fragility) and as Professor with the Department of Population and Family Health at Columbia University. From 2017 to 2020 he served as the Deputy Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Department for International Development. He has worked as a consultant and researcher across sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, the Middle-East, Europe and North America, with a broad range of agencies including UNICEF, UNHCR, WHO, Save the Children and World Vision.

Carlos Navarro Colorado

Carlos is the Principal Advisor for Public Health Emergencies for UNICEF. He has previously worked at CDC as an emergency epidemiologist (2010-2017), as an independent consultant on health and nutrition in emergencies (2005 -2010), and in a number of field assignments and coordination positions for ACF and MSF (1994-2004). He has completed dozens of field emergency and outbreak assignments in field and leadership positions. Carlos’ research work in emergency response has focused on outbreak response and on the treatment and prevention of acute malnutrition. He started the research department of ACF in 2000, and has been involved in the design and implementation of operational research in emergency settings since 1997, obtaining an MSc from LSHTM and PhD from Aberdeen University.

Chris Porter (Observer)

Chris is Humanitarian Head of Profession at the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID), with part of his role supporting DFID teams in better using evidence in their humanitarian policy and programme work. He was previously DFID’s humanitarian and resilience adviser for Kenya and Somalia, but has twenty years’ experience elsewhere with DFID, UN OCHA, UNHCR and also as an independent consultant working for clients including UNICEF, Red Cross and the World Bank.  Chris is currently based out of Nairobi, but works globally.

Esperanza Martinez

Esparanza joined the International Committee of the Red Cross as their Head of Health in 2015, where she oversees operations across 80 countries. Prior to this, she worked as a General Practitioner and surgeon in Columbia, and led the development and implementation of comprehensive medical care programmes in the country. Esperanza has worked in conflict and humanitarian emergencies, and has held previous roles with Unicef, WHO, USAID and in the private sector working in public health and health management roles.

Mushtaque Chowdhury

Mushtaque Chowdhury is the Vice Chair of BRAC, the world’s largest non-governmental organization. He is also a Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia University in New York. During 2009-12, he worked as the Senior Adviser to the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Chowdhury holds a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an MSc from the London School of Economics and a BA (Hon’s.) in Statistics from the University of Dhaka. He is the founding Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health of BRAC University. He is the recipient of the 2017 ‘Medical Award of Excellence’ from the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

Paul Spiegel

Paul is Professor and Director of Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health. A medical physician by training, he is internationally recognized for his research on preventing and responding to complex humanitarian emergencies. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins he served as Deputy Director of the Division of Programme Management & Support Services for UNHCR. He has also worked as a medical epidemiologist at the Centre for Disease Control, and as medical coordinator with INGOs in refugee emergencies.

Renee van de Weerdt

A native of Belgium Renee is the Chief in the Emergency Management and Support department for WHO. She is leading and managing the vulnerable countries teams by providing overall operations support to emergencies.

Renee’s career started as a Medical Coordinator for MSF Belgium in various countries namely DRC, Sierra Leone, Chad, Rwanda and Chechnya (1994 – 1998) and as a Medical officer in the WHO Polio department (1998 – 2004). She moved to join UNICEF as Chief of Health and Nutrition in Chad (2004 – 2006), Senior Health Adviser (Child survival) in various locations (2006 – 2007) and as Chief Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in UNICEF/HQ NY (2008 – 2013). Prior to re-joining WHO in 2017, Renee was the Senior Technical Advisor for Reproductive Health Commodities with UNFPA in New York (2013 – 2017).

Renee is a holder of a medical degree from the University of Leuven, a MSc in Epidemiology from LSHTM and an MBA from the University of Wales.

Therese McGinn

During her more than 30 years of public health work, Dr McGinn focused on using sound data collection and analysis to improve the scope and quality of reproductive health services globally, in order for women and men to make choices about their sexual and reproductive lives. Dr McGinn has focused most intently in Africa but also has experience in Asia, Middle East, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Since the mid-1990s, her work included a substantive focus on the reproductive health of populations affected by wars and natural disasters. She also taught and mentored generations of students at the graduate and doctoral levels.

Dr McGinn received the Doctor of Public Health degree from Columbia University with a dissertation on fertility desires and behavior of women in post-genocide Rwanda, the Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan in Population Planning, and the Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in Development Economics.