Alok Mukhopadhyay is Chairman of the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), which is a federation of 27 State Voluntary Health Associations, working in the field of Health and Development throughout India for the last four decades. VHAI’s network includes more than 4000 non-government organizations as well as 100,000 Health Workers. VHAI works throughout India in addressing the challenges of communicable and non-communicable diseases and works closely with the Government of India and WHO on policy related matters on all aspects of health care. Mr. Mukhopadhyay was nominated as a Member of Central Council of Health of Government of India as an Eminent Expert by the President of India.

Alok Mukhopadhyay has headed the South Asia Office of Oxfam, UK. He is founder of many development organizations in South Asia, including South-South Solidarity. Currently he is the Chair of South East Asia Primary Health Care Innovations Network, WHO.

He has advised World Health Organization, The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Government of India. He was a Member of the Board of Trustees of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education and Convenor of the Independent Commission on Development & Health in India. He is a producer, director and writer of popular films on social issues. He is the founder of Gallery Freedom – which builds a bridge between painters, sculptors and development work. He is author of many books and publications on health & development issues in India and abroad, including the ‘State of India’s Health’, ‘A Roadmap to India’s Health’ and ‘ROOTS’.

Louise Potvin is currently professor at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health (ESPUM), Université de Montréal. She is the Scientific Director of the Centre de recherche en santé publique, a hybrid research organisation that bridges a major university, Université de Montréal, with a regional health authority, the CIUSSS Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Community Approaches and Health Inequalities. She is known as a founder and pioneer of Population Health Intervention Research, a domain of scientific endeavour that seeks to develop a cumulative body of knowledge on public health interventions, their planning, implementation, scaling up and sustainability. She is also a leading figure in health promotion research, more specifically through her work on the role of local environments in health inequality and local intersectoral action. In addition to having edited and co-edited 8 books and 11 supplements in major scientific journals, she has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, editorials and comments.

She has served on numerous research organisation’s scientific boards in Canada and in Europe. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Public Health. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She received the 2017 Pierre-Dansereau Award from the Association canadienne française pour l’avancement des sciences (ACFAS) and the 2019 Canadian Institute of Health Research - Institute of Public and Population Health Trailblazer Award.

Margaret M. Barry, Ph.D., was elected President of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education in 2019, having previously served as Vice President for Capacity Building, Education and Training (2007-2010). Professor Barry holds the Established Chair in Health Promotion and Public Health at the National University of Ireland Galway, where she is also Head of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion Research. Having published widely in health promotion, she works closely with policymakers and practitioners on the development, implementation and evaluation of health promotion interventions and policies at national and international level. Professor Barry has extensive experience of coordinating international and European collaborative projects, serving as project leader on WHO projects and European Union funded research initiatives. She also serves on a number of international and European steering groups and scientific committees and has acted as expert adviser on mental health promotion policy and research development in a number of countries around the world.  Professor Barry served two terms as a member of the European Commission Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health (2013-2016; 2016-2019).

Dr. Mary Amuyunzu-Nyamongo is the Founder Director of the African Institute for Health and Development (AIHD). She is currently the Secretary of the NCD Alliance of Kenya and the Vice-President for the African Region for the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE). She serves of various international bodies and has published widely on health and social development, including on COVID-19.  Mary is an Adjunct Faculty Member of Strathmore University, Nairobi. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Maurice B. Mittelmark has since 2016 been Professor Emeritus at the University of Bergen, Norway. He has a PhD in social and community psychology from the University of Houston (1978). Since 1974, he has been continuously involved in teaching and research in community health promotion. He has previously held academic positions at the University of Bergen (1995-2016), at Wake Forest University, USA (1987-1995), and the University of Minnesota, USA (1978-1987). He has published over 300 academic papers and books and book chapters. He is editor of Springer Nature’s Handbook of Salutogenesis (2017) and editor of the 2nd Edition of the Handbook (in press). He has served the IUHPE in these roles:

• Board of Trustees, 1998- 2004 and 2004-2010
• Vice President, Special Projects, 1998.
• Vice President, Science and Technological Development, 1999-2001
• President, International Union for Health Promotion and Education, 2001- 2007
• Vice-President, Communications, 2007-2010
• Founding Editor-in-Chief, Global Health Promotion, 2007-2010
• Working Group on Salutogenesis, 2007-2021

Dr Rüdiger Krech is the Director of the Department of Health Promotion at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva since September 2019. He heads WHO's work on risk factors such as tobacco consumption and harmful use of alcohol; he is responsible for work on health-promoting settings and programmes for more physical activity. In addition to the normative work, his team supports member states in public health legislation and ways to impose additional taxes on unhealthy products. Prior to this, Dr Krech was the Director of Universal Health Coverage and played a key role in placing this issue on the global health agenda. From 2009-2014, Dr Krech was the Director of Social Determinants of Health and Equity, and was responsible, among other things, for organizing the World Conference on this topic. Prior to joining WHO, Dr Krech worked at the German Agency for International Cooperation (GiZ), where he developed and implemented the Social Protection agenda for Germany's development cooperation, and at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, where he was Head of Unit for Healthy Ageing.

Dr. Krech studied educational science and human medicine and was one of the first public health (MPH) graduates of a German university in 1991. He was awarded a doctorate in public health (DrPH) at the University of Bielefeld. Dr Krech is married and has three adult daughters.

Caroline Costongs is Director of EuroHealthNet, the European Partnership of health promoting agencies building a healthier future for all by addressing the determinants of health and reducing inequalities. EuroHealthNet is based in Brussels and active in EU policy and advocacy, practice, research and capacity building. Our approach focuses on health in all policies, contributing to sustainability and wellbeing of people and planet.

Humaira Nakhuda is a co-chair of ISECN. She has strong interests in health equity in health emergencies and healthcare, international health regulations, child health and protection, and humanitarian diplomacy and governance. She is a public health practitioner currently working as a Reporting and Data Management Coordinator with the Canadian Red Cross, and in frontline COVID-19 operations with the Public Health Agency of Canada. Humaira is also a board member with the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine. She holds an MPH in Health Promotion from the University of Toronto and a BSc in Life Sciences from McMaster University.

Nikita Boston-Fisher is co-chair of ISECN and a trustee in IUHPE's NARO. She is particularly passionate about compassionate and quality healthcare, health promotion and health literacy and solving health inequities. She is insatiably curious about the way things work in the health system and has a desperate need to understand the people and things around her, and to help others understand as well. She is the founder of a podcast called The Good Health Café. Nikita has a BS in Community Health from the University of Maryland and a MPH in Global Health and a certificate in the Social Determinants of Health from Emory University. She is currently a Project Administrator at the McGill University School of Population and Global Health.

Aqsa Kousar is purpose-driven and desires to improve how we develop, design and approach health promotion systems and global health.  She has an undergraduate degree in Health Studies and Geographic Information System (University of Toronto; Toronto, Ontario, Canada).  She currently serves as a member for IUHPE Student and Early Career Network (ISCEN). Her interest includes Health Human Factors & Service Design, Health Communication, Health Promotion, Mental Health.

Dr Faten Ben Abdelaziz is Head of the Enhanced Wellbeing Unit in the Department of Health Promotion at the World Health Organization Headquarters, providing technical support to WHO Member States in policies and programmes development in areas of health promotion. She oversees the work on good governance for health and wellbeing including healthy cities, health promoting schools, health literacy and community engagement. 

Her current work focus is on urban governance for health and wellbeing and the development of global standards for health promoting schools - a joint project between WHO and UNESCO.

Dr Ben Abdelaziz has previously served at the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean region (EMRO) as Regional Adviser for Health Education and Promotion and Coordinator of Health promotion in the Department of Prevention of Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). At the WHO Centre for Health Development in Kobe, Japan, she served as Technical Officer for Health Promotion, Urbanization and health,  Health equity, Women’s health and Gender, and Social Determinants of Health.

I built up my training as a specialist in Family and Community medicine, although I have spent the vast majority of my career working in Public Health. Since the year 2008, I have performed the tasks of Chief of Population Health Services and since September 2019 I work as Asturias Public Health Director. Father of two. Associate professor of the Andalusian School of Public Health. Short-sighted. Editor of "Community Health" health blog since 2016. Author of "La ñoaranza de Artemio Rulán" and "Los gorriones de Artemio Rulán". Co-editor of the collaborative project "50 ways to be your lover".

Serves as President and CEO of Vital Strategies and in October 2020, concluded his six-year term as the 8th Executive Director of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. With almost 30 years of experience in public health management, Mr. Castro has led the design and implementation of several groundbreaking initiatives for both organizations that together work with 100 countries tackling the world’s leading killers.

Also serves on several boards, including the NCD Alliance and the International Union for Health Promotion and Education. In 2014, Mr. Castro co-founded the Global TB Caucus, the world’s largest international network of parliamentarians across 132 countries working to accelerate progress against the TB epidemic.

Served as a consultant to WHO advising the Indian government in the implementation of the Revised National TBControl Programme, considered now the largest TB program in the world.

Earned his Master’s of Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Pace University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento, Via Verdi 26
38122 Trento, Italy. Member Technical Advisory Group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health, WHO. 

Is an international leader in health promotion and empowerment with a career for 35 years as an academic and adviser in over 50 countries. He has formerly worked as a Coordinator at WHO, Geneva and as a research fellow at Flinders University, Australia. He has a wide range of publications including 24 books on public health and health promotion in several languages.

Title: Rethinking health promotion to better address disease outbreaks in Europe

COVID-19 is here to stay. We can expect more waves of new variants and, combined with the disease burden and growing inequalities, will create worse health and weaker economies. Will the lessons of the past be learned or will outbreak responses continue to be dominated by approaches that exclude communities from having an active role in helping to prevent the spread of the disease? The conference provides a space for health promotion to rethink how it can better deliver information, build capacity and to address the local context to engage with the most vulnerable.

Didier Jourdan is the holder of the UNESCO Chair in Global Health & Education and Head of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research in Education & Health. He works in the field of health promotion and health education. He is a full Professor, former Dean of the Faculty of Education and Vice-President of Blaise Pascal University in France. He is a former President of the “Prevention, Education and Health Promotion” Commission of the French High Council for Public Health and Director of the Health Promotion Division of the French National Public Health Agency.

Is professor of biostatistics and public health. Since 1999, she has taught at the Institute of Public Health, Epidemiology and Development, ISPED, a structure at the University of Bordeaux that she headed since June 2017.
She also headed the public health center of Bordeaux University Hospital for 8 years, covering all areas of public health (health information, analysis and management of risks for patients and health professionals). At the start of 2019, she helped create a department entirely dedicated to supporting the development of the prevention offer at the Groupement Hospitalier de Territoire and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
Trained in medicine, epidemiology and biostatistics, her professional background has allowed her to gradually cover many fields of public health.

She led an Inserm research team in the field of clinical and public health research on HIV / AIDS and infectious diseases. More recently, his work has focused on neurodegenerative diseases and cerebral aging.
She was also a member of the committee involved in the preparation of the national health strategy 2013-2017, and headed the Public Health Institute of Inserm and the Public Health Research Institute for 3 years, between 2014 and 2017.
Geneviève Chêne is Director General of Public Health France since October 29th, 2019.

Is an Adjunct Professor at the Paris School of International Affairs, Sciences Po and Guest Senior Lecturer at the School of Global Public Health, New York University. The Founder and President of Management & Development Consulting Inc., she currently works as a freelance expert, specializing in social and behaviour change and has over 35 years’ experience working in low- and middle-income countries.
During her employment in the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), she held the following senior-level positions: Country Representative in the Arab Republic of Egypt, Deputy Representative and Representative, a.i. in India and Chief, Programme Communication/Social Mobilization Section in New York. Post-retirement, she also served as Senior Advisor/Acting Interim Representative in UNICEF-Sudan (2013) and Community Engagement Lead (2014-2015) in the UN Emergency Ebola Response Mission in West Africa.

Prior to joining the United Nations, Dr. Manoncourt was an Assistant Professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the Department of Applied Health Sciences where she headed the Health Communication Unit.
Dr. Manoncourt holds a Ph.D. in Health Behaviour from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Masters’ Degree in Social Work, and B.A. Degree in Psychology. 

Has trained across disciplines. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Health from the “Université de Montréal” and has completed graduate studies in Health Services Administration. He previously completed a doctorate in medicine and training in epidemiology and statistics. He completed his postdoctoral studies in the UK at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in collaboration with the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policy. He is currently Dean of the École de Santé Publique de l’Université de Montréal (ESPUM).
Prior to joining the EPSUM, Dr. Dubois was professor at the Faculty of Nursing of the Université de Montréal, where he also held other scientific leadership positions. He was Scientific Director of the FERASI Centre (Centre de formation et d’expertise en recherche en administration des services infirmiers) and co-led the development of the RRISIQ (Réseau de recherche en interventions et en sciences infirmères du Québec).

He is currently a researcher at the « Centre de recherche en santé publique » (CResP), is also affiliated with the « Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations » (CIRANO), the « Centre de recherche Interactions du CIUSSS du Nord-de l'Île-de-Montréal ». His main research interests pertain to the management of health human resource management and health service performance assessment. 

Associate Research Scientist, African Population & Health Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya
PhD (2013) in International Health Promotion from the University of Bergen (Norway), and Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery (2006) from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda).
My passion, as a researcher, lies in Salutogenesis, digital health promotion and health systems strengthening; a bias towards community and policy engagements, supporting health workers and digital health technologies to effect change in the health of underserved population groups. A Salutogenic approach to understanding and responding to needs of populations is critical to reducing inequities and inequalities. I believe that mobile and electronic technologies have the potential to bridge systemic gaps needed to improve access to, and use of, health services, particularly among underserved populations.

The current high and ever growing mobile penetration coupled with investments from technology companies that provide accessible platforms onto which innovations can establish and offer value-based products that can be harnessed to improve maternal, newborn and child health services and outcomes, amongst others.

My strengths and focus lie in project management, experimental studies, scientific writing, fundraising and health services research for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, and qualitative research methodology. 

PhD, is assistant professor at the chair-group Health and Society of Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Her background is dietetics and human nutrition with a PhD in communication sciences. She is a member of the IUPHE Global Working Group of Salutogenesis and her research area’s include the application of salutogenic theory to enable development of healthful life orientations with a key focus on sustainable, healthful food practices.

Has a PhD in Conflict Management and Resolution from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, he has Masters’ degrees in Applied Conflict Transformation Studies from Novi Sad University, Serbia, and in Sociology and Social Anthropology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a post-doctoral fellow at the Martin Springer Center for Conflict Studies at Ben-Gurion University. His areas of study are on personal and collective coping resources during societal crisis, peace education, and the contribution of action research to social transformation initiatives. He teaches graduate courses at the Department of Education at Ben Gurion University.

Is the head of the Preventive Programs and Interventions Service at the Barcelona Public Health Agency. She is a physician by training and holds a master's and a doctorate in public health. Mainly dedicated to health promotion, equity and urban health, she is passionate about the development and evaluation of community interventions, methodology and research in public health and health equity.