Young Leaders Network

Ana Sofia Gaspar de Paiva Nunes Barata

Age: 32
Country: Portugal

Ana is a young Family Doctor based in Amadora, Portugal. She has a MSc in Hospice and Palliative Care and a postgraduate degree in Geriatrics. At present, she holds the position of the Young Doctor Representative in WONCA's Executive Committee. In addition, she is a member of the executive group of the Portuguese Association of Family Medicine and coordinates the Department of Residents and Family Medicine Trainees. Ana is also involved with the WHO's Youth Hub and the IFMSA.

Aqsha Azhary Nur

Age: 23
Country: Indonesia

Aqsha is a medical doctor and a current student of the South-East Asia Healthcare Leadership Program from Harvard Medical School, as well as a MPH candidate for Johns Hopkins University. He is also a manager and physician at IMANI Primary Care, a health care management company, where he oversees 8 out of 30 clinics of their primary care network. He is committed to strengthen Indonesia's primary health care system.

Rebecca Hall

Age: 33
Country: UK

Rebecca is a graduate of Manchester University (2009) and trained in London as well as in rural South Africa. Now a qualified GP based in London, she divides her time between clinical work as a GP in a diverse inner-city practice, working in NHS management in health wellbeing and supporting local and national in HIV and sexual health programmes. She is passionate about global health and international collaboration and a member of the Royal College General Practitioners' Junior International Committee.

Dr Andu Lucky Emmanuel

Age: 33
Country: Nigeria

Andu is a medical doctor and graduate of the University of Jos Nigeria. He has three years experience in public health activities both at national and international levels. He is a devoted humanitarian health worker with extensive experience in PHC interventions in his country.

Alla Mansour Abdalla

Age: 26
Country: United Arab Emirates

Alla Abdalla holds a Bachelor's degree in Public Health and Nutrition from Zayed University in Dubai. She has since completed her MDPH at HBMS University in Dubai and has recently graduated from the Global Health Delivery Intensive program at Harvard University. Alla is currently employed by the Ministry of Health and Prevention in Dubai. She works as a health educator and is a member of the Healthy Lifestyle policy team. In addition, she has been involved in several research projects and presented them at international conferences around the world.

Andrea Canini

Age: 31
Country: Italy

Andrea is a Family Medicine resident based in Bologna, Italy. Since 2017, he has been the coordinator for the Young Primary Care Experts (You&EFPC) group. He is a promoter of the campaign "2018 PHC: Nor or Never", a movement of Italian Primary Care workers aimed at reaffirming the Alma-Ata legacy. In addition, he is a volunteer research collaborator at the International Health Centre (CSI) of Bologna University and has completed a post-graduate course in Tropical Medicine.

G.V.M. Chamath Fernando

Age: 32
Country: Sri Lanka

Chamath is a GP and a lecturer in Family Medicine at University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Sri Lanka. In addition to his academic and clinical duties, he is the coordinator for the National Centre for Primary Care and Allergy Research. He has a special interest in palliative care, and has worked to incorporate this into the undergraduate Family Medicine curriculum. 

Edmund Atweri Doudu

Age: 30
Country: Ghana

Edmund works with the Ghana Health Service at the Kwahu Afram Plains South District Health Administration. He is a District Public Health Nurse and District Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Coordinator. Edmund is also the founder of Divine Mother and Child Foundation, as well as a member of AfriYAN Ghana, Youth without Boarders and the Ghana Coalition of NGOs in Health.

Daren Paul S. Katigbak

Age: 28
Country: Philippines

Daren is a Registered Nurse and MSPH graduate. At present, Daren is working with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines - Episcopal Commission on Health Care (CBCP-ECHC), a faith-based organization that works with 86 catholic dioceses in the Philippines and other bishops' conferences all over the world. The commission works to promote the fullness of life for all and pastoral health care for vulnerable and marginalised populations. Daren is the nurse-program coordinator of the community-based health program of the commission.

Farihah Malik

Age: 30
Country: Pakistan

Farihah Malik is trained in epidemiology of infectious diseases and is currently investigating epidemiology of Hepatitis C in children at University College London. She also consults with Stop Tuberculosis (TB) Partnership's TB REACH initiative. She continues to be actively involved with the national community-led health promotion initiatives through Stop TB Partnership's Pakistan Chapter and has worked with the Ministry of Health in Pakistan focusing on patient-centered policy revisions to the national strategy for TB control. She is a former Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar.

David B. Duong

Age: 33
Country: Vietnam, the US

David Duong (MD, MPH) is currently the Deputy Director of the Program in Global Primary Care and Social Change, and Technical Adviser in health systems strengthening for the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam (HAIVN), at Harvard Medical School. In these two positions, David leads the formation and continued engagement with private sector partners, country government and multilateral organizations to create an ecosystem for productive and meaningful partnerships which improve human resources for health, health service delivery and health outcomes. David currently is engaged in a $14 million public-private partnership between the Government of Vietnam, the US Government and 10 private sector partners to improve the healthcare workforce in Vietnam. David is resident physician at the Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA. David earned both his Bachelor's Degree and Masters in Public Health from the University of Michigan, and a Medical Doctorate from Harvard Medical School.

Jana Deborah B. Mier-Alpaño

Age: 29
Country: Philippines

Dr Jana Deborah Mier-Alpaño graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in 2014. For four years, she served as the Municipal Health Officer in a rural island municipality in the Philippines, under the Doctors to the Barrios (DTTB) Program of the Department of Health. In 2016, she finished her Masters in Public Management from the Development Academy of the Philippines, wherein she received the Leadership Award, and the Creativity and Innovation Award. She also served as local preceptor to medical and global health students. Dr Jana endeavors to continue to be engaged in remote area care and health systems development in the Philippines. She is now affiliated with the Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) Philippines Hub.

Kaara Ray B. Calma

Age: 24
Country: Australia

Karra is a PhD candidate and a teacher in the School of Nursing at University of Wollongong, Australia. She has a strong passion for Primary Health Care (PHC) and her research interests include PHC nursing, nursing education and health experience. She is a Registered Nurse with clinical experience in acute care and general practice. Kaara and her research supervisors recently published a paper in the Australian Journal of Primary Health entitled 'An exploration of the experiences of Australian Grey Nomads travelling with chronic conditions'. Nearly a year into her candidature, Kaara's PhD project focuses on undergraduate nursing education and PHC.

Lynsey Brown

Age: 33
Country: Australia

Dr Lynsey Brown is a Research Fellow in the College of Medicine and Public Health at Flinders University of South Australia where she is involved in knowledge exchange (as co-convener of the national Primary Health Care Research Conference) and practice-based research into quality improvement in general practice. Lynsey completed a PhD in 2013 (Flinders University) which focused on spouse dementia caregiver wellbeing. She has a Psychology Honours degree (Flinders University), Graduate Diploma in Counselling (University of South Australia) and is currently undertaking a Master's in Public Health (Torrens University). She is interested in healthy ageing, biopsychosocial models, and integrated care.

Lucas Trout 

Age: 28
Country: The United States of America

Lucas Trout is managing partner of Maniilaq Social Medicine and lecturer on global  health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. His works centers on primary care education and health system strengthening in rural Alaska Native communities, with a particular focus on leveraging academic and tribal government partnerships to address the social determinants of health. Lucas plans on dedicating his  career to ensuring equitable access to quality, comprehensive, and culturally safe primary care to realize the right to health across the rural American North and West.

Rehan Adamjee

Age: 28
Country: Pakistan

Rehan is a graduate of Stanford University, where he received degrees in Development Economics and Healthcare Policy, and conducted his thesis research on informal healthcare provision in low-income urban communities of Pakistan. He currently serves as the Manager of Strategy and Innovation at VITAL Pakistan Trust, an organization dedicated to reducing neonatal and child mortality in the peri-urban communities of Karachi through longitudinal, targeted healthcare for women and children.

Ngo Bibaa Lundi-Anne Omam

Age: 33
Country: Cameroon

Ngo Bibaa Lundi-Anne Omam is a Public Health expert with 10 years of experience developing and managing health interventions in hard-to-reach, post-conflict and conflict-affected communities. She is a Chevening Alumni from the Queen Mary University of London where she holds a Master's degree in Global Health Systems, Theory and Policy. She is currently the Assistant Executive Director of Reach Out Cameroon and also serves as the VP of the oversight committee for the Global Fund in her country.

Vera Kabanda

Age: 29
Country: Malawi

Vera is a Registered Nurse/Midwife and earned her Bachelor's degree in Health Management from the University of Malawi, College of Medicine. She has a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Health from Harvard. Vera works as a nursing coordinator/clinical nurse mentor in partnership with the Ministry of Health in the rural district of Neno, Malawi. She manages nursing related education, mentorship and clinical practice for the community hospital and six surrounding health centres.

Victoria Gichohi

Age: 24
Country: The United States of America

Victoria is a Right to Health Organizer at St. John's Well Child & Family Center who helps underserved populations in South Los Angeles. Victoria organizes with youth and creates conversations regarding health issues at their local schools. Her passion is finding resources that makes people's lives more sustainable. Victoria holds a BA in Sociology and minor in African-American Studies from US San Diego and recently received her Master's in Public Health at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

Yelena Khegay

Age: 24
Country: Kazakhstan

Yelena is a GP and Family Medicine trainer from Almaty. She is currently pursuing an MPH and has a particular interest in domestic violence and quality improvement in primary care. Her goal is to build a new professional organization for young doctors in Kazakhstan.

Ximena Barros

Age: 34
Country: Chile

Ximena is a social worker from the Pontifical Catholic University in Chile. She completed her Postgraduate degrees in Political Sciences, Public Policy and Public Health. In addition to this, Ximena is a PhD candidate in Public Health and technical advisor for the Ministry of Health.