Professor Illona Kickbusch

Adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

Professor Kickbusch established the Global Health Centre at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva. In her current role, she advises countries on their global health strategies and trains health specialists and diplomats in global health diplomacy. She initiated the @wgh300 list of women leaders in global health.

She is a member of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board and the WHO High-Level Independent Commission on NCDS, is co-chair of UHC 2030, and Council Chair to the World Health Summit in Berlin. While at the World Health Organization, she was a key instigator of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and WHO’s Healthy Cities Network. She was the director of the Global Health Division at Yale University School of Public Health and responsible for the first major Fulbright Programme on global health. She has recently been awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz) in recognition of her “invaluable contributions to innovation in governance for global health and global health diplomacy”.