Dr. Lieve Fransen is Chair of the Advisory Board of WorldMedSchool. She has been the Director for Social Policies in the Directorate for Employment and Social Affairs for the European Commission from 2011 until 2015. Previously, Lieve was Director for Representations in the Directorate for Communication, Head of the Social and Human Development Unit in Directorate-General for Development in charge of social protection, employment, health, education and gender and Head of the Health, AIDS and Population Sector where she was in charge of negotiating tiered pricing for pharmaceutical products for developing more... countries.

Lieve is a Medical Doctor holding a PhD from the University of Antwerp in social policies and public health. She started her career as a Medical Doctor in Africa during the 1970s and 1980s (mainly in Mozambique, Kenya and Rwanda). In several African countries she developed new initiatives and ensured implementation through international cooperation and strategic planning. In 1987, she created the AIDS Task Force, an international foundation where she was Executive Director until 1993. Further, Lieve has worked as Public Health Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda and Cape Verde Islands; as Task Manager of a research programme on pregnant women and new-borns in Rwanda; and as Director of a research programme on sexual and reproductive health in Kenya and in the Tropical Institute in Antwerpen, Belgium.

Lieve was a founding board member and vice-chair of the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) representing the European Commission and several EU member states from 2000 to 2007. She has written more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and numerous policy documents for the European Council and the European Parliament. She was awarded the National Order of the Lion of the Republic of Senegal (1999) for special merit in the fight against HIV/AIDS and she received the Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights (2000). less...

Dr. Alan Magill oversees the development and implementation of strategies for the foundation’s ultimate goal of the eradication of malaria using current tools and strategies as well as developing new generations of vaccines, diagnostics, and anti-malarial therapies to be used in novel and innovative ways.

Before joining the Global Health Program in 2012, Dr. Magill worked at the Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA), and was responsible for accelerating program development for their pandemic influenza initiative. Dr. Magill has also served as Head of Parasitology at the US Navy’s Medical more... Research Center in Peru and has lived in Germany, where he was a clinician.

Dr. Magill is board-certified in internal medicine with a subspecialization in infectious disease. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Lamar University, has a Master of Science from the University of Rhode Island and an MD from Baylor University. He completed his residency at the Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii, the headquarters of the Pacific Regional Medical Command. less...

Dr Mario C. Raviglione has been Director of the Global TB Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2003. He joined WHO in 1991 to work on TB/HIV research and TB epidemiology in Europe. He contributed to the development of the DOTS strategy in 1994, and set up the global drug-resistance surveillance project (1994) and the global TB surveillance & monitoring system (1995).

In his first decade at WHO, he also worked on experimental regimens for treatment of latent infection in the mouse model (early 1990s), described the feasibility of preventive therapy in Africa (1995), first repormore... ted the TB control crisis in Eastern Europe (1993), and co-developed estimates and projections of the global TB epidemic. Between 1999 and 2003, he was Coordinator for Strategy and Operations globally, taking charge particularly of surveillance and programme monitoring; operational research; TB/HIV and multi drug-resistant TB responses; and DOTS expansion worldwide.

Mario Raviglione has published over 250 articles and chapters on the topics of infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS and TB in the most influential health journals and books, including in the last five editions of the prestigious Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. He is among the top 10 most cited authors in the TB field. He is editor of the 3rd and 4th (2006, 2009) edition of "Tuberculosis - A comprehensive International Approach", a landmark multi-author book, and associate editor of other books. less...

Marleen Temmermann is Director of WHO’s Department of Reproductive Health and Research.

Professor Marleen Temmerman is a Belgian national who qualified as a medical doctor from Ghent University. She also holds a diploma in tropical medicine from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp; an MPh on epidemiological, statistical and operational methods applied in public health; a PhD in obstetrics and gynaecology; and a diploma in management.

After graduating and working as a gynaecologist she moved to Kenya in 1987, where she conducted research into HIV/AIDS and maternal health and was a more... lecturer at the University of Nairobi. In 1992 she became the first female gynaecology professor in Belgium; and two years later created the International Centre for Reproductive Health (ICRH), based in Ghent, Kenya and Mozambique.

In 2007 she was elected as a Senator in the Belgian Parliament where she is member of the Commission on Social Affairs and the Commission on Foreign Affairs. In that capacity she is also a member of the European Parliamentary Forum and chair of the HIV/AIDS Advisory Group of the Inter Parliamentary Union.

Professor Temmerman has always fought for improvements in health care of disadvantaged populations and for the reproductive and sexual health and rights of women. She became a champion for health care during her career—a pioneer for women’s health and one of the few clinicians who have managed to successfully combine research, medicine and politics to improve health care. She thus brings a unique blend of clinical, research and parliamentary experience to WHO.

Currently, Professor Temmerman is active in a number of fields. She is a member of the independent Expert Review Group, the principal review group on the UN Secretary-General’s Commission on Information and Accountability for Women and Children's Health; Senator in the Belgian Parliament; Director of ICRH; head of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department and member of the board of directors for the Ghent University Hospital.

Author of over 400 scientific papers and 20 books in three languages, with a wealth of international experience behind her, Professor Temmerman is well placed to lead the work of the Department of Reproductive Health and Research and the UNDP/UNFPA/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP). less...