Michael H. Merson, MD - Director, Global Health Institute, Duke University

Michael Merson, MD, is the director of Duke University's new Global Health Institute. He is the former Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health and former Dean of Public Health in the Yale School of Medicine, as well as former Director of Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS. A medical epidemiologist, he worked for 17 years with the World Health Organization (WHO), serving initially as Director of the Diarrheal Diseases Control and Acute Respiratory Control Programs and then as Executive Director of the Global Program on AIDS. Before joining WHO, he was engaged in research on the etiology and epidemiology of diarrheal diseases in the United States and abroad. More recently he has written on global AIDS policy issues, which is his current major area of interest. Dr. Merson is a member of the U.S. Institute of Medicine and its Board on Global Health. He has served on numerous review panels and advisory committees for the U.S. National Institutes of Health, UNAIDS, World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates and Kaiser Foundations. 

Robert E. Black, MD, MPH - Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Robert E. Black is the Edgar Berman Professor and Chair of the Department of International Health and Director of the Institute for International Programs of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.  Dr. Black is trained in internal medicine, preventive medicine, infectious diseases and epidemiology.  He has served as a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and worked at institutions in Bangladesh and Peru on research related to childhood infectious diseases and nutritional problems.  As a member of the US Institute of Medicine and advisory bodies of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the International Vaccine Institute, and other international organizations, he assists with the development of policies intended to improve child health. 

Anne J. Mills, MA, DHSA, PhD - University of London - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England

Anne Mills is Professor of Health Economics and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She has over 30 years’ experience in health-economics related research in developing countries, and has published widely in the fields of health economics and health systems including books on the role of government in health in developing countries, decentralization, the public private mix, and the economics of malaria.  She founded, and is Head of, the Health Economics and Financing Programme, which has become one of the leading groups in the world developing and applying health economics’ theories and techniques to increase knowledge on how best to improve the equity and efficiency of developing country health systems.   She has frequently acted as advisor to multilateral and bilateral agencies, including WHO.