Health Leaders Voices kicks off with CDC expert Dr Mitchell Wolfe

We were delighted to welcome global health strategist Dr Mitchell Wolfe as our first speaker. Dr Wolfe has extensive global public health experience, including 21 years with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Health Leaders Voices invites global health leaders who have made significant contributions to health and healthcare through their leadership to talk about their insights and experiences of the industry. Forming part of UCL GBSH’s continuing work to disrupt and reimagine global healthcare management, this seminar series is designed to be highly interactive, giving students the opportunity to ask speakers about their career progression. Make sure to join us for the rest of the series, as leaders discuss how to navigate the opportunities and challenges of working in the world of healthcare.

For those of you that missed it, Dr Wolfe’s seminar ‘Protecting Americans and Improving Global Health Capacity’ gave us an insight into the role the CDC plays in disease prevention, and how the agency strengthens global health capacity by working with other nations. He talked about the CDC’s unique approach - viewing health through a national security prism - which was shaped by the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in Liberia. Ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CDC witnessed how weak surveillance systems and poor public health infrastructure can have dire consequences. Determined to prevent future international crises, they sought to integrate lessons learned from Liberia in future efforts.

Attendees were given an insider’s perspective on how the CDC’s collaboration with other nations can reach far beyond its commitment to the Global Health Security Agenda. For example, because of the work that the US and Vietnam did together in the fight against HIV/AIDS, military relations that had been soured by the Vietnam War greatly improved between the two countries.

Dr Wolfe also gave us an insight into the future of global healthcare. He scrutinised some of the issues that the Covid-19 pandemic brought to the fore, from the need for increased vaccine diplomacy to ideas on how to close the global vaccine equity gap, as well as sharing lessons on how to avoid another pandemic.

We have some exciting speakers lined up for the rest of the series. On 22 February, we had Dr Sam Roberts, Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) who joined us to discuss her experiences of guiding the organisation through the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and on the 8th March, Dr Jit Saini, Senior Vice President and Head of Medical Affairs EMEA at Merck KGaA discussed his work in the transformation of medical affairs at Merck. Speakers in the coming months will also include Nabeel Goheer, Chief of Asia at PATH and Ali Parsa, CEO of Babylon Health.

We are incredibly excited for Nabeel Goheer, Chief of Asia at PATH, Middle East, Europe (AMEE) Region to join us. It will no doubt be a captivating discussion, so make sure to book your place and register for the event here. If you can’t attend the event, keen an eye on our YouTube channel, where all of the seminars will be posted after the event.

Find out more about our Health Leaders Voices series