Speakers
Meet our Plenary Speakers
Dr. Kenneth R Pelletier
Biography
Kenneth R. Pelletier, PhD, MD – is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Family and Community Medicine, and Psychiatry in the Departments of Medicine and in Psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine, San Francisco (UCSF) where he is Director of the Corporate Health Improvement Program (CHIP). Dr. Pelletier is also Chairman of the American Health Association, is a Vice President with American Specialty Health (ASH), and served on the Board of Directors of the Rancho la Puerta Resort/Spa. Prior to these positions, Dr. Pelletier served as Clinical Professor, of Medicine, Family Medicine, and as Professor of Public Health at the University of Arizona School of Medicine. Also he served as Clinical Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine; was Director of the Stanford Corporate Health Program (SCHP); and was Director of the NIH funded Complementary and Alternative Medicine Program at Stanford (CAMPS). From 1974 until joining the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1990, Dr. Pelletier held a dual appointment as an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry, University of California School of Medicine in San Francisco (UCSF).
Prof. Monir Islam
Biography
Professor Quazi Monirul Islam is a globally recognized public health specialist and maternal and newborn health experts with extensive experiences in Universal Health Coverage including Health System, PHC programmes, Maternal and Child Health, Sexual and Reproductive Health including family planning, communicable, non-communicable diseases, and health promotion. He qualified from Dhaka University, Bangladesh and received MPH from Amsterdam University and the Royal Tropical Institute in the Netherlands. He was awarded FRCOG by the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, UK, Fellowship by Canadian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologist and Indian College of Maternal and Child Health. He worked in a rural health complex in Bangladesh before going to Botswana in 1981. In 1991 he left Botswana and joined Ministry of Foreign Affair, the Netherland as Senior Public Health Specialist assessing, advising, monitoring and evaluating Dutch development assistance in health sectors. In 1992, he was invited to join the Global Programme on AIDS in the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland and was responsible for Sexually Transmitted Diseases programme and thereafter joined the Reproductive Health Programme as Chief of Population and Family Planning Unit, responsible for developing family planning norms and guidelines. Subsequently he was appointed as Team Coordinator, Norms and Tools in the Reproductive Health and Research Department. In 2002, he was appointed as Director, Family and Community Health Department which included Reproductive Health and Research, Maternal, newborn, Child and Adolescent Health, Nutrition, Nursing and Midwifery, Human Resources and Essential Drugs, immunization programmes in the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, New Delhi, India. Prof Islam was appointed as Director, Making Pregnancy Safer with global responsibility for maternal and newborn health in WHO7HQ, Geneva in January 2005. In 2010 he was reassigned and appointed as the Director Health System and Development in WHO Southeast Asia Regional Office and in 2012 was assigned as the WHO Representative to Thailand. In 2013 he was reassigned as Director, Health System and Development in WHO, Southeast Asia Regional Office in New Delhi, India before coming to Namibia in February 2014 as WHO Representative to Namibia. He retired from WHO after 25 years of services in January 2017. He joined Liverpool School of Tropical medicine in February 2017. He resigned from the school in June 2020 and joined International Centre for Migration, Health and Development in Geneva, Switzerland as Senior Specialist Maternal and Newborn Health as well as the Head of Resource Mobilization, Southeast Asia Regional Coordination Mechanism Forum based in New Delhi, India. Prof Islam visited and provided policy and technical assistances to 122 countries in all six continents. Now lives in Geneva, Switzerland.
