The Future of Public Health: Perspectives from Around the World

Dr. Jarbas Barbosa da Silva Jr., a national of Brazil, was elected Director of the PanAmerican Health Organization (PAHO) by the Member States on September 28, 2022, and began his five-year term on February 1, 2023.

From July 2017 until his appointment as Director, he served as PAHO’s Assistant Director, leading the technical departments and PAHO’s Revolving Fund. In this position, Dr. Barbosa da Silva Jr. led the Organization’s efforts to support Member States in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing its impact on priority public health programs, serving as a key spokesperson for PAHO.

Before joining PAHO in 2018, he held several positions in the Brazilian National Health System: Vice Minister for Health Surveillance, Vice Minister for Science and Technology, Deputy Minister, and President of ANVISA, the national health regulatory authority.

Dr. Barbosa da Silva Jr. has received several awards and recognitions and is an honorary member of the Brazilian National Academy of Medicine and an International Member of the American National Academy of Medicine. He has published numerous articles on global health, health systems management, disease surveillance, and digital transformation.

Dr Sania Nishtar joined Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on 18 March 2024. A trained medical doctor, Dr Nishtar has built an outstanding career over 30 years as a national and global leader. She served as Senator in her home country of Pakistan; as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation; and as a Federal Minister with responsibility for re-establishing the country’s Ministry of Health. Dr Nishtar has fulfilled several leadership positions in civil society and international organizations; founded a health reform non-profit NGO think tank in Pakistan; co-authored dozens of academic papers and books; and published in leading newspapers. A graduate of Khyber Medical College and King’s College London, she has received many international awards; in 2020, the BBC named her among 100 inspiring and influential women around the world.

Prior to joining Boston University School of Public Health as its Dean in August 2025, Dr. Hyder was Senior Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and Professor of Global Health at the George Washington University’s (GWU) Milken Institute School of Public Health, where he was a faculty member since 2018. Recognized among the world’s premier scholars in health systems and policy, Dr. Hyder has spent over 25 years working to improve global health in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and pioneering empirical work around system design and constraints, biomedical ethics, and injury prevention in the developing world. At GWU, he led the nation’s first center dedicated to commercial determinants of health affecting people in the United States and globally. His National Institutes of Health-supported research has made significant contributions to our understanding of the epidemiological burden, risk factors, potential interventions, economic impact, and the socio-cultural correlates of non-communicable diseases and injuries around the world.

Dr. Hyder has authored over 400 scientific peer-reviewed papers, 30 book chapters, and numerous world reports on road safety, child injuries, and health systems. He is a past international president of the World Health Summit, is chair of the Lancet Commission on Global Gun Violence and Health, and has received the C. Everett Koop Medal of Distinction from SafeKids Worldwide as well as GWU’s Distinguished Research Career Award. Prior to his work at GWU, Dr. Hyder served for 20 years on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU’s) Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he was Director of the Health Systems Program, Associate Chair in the Department of International Health, and Associate Director for Global Bioethics at the JHU Berman Institute of Bioethics. In addition to his academic work, he has held several prominent advisory and chair positions affiliated with the World Health Organization and the World Bank. Dr. Hyder received his MD from the Aga Khan University in Pakistan and his MPH and PhD in public health from Johns Hopkins University.