Regions for Health Meeting
Moscow, 2021.

Bio Alberto Chaves

I am a DVM since 1999, I have been working in different areas related to animal health and food safety during the last 20 years. From 2017 my position is chief of food safety unit in Regional Ministry of Health and Families in Andalusia.

Ashley Gould is a Consultant in Public Health and Programme Director of the Behavioural Science Unit in the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Wellbeing Directorate, Public Health Wales.  He is responsible for whole system application of behavioural science and building behavioural insights capacity and capability for health and well-being. Ashley is Co-Chair of the Risk Communication and Behavioural Insights Sub-Group of the Welsh Government Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19.  Before the pandemic he was national lead for tobacco control, deploying behavioural science to help deliver 5 years consecutive growth in the proportion of smokers in Wales using NHS support to help them quit.

Bio Carla Lozano: I have a degree in pharmacy, during 13 year I have been woorking as a health inspector for the administration and two years ago I work as technical advisor at the Food Safety Unit.

Thomas Claßen, Dr.rer.nat. and MSc Medical Geography, works as a senior researcher for health-oriented planning at the NRW Centre for Health (LZG.NRW), Bochum, Germany. Thomas is an established expert in healthy urban and regional planning, nature and health, healthy climate adaptation, healthy transport and health impact assessment. Thomas is member of the NRW group of the academy for spatial development and of several national and interministerial steering groups.

Caroline Costongs is Director of EuroHealthNet and expert in public health and health promotion. Caroline leads a multi-disciplinary team working on European and (sub)national policy, advocacy, research and capacity building addressing health inequalities. Caroline is active in various EU and WHO fora, as well as in Advisory Boards such as for APHEA (Public Health Education Accreditation Agency) and various EU projects and is a member of the ICC – International Council for the European Public Health Conference.

Caroline has a strong international background with 25+ years of public health, health equity and health promotion experience. In 1992 she started her career as a researcher at the National Capacity Building Institute (INICE) of the Honduras Ministry of Education. She subsequently worked for the Health Institute of the Liverpool John Moores University and the Netherlands Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation (NOC*NSF) linking health and physical activity. In 2000, she joined the European Network of Health Promoting Agencies (ENHPA), where she helped establish EuroHealthNet as a not-for-profit association with legal statutes in Belgium.

Caroline graduated from the University of Maastricht with a MSc in Public Health.

Caroline has three children and lives with her partner and family in Tervuren.

Dorota Tomalak is the Deputy Head of Unit at the European Committee of the Regions (CoR). She holds master degrees from the Institute for Political Studies (IEP) in Strasbourg (FR) and the University of Wroclaw (PL) as well as the diploma of the College of Europe in Bruges (BE). Her responsibility is to lead on the Committee's work on health matters, advise local and regional politicians, analyse policy trends and developments and build bridges between local expertise and European policy-making. Before joining the CoR in 2012, she worked for an UK-based association of social directors and in the EU-funded research project of University of Konstanz.  Dorota Tomalak is active in many EU platforms and expert groups and is the lead contact for the CoR-WHO Europe relations.

Josep M. Antó is a respiratory physician and epidemiologist whose research has focused on the epidemiology of asthma and COPD with special interest on the environmental determinants and prevention of these diseases. He is Professor at Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal) and at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Among other leading positions, he has been the Founding Director of Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL) (2005-2016) and Founding Scientific Director of ISGlobal (2016-2019). In the past years, he has been increasingly devoted to adapt environmental health strategies to the fight against climate change and to promote the concept of planetary health locally and internationally.

Name: Elisabeth Bengtsson

Date of birth: 30/6 1956

Citizenship: Swedish

Ms Elisabeth Bengtsson. 

BA in Social Work and Public Administration. A former Public Health Director in Region Skåne and today a Senior Advisor in Public Health and Regional Development in Region Västra Götaland, Sweden. Elisabeth has been attached in different capacities to WHO European Office and the Healthy Cities’ Programme since 1998. She is currently on a consultancy contract supporting the WHO Regions for Health Network. 

Elisabeth is a long-standing assessor of research applications with a focus on public health promotion within the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working life and Welfare (Forte).

Elisabeth Bengtsson has a broad experience of health and sustainable development linked to policymaking, research, and practice, internationally, regionally and locally. She is strongly committed to public health promotion focusing on health equity and the social determinates of health through a-whole-government and whole-of-society approach. 

Joan Devlin is Chief Executive of Belfast Healthy Cities and has responsibility for delivering the World Health Organization (WHO) healthy city requirements with key stakeholders in the city, on behalf of Belfast.  Joan has significant experience in intersectoral public health work, contributes locally to building capacity and developing innovative projects to address health, well-being and inequalities, many of which have been transferred across Europe.

She has acted as a WHO Adviser, contributing to the development of Healthy Cities’ across WHO Europe; presented on behalf of WHO at international conferences and served as chair of the WHO European Healthy Cities Advisory Committee.  From 2009 Joan has led the WHO Secretariat, working directly with WHO Regional Office for Europe, which provides the opportunity to share the expertise and innovation from WHO Europe on relevant subjects across Belfast.

Prior to working for Healthy Cities, Joan was employed by Save the Children and worked locally and across the UK in the areas of childcare; family work; community development & health and evaluation. Joan is a founder member and chair of CDHN (Community Development & Health Network), represents Belfast in the WHO European Healthy Cities Network and as an associate member of the Ireland Healthy Counties & Cities Network.  

Joan has two children; enjoys walking, going to local theatre; spends some time travelling in Europe and whilst at home, enjoys sewing and restyling.

Biography – Leon Gorris

Leon Gorris, Independent Food Safety Expert, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E: leongorris@gmail.com

Leon Gorris is an independent food safety expert. Most recently, he has been providing advice and consultancy to public organizations (incl., FAO, WHO, Universities in China, The Netherlands and the USA) on aspects of food safety management, including microbiological and chemical hazards in food.

He has held several jobs at Unilever (1998-2019) as department head, food safety risk assessor, risk manager and regulations expert being stationed in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and China). He earlier (1991-1998) worked as a microbiologist and department head at one of the research institutes of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries and as a researcher in microbiology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (1982-1991).

Leon is the secretary of ICMSF (International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods) and represents ICMSF at Codex Alimentarius and in interactions with FAO and WHO.

He is a member of the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA; roster 2018-2022), on the NSHR (non-staff human resources) Roster of AGFF (Rome) and REU (Budapest) of FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2020-2023),

Leon is a visiting professor at three Universities in China: China Agricultural University in Beijing, Shanghai Ocean University and the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. He held a part-time professorship serving as the European Chair in Food Safety Microbiology at the University of Wageningen.

Maria Nilsson is a professor of public health sciences, with the orientation climate change and health, at the Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, Sweden. Her main research  interest is climate adaptation and vulnerable populations. She was the integrating editor for health in the 2015 "Lancet Commission - Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health" and co-leads the working group on adaptation, planning, and resilience for health in the global  Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Global Health Action, an international scientific journal that publishes research in global health addressing transnational health and policy issues. She was awarded a fellowship from the Swedish Institute for Global Health Transformation (SIGHT), under the auspices of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, for global health leadership. Recently, she has become the chair of the Lancet Countdown in Europe. 

Odile Mekel, PhD MPH MSc is head of the Division Healthy Settings and also heads the section International Cooperation at the NRW Centre for Health (LZG.NRW), Bochum, Germany. Odile is an established expert in health risk assessment and health impact assessment and has been principal investigator of numerous projects, funded by EU and other sources, on risk assessment and health impact assessment (HIA). Odile is vice-president of the Section Health Impact Assessment of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) and member of the national Committee for Environmental Public Health. 

Liesbeth van Holten is programme manager and public entrepreneur Healthy Urban Living at the province of Utrecht. Her "permanent base" is the provincial office, but most times she is working outside the office. From her position at the province of Utrecht, Liesbeth makes the bridge between innovations in practice and environmental policy.

Together with various stakeholders in the Utrecht Region, she works on the common regional ambition of healthy living in an urban region. Stakeholders in the Utrecht region are committed to an integrated, environment-oriented approach and room for inspiring pilots in practice. They are working on this together in innovative learning networks such as the Healthy Urban Living Data and Knowledge Hub and the Health Hub Utrecht, with governments, business partners, knowledge institutions and residents. Together they want to make a difference in promoting health and reducing health inequalities in the province of Utrecht.

Dr Mariana Dyakova, Deputy Director and International Health Lead, WHO Collaborating Centre on Investment for Health and Well-being, Public Health Wales
Dr Dyakova joined Public Health Wales in 2015 as a Specialist in Public Health Medicine, leading a portfolio of work, focusing on sustainable investment in health and equity, health system strengthening, and Value-Based Public Health. She is an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at the University of Warwick with a substantial academic track record informing policy and practice across the UK and Europe. This includes health equity, chronic disease risk assessment, integrated care, capacity building and advocacy for investing in prevention through evidence synthesis and innovative methods. Originally from Bulgaria, Dr Dyakova has been actively involved in public health capacity building and chronic disease prevention in South Eastern Europe. She has an extensive international portfolio and network, working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), EuroHealthNet, EUPHA and others. She is a Fellow of the UK Faculty of Public Health; sits on the WHO Healthy Cities Scientific Board; and on the European Journal of Public Health Editorial Board.

Peter is responsible for the food safety and zoonotic disease programme at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. Before joining the WHO European Office in Aug 2019, Peter served as technical lead for food safety in the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific. From 2011-2015, Peter worked in the WHO sub-regional office in Fiji, supporting Pacific Island Countries in strengthening national food safety systems and addressing food and diet related noncommunicable diseases risk factors. Prior to joining WHO, Peter worked 5 years in the FAO food safety and nutrition programme and was based in Thailand and Bangladesh.

Pirous Fateh-Moghadam, M.D., works for the Epidemiological Unit of the Public Health and Prevention Department of the Local Health Unit of Trento, in Northern Italy. Since 2012 he represents the RHN local focal point for his region. His main professional interests are population health monitoring for health promotion and prevention, health equity and environmental sustainability and health.

PRISCO PISCITELLI MD PhD
Medical Doctor, Specialist in Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Region Apulia Healthcare Service - Researcher in Staff at UNESCO Chair for Health Education and Sustainable Development at Federico II University of Naples - Epidemiologist at Euro Mediterranean Scientific Biomedical Institute (ISBEM, Bruxelles) - Vice President of the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (SIMA) - Scientific Reviewer for Lancet Public Health, Lancet Planetary Health, Lancet Regional Health Europe, Environment International, British Medical Journal, PlosOne, European Journal of Public Health. Guest Editor for Environmental Research and for International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Dr Anna Teghammar, Regional development officer at the environmental department, Region Västra Götaland, Sweden.

Sonia has worked in health and social care internationally for 30 years as a clinician, in senior hospital management, and in sustainability. She is committed to the transformations needed for a sustainable and healthy planet for all.
Sonia started work for Health Care Without Harm in July 2020 as International Climate Policy Director. In this role, she oversees the work to support health systems around the world, including national and sub-national governments as they move to reduce their climate footprint toward net zero and become resilient leaders in addressing the climate crisis.
Previously Sonia served as the Director of the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) in the National Health Service (NHS) in England. During her tenure leading the SDU she launched the Greener NHS program, including a commitment to net zero climate emissions, positioning the NHS as the first national health system in the world to do so.
She trained as an Occupational Therapist, holds a Masters degree in Systems Thinking and is a member of the Faculty of Public Health in the UK.

Rebecca joined the team in 2021 and is the strategic lead for Health Economics and Modelling, and supports the Health and Sustainability Hub.

Prior to her current role, she was Consultant in the North Wales local public health team for four years, leading on a range of health improvement programmes of work. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Rebecca was a Consultant lead for the North Wales Test, Trace, Protect Regional Hub and worked extensively across the care homes and educational settings agendas.

Prior to joining Public Health Wales in 2016, Rebecca undertook public health specialty training in the North West of England, working across Cheshire and Merseyside with a wide range of Local Authority, NHS, Third Sector and national Government partners.

Peter Beznec, Ba.sc. of economics, project manager, has more than 17 years’ experience in European structural funds and regional development project management and coordination, regional development and strategic planning and cross-sectoral cooperation in the field of investment in health. He is Head of WHO Collaborating Centre for intersectoral approaches to health and development at Centre for Health and Development Murska Sobota, Slovenia, and a member of WHO Regions for Health Network Steering group.

Melitta Jakab is Head of Office of the WHO European Center For Primary Health Care in Almaty. She has twenty years of experience in health system strengthening supporting countries to move towards Universal Health Coverage through stronger primary health care and better health financing policies. She has been co-director of the Barcelona Courses on Health Systems Strengthening and Health Financing. She is co-editor of Health Systems Respond to NCDs: Time for Ambition (Jakab, Farrington, Borgermans, Mantingh, WHO Regional Office for Europe 2018) and of Implementing Health Financing Reform: Lessons from Countries in Transition(Kutzin,CashinandJakab,EuropeanObservatory,2010). ShehasaPhDfromHarvardUniversityandanMScinHealth Policy from the Harvard School of Public Health.