Washington, DC Event Speakers - Bios

Faith McLellan, Ph.D.
North American Senior Editor, The Lancet
 
Faith McLellan, Ph.D., is the North American Senior Editor of The Lancet, based in New York City. Before coming to The Lancet, she was Editorial Director of Praxis Press, an online decision-support tool for physicians; Managing Editor of the Physicians Information and Education Resource, a project of the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia; and an author’s editor for the Departments of Anesthesiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  

McLellan is the past president of the Council of Science Editors, and co-editor, along with Anne Hudson Jones, of Ethical Issues in Biomedical Publication (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000). 


Robert E. Black, M.D., M.P.H.

The World Health Organization estimates that 70% of the 11 million child deaths in developing countries each year is due to diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria, measles, and malnutrition. Robert E. Black, M.D., M.P.H. has focused his research and professional activities on reducing the number of these unnecessary deaths. He is conducting epidemiologic research on the interaction of infectious diseases and nutrition, clinical and community-based trials of new vaccines to prevent childhood infectious diseases, and trials of nutritional interventions to reduce infectious disease morbidity and mortality, as well as improve growth and development. He is also assisting with implementation of disease control and nutrition programs in developing countries and conducting evaluations of their effectiveness and mortality impact. Dr. Black is currently engaged in evaluations of rotavirus, Hemophilus influenzae type B, and other vaccines; zinc and iron supplementation in children; nutritional counseling; and the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness approach. He has worked extensively in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Kenya and Peru, and also has current research in Zanzibar and West Africa.


Joy Phumaphi
Vice President, Human Development Network, World Bank

Joy Phumaphi, a Botswana national, is Vice President of the World Bank’s Human Development Network. Before joining the Bank in February, 2007, Joy served as Assistant Director General for Family and Community Health at the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, managing a global staff of more than 1,100, and representing the World Health Organization on the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI).

From 1994-2003, Ms. Phumaphi served variously as a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet Minister with responsibility for lands and housing—in the course of which she developed Botswana’s first national housing policy—and Minister for Health. During her tenure as Minister, Ms. Phumaphi restructured the health ministry to make it more focused on results, and implementing a multi-sectoral plan to provide prevention, care, and treatment services for HIV/AIDS.

Joy Phumaphi holds a Master of Science degree in Financial Accounting and Decision Sciences from Miami University, Ohio.


Jayaseelan Naidoo
Board Chairman, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition

Jay Naidoo is the current Chairman of the Board of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). He is the Chairman of the J&J Development Trust, the social development arm of the J&J Group, which is a diversified investment and management group headquartered in Johannesburg South Africa. He is also the Chairman of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, a key financial institution driving the expansion of social and economic infrastructure in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Mr Naidoo’s studies and career were marked by the political situation in South Africa in the seventies and eighties. Enrolled in the University of Durban Westville in 1975 to pursue a medical career, government repression forced him to leave before completing his degree. He was active in the South African Students Organization led by Steve Biko and as a community organizer and union leader (Sweet, Food and Allied Workers Union). In 1985 he became General Secretary of the Congress of African Trade Unions (COSATU) and was re-elected for three terms. His work with COSATU and his commitment to bringing about social and political freedom in alliance with the now governing African National Congress (ANC) Party, led to his appointment as coordinator of the Reconstruction and Development Programmed (RDP) in the 1993-4 election campaign. Subsequently, he held this portfolio as Minister of the RDP in the Office of President Mandela. In 1996 he became Minister of Communications, overseeing the largest privatization in South African (Telkom SA). Together with other telecommunications ministers throughout Africa he helped set the African Connection, a policy framework adopted by over 44 countries for creating regional markets and projects. At the end of his term in South Africa’s first democratic parliament, Mr Naidoo left politics for the private sector to promote the expansion of an information backbone for the continent’s shared vision of an African Renaissance. Other positions he holds are on the Board of Directors of Telecom an advisory body to the Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union, a member of the Health Advisory Committee of the Clinton Global Initiative and the Deputy Chairman of the Lovelife Trust, a non governmental organization committed to fighting the HIV/Aids pandemic in South Africa. He is the recipient of many awards including the Chevaliers de la Legion d’Honneur from the French Government. Jay is married to journalist and writer Ms Lucie Page and he considers his three beautiful children his greatest achievement.


Tadataka Yamada, M.D.
President, Global Health Program, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

As president of the Global Health Program, Dr. Tadataka (Tachi) Yamada leads the foundation’s efforts to help develop and deliver low-cost, life-saving health tools for the developing world. He oversees the foundation's global health grant portfolio and Global Health Advocacy.

Before joining the foundation, Yamada served as Chairman of Research and Development and was a member of the Board of Directors at GlaxoSmithKline. Prior to that, he was chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and Physician-in-Chief at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Yamada is a past president of the American Gastroenterological Association and the Association of American Physicians, a master of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science in the United States and the Academy of Medical Sciences in the United Kingdom.


Kent R. Hill
Assistant Administrator for Global Health, USAID

Dr. Kent R. Hill was sworn in on November 2, 2005, as Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Hill had served as acting Assistant Administrator from January 21, 2005, until his confirmation by the Senate on October 7. USAID is the government agency that administers economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide.

From November 2001 to October 2005, Hill served as Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia at USAID.

As Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Global Health, Hill is responsible for a bureau that in FY06 managed or co-managed health programs all over the world with funding of more than $1.8 billion (estimated to be over $2 billion in FY07). The Bureau seeks to provide global leadership in the effort to improve the quality, availability, and use of essential health services. USAID focuses its efforts on HIV/AIDS, avian influenza, other infectious diseases (such as tuberculosis and malaria), maternal and child health, family planning, environmental health, and nutrition.

Before coming to USAID, Hill served as President of Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass., from 1992 to 2001. From 1986 to 1992, he was president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy in Washington, D.C. He taught European and Russian history at Seattle Pacific University from 1980 to 1986.

A graduate of Northwest Nazarene College in Nampa, Idaho, Hill has a master's degree in Russian studies and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Washington in Seattle. He has published books, articles, or reviews on human rights, intellectual history, international development, and matters related to religion in the former Soviet Union.

Hill has been a guest speaker on many college and university campuses and at numerous academic and public policy conferences. He is a noted expert on democracy, international development policy, human rights, and international religious freedom issues. He has also been an active participant in dialogue between Catholics, Evangelical Protestants, Orthodox, and other religious groups.

A native of Nampa, Idaho, Hill and his wife Janice live in Fairfax, Virginia.