Ethel Leonor Maciel (Chair STAG-TB)

Dr Ethel Maciel is a Full Professor in the Epidemiology Laboratory at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), Brazil. Until March 2025, she served as Secretary of Health and Environment Surveillance at the Brazilian Ministry of Health, where she provided strategic and political leadership in the national response to public health emergencies, coordinated Brazil’s national surveillance systems, and strengthened intergovernmental collaboration on health and environmental threats.

She holds a degree in nursing from UFES, a Master’s degree in nursing, and a doctoral degree in epidemiology from the State University of Rio de Janeiro. As a Research Productivity Fellow in Epidemiology through the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Dr Maciel completed postdoctoral training in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

At UFES, she previously coordinated the Clinical Research Centre at the University Hospital, the postgraduate programme in public health, and the Research Ethics Committee of the Centre for Health Sciences. From 2013 to 2020, she served as Vice-Rector of the university. Between 2019 and 2022, she chaired the Brazilian Tuberculosis Research Network (REDE-TB), and she currently serves as its Coordinator of International Relations. She also represented the Government of Brazil in the BRICS TB Research Network, a collaborative initiative among Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to advance TB research and innovation.

She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Brazilian Network of Women Scientists from 2020 to 2022 and has contributed to several national and international technical groups, including the Technical Committee on TB at the Ministry of Health of Brazil, the WHO TB Patient Cost Survey Task Force, and the PAHO/WHO Working Group for TB Elimination in the Americas. In May 2025, she was appointed as a Special Envoy for COP30, serving as the health sector liaison to the Presidency and other key actors.

Dr Maciel remains actively engaged in research and teaching in public health and epidemiology, with a focus on tuberculosis, COVID-19, Zika virus, yellow fever, Mpox, and other emerging infectious diseases.