Dr Lara Vojnov

Dr Lara Vojnov is a Canadian and Irish national and a global health scientist with over 2 decades of expertise in infectious disease diagnostics, pandemic preparedness, and health systems strengthening. Trained in Cellular and Molecular Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a focus on HIV immunology and virology, she transitioned from research to global public health, bringing nearly 15 years of experience supporting national programs to expand access to diagnostic testing in resource-limited settings.

Currently, Dr Vojnov serves as Chief Scientist at the Global Health Impact Group, providing technical assistance to leading organizations including WHO, the Gates Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières, Unitaid, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), where she previously worked as a Senior Scientist. From 2016 to 2023, she served as Diagnostics Advisor in WHO's Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programme, supporting Member States through the development of core guidelines. During her tenure at WHO, she was seconded to the Health Emergencies team to support responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, mpox outbreaks, and advisory work for the Pandemic Fund.

Dr Vojnov is currently Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Societal Resilience in a New Pandemic Age, a Senior Scholar at the Center for Global Health Policy and Politics of Georgetown University, and Deputy Editor of the Journal of the International AIDS Society.

Dr Vojnov serves on 2 key WHO advisory bodies: the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on In Vitro Diagnostics (SAGE IVD) and the Global Validation Advisory Committee (GVAC). She has authored over 70 peer-reviewed publications and presented her research at major conferences across six continents. Her extensive fieldwork spans East, Southern, and West Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Europe, and Asia, having lived in Canada, the United States of America, South Africa, Liberia, United Republic of Tanzania, and Switzerland.