3-D Conversation: Rana Hajjeh

Dr. Hajjeh is a senior public health leader with 25 years’ experience in global health, health policy and diplomacy, and health management, especially in the Middle East Region. Dr. Hajjeh is currently holding the position of the Director of Programme Management (DPM) at the World Health Organization Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (WHO/EMRO) since April 2019 (i.e. deputy regional director for technical issues). In her capacity as DPM, she directs and leads all the technical public health programs at the regional level, including universal health coverage and systems, communicable and noncommunicable diseases, information and science, as well as health promotion, working closely with the Emergency department, Headquarters in Geneva, and all 22 countries and offices.

Prior to that position, she held the position of the Director of the Department of Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control. In this capacity, she played a major role in supporting emergency response in the Region, and in accelerating the agenda for prevention and control of vaccine preventable diseases, HIV, hepatitis, malaria, tuberculosis, neglected tropical diseases, and antimicrobial resistance. Prior to joining WHO/EMRO in 2016, Dr. Hajjeh worked with the United States Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) for 23 years, where she held many senior positions with increasingly complex management responsibilities, and worked extensively in the Middle East. Between 2005-2010, Dr. Hajjeh was the Director of the GAVI Hib vaccine Initiative, that introduced lifesaving vaccines for Hib meningitis and pneumonia to millions of children in limited resource countries around the world. Between 1996 and 2016, Dr. Hajjeh led many responses to major epidemics across the world, including meningitis during Hajj in Saudi Arabia in 2000, cholera in Haiti in 2010, and recently MERS coronavirus in Saudi Arabia and Ebola in West Africa. She has considerable experience in health policies and systems, and supported development of various global policies for prevention of infectious diseases, such as for new vaccines and strategies for building laboratory and surveillance systems. Throughout her career, she managed increasingly complex departments and initiatives with large budgets. She is a well-known speaker and advocate for strong public health capacity in the region, and for the right to health of every person. She has broad health diplomacy skills working with ministries of health and governments in the Middle East and globally, and many global and regional partners and donors. She is fully fluent in Arabic (mother language), French, and English.

Dr. Hajjeh holds a Medical Doctor degree from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and has benefited from extensive training in medicine (American board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases) and public health (epidemiology training at the CDC-EIS). She has received many awards, including the prestigious United States Federal Employee of the Year Award in 2014 for her global vaccine work. Dr. Hajjeh has published over 150 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, serves as a reviewer for multiple journals, and holds professor positions in medicine and public health at Emory and Johns Hopkins universities.

Sandro Galea, a physician, epidemiologist, and author, is dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He previously held academic and leadership positions at Columbia University, the University of Michigan, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He has published extensively in the peer-reviewed literature, and is a regular contributor to a range of public media, about the social causes of health, mental health, and the consequences of trauma. He has been listed as one of the most widely cited scholars in the social sciences. He is past chair of the board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health and past president of the Society for Epidemiologic Research and of the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. Galea has received several lifetime achievement awards. Galea holds a medical degree from the University of Toronto, graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow.