The Pandemic Fund

Dr. Kenichi KOMADA, specialist of acute medicine and epidemiology, has about 20 years’ experiences providing technical, programmatic and management support in infectious diseases to several countries in the Western Pacific and African Regions and elsewhere. 

Positions held include Chief advisor, JICA HIV/AIDS project in Zambia, Deputy Director of the International Affairs Division of Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan, clinical emergency doctor in St. Luke’s International hospital in Japan. 

Justice Nonvignon is a Health Economist and public health researcher with extensive experience in teaching and mentoring students. His main areas of research experience include health financing, economic and impact evaluation of population, health and nutrition programmes and health financing. His research work spans multiple countries in Africa. 

Dr Daniela Garone is a Medical doctor from Argentina, specialized in infectious diseases, internal medicine and clinical and pharmacological research. Daniela has more than 25 years working in the clinical field and 16 years of experience managing medical programs in resource limited settings working with international Organization in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, India, Venezuela, Brazil, Malawi, South Sudan and South Africa. She has more than 20 years of experience working in clinical, pharmacological and operational research as study coordinator as well as principal investigator.

Christian Drosten studied medicine at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt. He received his doctoral degree in 2003 with a thesis on establishment of high throughput blood donor screening for HBV and HIV-1 in transfusion medicine. From June 2000, Drosten worked at Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg. His laboratory group “Molecular Diagnostics” focused on virus discovery and molecular diagnostics in tropical viral diseases. From 2007, Drosten founded and headed the Institute of Virology at University of Bonn Medical Center.

Dr Chikwe Andreas IHEKWEAZU, MBBS, DCH&TM, MPH, EPIET, FFPH

Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu is Assistant Director-General at the Health Emergencies Programme of the World Health Organization.

Dr Joy St John’s 30 year career in Public Health has allowed her to give service at the national, regional and global levels.

She rose through the ranks of Public Health in Barbados to become the first Barbadian to be Chief Medical Officer of her country, from 2005 to 2017.

She has served as the Director and most recently in June 2024, completed 5 years as the first female Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency.

The Pandemic Fund’s Governing Board has approved grants under its first round of funding allocations, aimed to boost the resilience to future pandemics in 37 countries across six regions. The selected 19 projects will receive funding to strengthen disease surveillance and early warning, laboratory systems, and health workforce.
 

Anita leads all external communications efforts (including web and social media), with an objective to position the Pandemic Fund, increase its visibility, and disseminate results. This includes content creation, media and social media engagement, branding, and reputational risk management.

Alejandra works closely with the Pandemic Fund Governing Board Members and Technical Advisory Panel Experts, by providing day-to-day operational support. In addition, she oversees the Secretariat’s budget and office management.

Selomé brings extensive experience in administration and office management from her previous roles at the Front Office of the Global Partnership for Education of the World Bank, the United Nations, and the African Union Commission.

Selomé is a native of Ethiopia, has excellent command of both English and French, and holds an associate degree from Addis Ababa University School of Commerce and Certificates from Uhuru Institute of Management Training in Cape Town and Richland College in Texas.