Vietnam Event Speakers - Bios
Jennifer Bryce, MS, Med, EdD
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Jennifer Bryce received her doctorate in education from Columbia University in 1980. She began her career with a series of academic posts both in the US and at the American University of Beirut, always with a focus on the evaluation of maternal, newborn and child programs. In 1989 she joined the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as the evaluation officer for the International Health Program Office, and moved in 1994 to the Department of Child and Adolescent Health at the World Health Organization. She is currently a Senior Scientist in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, USA.
Dr. Bryce has played a leading role in drawing attention to child survival, primarily through the conduct of large-scale effectiveness evaluations. She served as the coordinator of the Bellagio Child Survival Study Team and the 2003 series on child survival published in The Lancet in 2003. Since that time she has played a leading role in technical teams that have defined the major causes of child deaths, estimated the price tag for achieving the MDG for child survival and developed the evidence base for a focus on child health and poverty. She has published widely on child survival and methodologies for the conduct of large-scale effectiveness evaluations of public health programs.
Dr. Bryce is one of the lead authors for The Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition. She led the work of the writing team for the fourth paper in the series, focused on national efforts to improve nutrition.
John Hendra
UN Resident Coordinator in Viet Nam
Mr. Hendra comes to Viet Nam from the United Republic of Tanzania where he served four years as UN Resident Coordinator leading what is widely recognized as one of the UN’s most effective and innovative Country Teams. From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Hendra worked at UNDP Headquarters both as the Deputy Director of the Bureau for Resources and Strategic Partnerships and as the Director for Resource Mobilization helping to reinvigorate UNDP’s reform, while significantly increasing its partnership and resource base.
From 1993 to 1997 he served as the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in the Republic of Latvia, establishing an overall UN presence after the restoration of Latvia’s independence and developing an innovative programme addressing some of Latvia’s key challenges in its transition to a market-oriented democratic state. From 1989 to 1993, he worked in New York with UNDP'S Regional Bureau for Arab States, where he specialized in policy analysis and programme development for Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. He began his UN career in 1986 with a two and a half year assignment to Democratic Yemen.
Prior to joining the United Nations System, Mr. Hendra did academic research on international development issues (University of Toronto) and worked with a number of Canadian non-governmental organizations involved in international development including serving on a volunteer work placement in India.
Mr. Hendra is Canadian and holds a Master of Arts degree (International Development Studies) from the University of Toronto (1985) and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree (Political Studies) from Queen’s University (1982). He is married and has two children.
Roger Shrimpton, PhD
United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition
Roger Shrimpton obtained his first degree in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Surrey in 1972. He received his master’s degree in nutrition from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 1975, and a PhD in nutrition from the University of London in 1980.
After working in Brazil and Indonesia for UNICEF for 15 years, Roger was promoted to Chief of Nutrition Section in UNICEF’s New York headquarters. He later worked as a freelance consultant and was an Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Child Health, at the University College of London University. In 2004, Roger accepted his current position as the Secretary to the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition.
Roger has published nearly 70 publications that reflect his interest in the science/policy-programme interface, especially in relation to micronutrient status and foetal and infant growth.
Roger currently lives in Geneva with his wife, Regina and their three children.