Dr. Ali Okhowat

Dr. Ali Okhowat is a physician and bioethicist who is currently serving as Co-Lead of the World Health Organization (WHO) Innovation Hub, based at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. In this role he is responsible for helping to scale high-impact health innovations and cultivating an innovation culture throughout WHO HQ, and its Regional and Country Offices. He previously worked as a Health Emergency Officer in WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme based in Geneva and Cairo, the latter as part of his role in helping to establish the Emergency Operations team in the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO). In this capacity he was responsible for supporting WHO’s humanitarian health response activities in EMRO countries, including in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Afghanistan, among others. Prior to joining the WHO, he worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan.

Ali is a graduate of the University of Toronto Medical School and Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy’s Fellowship in Global Journalism, McGill University’s Family Medicine Residency and Clinician Scholar Program and is an alumnus of Harvard Business School. He is currently completing his PhD in Bioethics at the University of Montreal.