July 22, 2019

Please join CUGH for a special webinar to discuss the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

This outbreak is the largest to occur in DRC and is now the second largest Ebola outbreak in the history of the disease. Only the 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa was larger. The outbreak is occurring in a highly insecure environment, which complicates public health response activities and increases the risk of disease spread.

This webinar will outline Ebola Virus Disease, the current situation on the ground, and US government and international response efforts – including key public health approaches to disease control.

Speaker:

Dr. Pratima Raghunathan, Ph.D, MPH has led outbreak response, science and public health programs in Africa and Asia throughout her global health career. As Senior Advisor to the Director of CDC’s Center for Global Health, she has been supporting the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since August 2018, including three tours as the CDC Ebola Response Lead and the Disaster Assistance Response Team Deputy for Public Health. She will soon serve as CDC’s interim Country Director in the DRC. During the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak, she served three months as CDC Ebola Response Team Lead in Guinea.

Before joining CDC, Dr. Raghunathan co-founded and served as Executive Director of a nonprofit organization, Sustainable Sciences Institute. She holds a BS in biochemistry from Yale, a PhD in biochemistry from UC San Francisco, and a Masters in Public Health in epidemiology from UC Berkeley.

Moderator:

Dr. Keith Martin, MD, PC, is a physician who, since Sept. 2012, has served as the founding Executive Director of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) based in Washington, DC. The Consortium is a rapidly growing organization of over 130 academic institutions from around the world. It harnesses the capabilities of these institutions across research, education, advocacy and service to address global challenges. It is particularly focused on improving health outcomes for the global poor and strengthening academic global health programs.

Between 1993-2011, Dr. Martin served as a Member of Parliament in Canada’s House of Commons representing a riding on Vancouver Island. During that time he held shadow ministerial portfolios in foreign affairs, international development, and health. He also served as Canada’s Parliamentary Secretary for Defense. In 2004, he was appointed to the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. His main areas of focus are in global health, foreign policy, security, international development, conservation and the environment. He is particularly interested in strengthening human resources capabilities and scaling up initiatives in low-income settings that improve environmental sustainability and human security.