Who we are

The Global Pandemic Policy Group (the “Group”) is a think tank and action group that generates evidence, develops policy proposals and solutions, and advocates for an equitable and enforceable international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response. The work of the group builds upon the 10 recommendations published in the Lancet Public Health Study: “A Global Public Health Convention for the 21st Century”, which was conducted by the University of Miami and the AHF Global Public Health Institute.

The Group periodically meets to discuss policy development and set advocacy agendas to formalize policy recommendations. For the year of 2022 the group has prioritized its area of focus to three major subjects in global health: accountability and compliance with international health law, global financing mechanisms for preparedness and response with a focus on the expansion of the Global Fund’s mandate, and equity.

The Mission

The mission of the Group is to generate evidence, develop policy proposals and solutions, and advocate for an equitable and enforceable international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.

Pandemic Policy Group Members

Daniel Bausch, M.D., M.P.H. &T.M., FASTMH

Geneva, Switzerland
  • Director, Emerging Threats and Global Health Security, FIND
  • President Elect, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
  • Professor, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
  • UK Representative, WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response  Network Steering Committee
  • Co-Founder, Doctors for Global Health
Daniel Bausch, MD, MPH&TM, serves as Director of Emerging Threats & Global Health Security, leading FIND`s efforts on pandemic preparedness and response. He is trained in internal medicine, infectious diseases, tropical medicine, and public health. Daniel specializes in the research and control of emerging tropical viruses, with over 25 years’ experience in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Asia combating viruses such as Ebola, Lassa, hantavirus, and SARS coronaviruses. He joins FIND after serving as Director of the United Kingdom`s Public Health Rapid Support team (2017-21), a joint effort by Public Health England and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to respond and conduct research to prevent and control outbreaks of dangerous infectious diseases around the world. Previously, he held posts at the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland; U.S. Naval Medical Research Unit No. 6 in Lima, Peru; Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, USA; and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, USA. Daniel places a strong emphasis on capacity development in all his projects and has a keen interest in the role of the scientist in promoting health and human rights. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Stefano Bertozzi, M.D., Ph.D.

Berkeley, United States
  • Dean Emeritus & Professor of Health Policy and Management, UC Berkeley School of Public Health
  • Interim Director, UC systemwide programs with Mexico
  • Co-Director, Berkeley Public Health China Program
  • Affiliate Professor, Global Health, University of Washington
  • Visiting Professor, Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica
  • Member, National Academy of Medicine
Stefano M. Bertozzi is dean emeritus and professor of health policy and management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. He is the interim director of the UC systemwide programs with Mexico and the Director for Evaluation Research and Survey at the Mexican National Institue of Public Health. He was co-chair of the Health Working Group for the UC – Mexico Initiative and coeditor of the Disease Control Priorities (DCP3) volume on HIV/AIDS, Malaria & Tuberculosis. He has also directed the HIV and tuberculosis programs at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He worked previously with the Mexican National Institute of Public Health as the director of its Center for Evaluation Research and Surveys. He was the last director of its Center for Evaluation Research and Surveys. He was the last director of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS and has also held positions with UNAIDS, the World Bank and government of Zaire (DR). 

Akua Dansua, M.A.

Accra, Ghana
  • Chairperson and Global Board Member UNITE
  • Global Parliamentarian, Network to End Infectious Diseases
  • Member, Council on Foreign Affairs, Ghana
  • Chairperson, Advocates for Gender and Development Initiatives-Ghana
  • Former Ghanaian Ambassador, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Youth and Sports and Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs
Akua Sena Dansua is a highly motivated former Ghanaian Diplomat, Politician, Strategic Management, Governance and Leadership Practitioner and Journalist with over 34 years of extensive knowledge and experience sectors. She is the immediate past Ambassador and first female Ambassador of Ghana to Germany with concurrent accreditation to the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and to Poland. Additionally. Ambassador Dansua held Ministerial Portfolios for Women and Children Affairs, Youth and Sports (the first female to date to date to hold that portfolio in Ghana’s history) and Tourism sectors in Ghana. Akua was a three-term Member of Parliament who served in Parliamentary Leadership and on many local and international Committees including the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA) and the Coalition of African Parliamentarians Against HIV/AIDS (CAPAH) and the African Parliamentarians Network Against Corruption (APNAC). She is Founder of Advocates for Gender and Development Initiatives (AGDI), an NGO in Kpando. She is a beneficiary of several Fellowships and scholarships including the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold Fellowship, 1991, awarded by the United Nations Correspondents Association for being the most promising Journalist from Africa that year.

Sandro Galea, M.D., Dr.PH., M.P.H.

Boston, United States
  • Dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, School of Public Health, Boston University 
  • Professor of Family Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine 
  • Chair, Board of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health 
  • Chair, The Rockefeller Foundation-Boston University Commission on Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-making 
  • Member, National Academy of Medicine 

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 particular interest in assessing the consequences conflicts like Hurricane Katrina, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the September 11 attacks. He has been listed as one of the most widely cited scholars in the social sciences. He is 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. He was named one of TIME magazine’s epidemiology innovators and has consistently been listed by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate as one of the “World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds”.

Aida Kurtović

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Regional HIV Coordination Specialist RTS EECA UNAIDS
  • Member of World Health Organization Strategic and Technical Advisory Committee on HIV, viral hepatitis and STIs (STAC-HHS)
  • Visiting Scientist and Harvard LEAD Fellow, Harvard Global Health Institute and Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard t.H. Chan school of public health
  • Board member, TB Europe Coalition
  • Executive director, South eastern europe regional TB and HIV community network
  • Eastern Europe and Central Asia Constituency

Health leader with over two decades of experience in global health, partnership building, and health program management, with an active engagement with stakeholders at the highest levels. Mission-oriented, effective team player with strong strategic and relationship-building skills, and a proven track record of working on complex and politically sensitive issues with CSOs, governments, academia, the private sector, and communities. Knowledgeable about the global health horizon and multilateral and bilateral institutions, including the Global Fund, EU, and UN architecture, CSOs, and public and private sector, with significant experience at the senior levels in Geneva in the leadership of the global partnership, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria as epidemics.
Fellow / visiting scientist at the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Maksut Kulzhanov, M.D., Ph.D.

Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan
  • Director General at the National Centre of Health Development in Kazakhstan
  • Professor and Founder, Kazakhstan School of Public Health
  • Chair, Republican Medical Chamber
  • Committee Member, WHO European Advisory Committee on Health Research
  • Former Deputy Minister of Health of Kazakhstan
  • Former Director-General, Republican Center for Health Development

Maksut Kulzhanov is the founder of Kazakhstan School of Public Health, the first in the Central Asian Region, and also the whole territory of New Independent States. He was strong leader of this organization during almost 15 years and brought it to the international arena. He is a professor of the Kazakhstan School of Public Health. In 2011-2013 he was Director General of the Republican Center for Health Development in Astana, Kazakhstan, which performed methodological and analytical support for health reform carried out by the Ministry of Health. As Deputy Minister of Health (1992-1997), he was one of the ideologists and founders of the health insurance system in Kazakhstan. Dr. Kulzhanov was scientific adviser of about 100 doctoral and candidate dissertations. He is an author of more than 200 scientific publications in Russian and English. He has much experience as a lecturer, scientific researcher and perfect administrator, health diplomat. The most recent directions of his research and professional activity were health policy, global health, palliative care development, healthy ageing, mental health and many others. Dr. Kulzhanov continues to be a member of different international boards (WHO, UNAIDS, COHRED, Global Fund, ASPHER) and presents interests of national health on the international level. He is a Chair of the Republican Medical Chamber in Kazakhstan.   

Carlos del Rio, M.D.

Atlanta, United States
  • Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Global Health and Epidemiology, Emory University School of Medicine and Rollins School of Public Health 
  • Executive Associate Dean of Emory School of Medicine at Grady Health System
  • PI and Co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) 
  • Member and Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine 
  • Former Executive Director of CENSIDA, Mexico’s National Center for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS

Carlos del Rio is Emory University’s Hubert Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health, Professor of Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine. He is also co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and Director of the Emory AIDS International Training and Research Program. Dr. del Rio is a native of Mexico where he was Executive Director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico (1992-1996). He conducts HIV research and training in Kenya, Ethiopia, Thailand and the Georgia. Dr. del Rio also works on emerging infections, epidemic and pandemics including the response to the 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1) as member of the WHO and CDC advisory teams and now on the COVID19 response as advisor to the NCAA. He has served on the editorial board or teams for NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases and Journal of AIDS and Global Public Health.

Jorge Saavedra, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc.

Cuernavaca, Mexico
  • Executive Director, AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami 
  • Voluntary Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami
  • Interim Chair, Board of Trustees, International Association of Providers and AIDS Care (IAPAC)
  • Panelist, Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola
  • Former Executive Director of CENSIDA, Mexico’s National Center for the Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS

Jorge Saavedra is the Executive Director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami, Interim Chair of the Board of Trustees of IAPAC and Member of the UNAIDS Global Targets Setting Steering Committee. He was a Panelist of The Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel to Evaluate the Global Response to Ebola and served on the Strategy Committee of the Global Fund AIDS, TB and Malaria. He was previously a member of the Executive Committee of Gay Latino Network and of the MPACT Steering Committee. Dr Saavedra pursued his medical education at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and graduated education in Public Health and Health Policy and Management at Harvard University. In Mexico, he was Director General of the National AIDS Program (CENSIDA 2003-2009), Deputy Director General of Planning and Innovation at the Ministry of Health (2001-2003) and the Founding Director of Mexico City Clinica Condesa, the largest HIV Clinic in Latin America. His publications relate to AIDS economics and policies and the global response to Ebola. He resides in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Gisela Scaglia

Gálvez, Argentina
  • Member of Committees on Education Portfolio, Welfare State, and Family, Women and Children, House of Representatives of Argentina
  • Vice President of PRO, Santa Fe Province
  • Regional Chair of Latin America & the Caribbean, UNITE Global Parliamentarians Network to End Infectious Diseases
  • Co-Chair of Latin America, Global TB Caucus
  • Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos

Gisela Scaglia is an elected Member of the Parliament of Argentina. Responsible for the Social Department of the Buenos Aires City Government from 2008 to 2011, Scaglia was elected in 2013 for the Parliament. She is one of the most well-known politicians in the country. The congresswoman’s work focuses primarily on social welfare and policy making related to children’s rights, as well as on issues such as hunger relief and poverty alleviation, and obesity and undernutrition related issues. Her current role also allows her to focus on transparency in public political action, political leadership and political responsibility, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS policy-making; legislation on rights of persons with disabilities; empowerment through education, environmental and animal welfare policy-making, and policies that promote local development. She serves as Co-President for Latin America at the Global TB Caucus and as Regional Chair for UNITE, a Global Parliamentarians Network to end HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and other infectious diseases

José Szapocznik, Ph.D.

Miami, United States
  • Professor of Public Health Sciences, Architecture, Psychology, and Educational & Psychological Studies 
  • Chair Emeritus, Department of Public Health Science, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami
  • Founding and Honorary Director, Miami Clinical & Translational Science Institute
  • Director, Florida Node Alliance, National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network
  • Director, Brief Strategic Family Therapy Institute and Center for Family Studies

José Szapocznik is an accomplished scientist with 300 scholarly publications and over $125 million in funding received from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Szapocznik has been in academic leadership roles at the University of Miami since 1977 when he founded the Center for Family Studies. He was also founding director of Miami Clinical Translational Science Institute and the Brief Strategic Family Therapy as well as Chair Emeritus of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami. Szapocznik’s research has delved into the role of context in development, behavior and health outcomes, having dedicated his career to studying how culture, family, neighborhood and built environments influence minority populations. He has been a leader in translating effective drug abuse treatments into clinical practice through the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network. Szapocznik has served as a policy advisor for the NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities. He was the first behavioral scientist appointed to the NIH-wide AIDS Program Advisory Committee.  

Michael Weinstein

Los Angeles, United States
  • Founder and President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation
  • The largest HIV Treatment &Advocacy Organization in the World with over 1 Million Patients in Treatment in 40 Countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the USA, Latin America & The Caribbean.

Michael Weinstein is the President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization. Before becoming involved in HIV/AIDS related issues in the 1980s, he was a businessman and graphic designer. Since 1986, Mr. Weinstein has been a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS. As president and co-founder of AHF, he oversees a multi–billion-dollar organization whose mission is to provide “cutting-edge medicine and advocacy regardless of ability to pay.” AHF currently serves over 1,000,000 clients in the United States, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific region and Eastern Europe. Under Weinstein’s leadership, AHF has grown from a group of friends dedicated to the creation of dignified care for people in the last stages of AIDS to the largest AIDS organization in the United States. The Foundation now operates in over 500 treatment clinics in more than 40 countries globally: over 60 outpatient AHF Healthcare Centers in over 15 states and the District of Columbia. AHF also operates in more than 46 pharmacies in over 10 states and a clinical research unit. Under its Positive Healthcare brand, AHF operates managed care programs for people living with HIV and/or AIDS in California and Florida, which currently serve more than 4,890 clients.

José Zuniga, Ph.D., MPH

Washington, D.C., United States
  • President and Trustee, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC)
  • President/CEO, Fast Track Cities
  • Member, UNAIDS Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee
  • Technical Consultant, Collaborative Institute of Virology

José M. Zuniga is the President of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) and the President/CEO of Fast Track Cities, a global partnership between cities and municipalities around the world. He was appointed President of IAPAC in 1999 after serving as IAPAC’s Vice President for Programs. Dr. Zuniga has a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in Health Policy, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Human Development and Social Policy. In addition to his published journals and books, he lectures at several academic institutions and is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (JIAPAC), and serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of the International Journal of HIV/AIDS Prevention, Education, and Behavioral Science. Dr. Zuniga is an IAPAC Trustee, a technical consultant for the Collaborative Institute of Virology, and a member of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. Additionally, he routinely advises the United Nations, WHO and PEPFAR.

Former Members

Steven J. Hoffman, J.D., Ph.D., M.A

Toronto, Canada
  • Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science and Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology, York University
  • Director, Global Strategy Lab
  • Director, WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance, York University
  • Scientific Director, Institute of Population & Public Health, Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Dr. Steven J. Hoffman is the Dahdaleh Distinguished Chair in Global Governance & Legal Epidemiology and a Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science at York University, the Director of the Global Strategy Lab, the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Global Governance of Antimicrobial Resistance, and the Vice-President of Data & Surveillance with the Public Health Agency of Canada. He holds a courtesy appointment as a Professor of Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact (Part-Time) at McMaster University. He is an international lawyer licensed in both Ontario and New York who specializes in global health law, global governance and institutional design. His research leverages various methodological approaches to craft global strategies that better address transnational health threats and social inequalities. Past studies have focused on access to medicines, antimicrobial resistance, health misinformation, pandemics and tobacco control.

Steven previously worked as a Project Manager for the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and as a Fellow in the Executive Office of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York City, where he offered strategic and technical input on a range of global health issues. He also previously worked for a Toronto law firm specializing in cross-border intellectual property litigation, health product regulation, and government relations. Steven advised the World Health Organization on development of a global strategy for health systems research and was lead author on the background paper that provided the strategy’s conceptual underpinnings. For three years he convened an academic advisory committee on science reporting for Canada’s only national weekly current affairs magazine. He was previously an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Ottawa (2014-2017), Adjunct Professor of Global Health & Population at Harvard University (2015-2020) and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford (2018-2019).
Steven holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences from McMaster University, an MA in Political Science and a Juris Doctor from the University of Toronto, a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard University, and a doctorate in law from Sciences Po Paris.

Group Staff

Guilherme Ferrari Faviero, Esq., MS, MPH

Miami, Florida
  • Director, AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami
  • Project Manager, Global Pandemic Policy Group 
  • Lead Policy Analyst, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine

Guilherme is a licensed attorney in California and serves as the Director of the AHF Global Public Health Institute at the University of Miami.

He earned his Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of Miami School of Law and his Master of Public Health from the Miller School of Medicine. Additionally, he holds a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences, magna cum laude, and a Master of Biomedical Sciences from Florida Atlantic University.

Prior to his legal career, Guilherme spent a year studying medicine and worked as a research scientist, specializing in immunology and cell biology. In his current position, he applies policy analysis and legal research to advocacy efforts and oversees collaborative projects between AHF and the University of Miami Public Health Policy Lab. 
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