The webinar focused on Dr. Liu’s experience in coordinating humanitarian aid and protecting health in crisis situations. The topic is as relevant as ever: the world faces concurrent pandemics, environmental disasters and humanitarian crisis, and there is a pressing need to ensure global access to health for the most vulnerable.
The conversation spanned a number of topics across global health and humanitarianism. These included balancing frontline work with higher-level policy work; challenges in international advocacy to support health protection; increasing female leadership in humanitarian settings; addressing the vulnerabilities of women in health crises and conflicts; making a humanitarian impact in a culturally sensitive and participatory manner; advice to aspiring Global Health workers. The event was concluded by an engaging Questions & Answer session with the audience.
We thank Dr. Liu for her time and her valuable insights, and we look forward to hosting future sessions of the ‘Women in Global Health’ webinar series.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Joanne Liu served as International President of Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders from 2013 to 2019. She has been a leading voice on medical humanitarian crises, namely in Ebola outbreak of West Africa, attacks on hospitals and forced displacement crisis and has engaged with world leaders at the highest levels. Her operational work has ranged from introducing comprehensive care for survivors of sexual violence, to developing a telemedicine platform for connecting doctors in rural areas with specialists worldwide. Dr. Liu remains a practicing doctor, both in the field with MSF and also through hospital shifts in her home town of Montreal. She is currently a Professor at the School of Population and Global Health at McGill University with a focus on pandemic preparedness and response and health emergencies.
About the Moderator:
Natasha Howard is an interdisciplinary health policy and systems researcher, focused primarily on low and middle-income countries. She draws primarily from sociology, social psychology, and global health/development to engage in policy-relevant research in infectious disease control in Asia and strengthening health system responses during protracted adversity (e.g., fragility, complex emergencies, displacement). Her teaching has included developing and managing a postgraduate course and modules, editing and writing textbooks, supervising doctoral and masters-level student research, and mentoring students and professionals.