Plenary Speakers
Issah Ali
Issah Ali is a board member of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA), Framework Convention Alliance on Tobacco Control (FCA), Executive Director of Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) and the Head of Secretariat of the West African Alcohol Policy Alliance (WAAPA). Mr. Ali served on the board and the last two years chaired the African Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA) 2008 - 2012. His work includes authoring several reports including: Ghana's Civil Society Shadow Report on the implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and Tobacco Industry Mapping and Monitoring (TIMM) Report; and technical policy paper including on the tobacco industry interference's in Ghana (2016) and on tackling alcohol related-harms in West-Africa (2019). He was awarded a Certificate of Service from UNESCO, Department of Community Development and Accra Metropolitan Assembly in 2000 for literacy drive in Greater Accra communities and a Certificate of Recognition from Stop TB Programme and Accra Metropolitan Health Directorate in 2007. Under his leadership VALD received the 2013 WHO Award for Tobacco control in Ghana. Mr. Ali is currently, among other tasks, providing assistance to the National Alcohol Policy Alliances (NAPAs) in West Africa on the development and implementation of National Alcohol Policies (NAP).
Gianna Gayle (Herrera) Amul
PhD Student (Global Health track) at the University of Geneva's Institute of Global Health
Gayle is a Filipino PhD student (Global Health track) at the University of Geneva's Institute of Global Health. Her PhD project is focused on examining alcohol and tobacco industry interference in policymaking in Southeast Asia, particularly in Singapore and the Philippines. She holds an MSc in Asian Studies from Nanyang Technological University (2012) and a BA in Political Science from the University of the Philippines, Diliman (2007). She is currently a Research Associate under the Dean's Office at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. She is one of the Research Fellows of the IDRC-funded Advancing Tobacco Taxation in Southeast Asia Project hosted by the Ateneo Policy Center (Philippines). She was previously Research Associate in Global Health Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. She was also Senior Analyst at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU) from 2012-2015. Prior to that, she was Research Officer at the Department of National Defense in the Philippines.
Nicholas Carah
Associate Professor in Media and Communication and Deputy Head of School in the School of Communication and Arts at The University of Queensland.
Nicholas Carah is an Associate Professor in Media and Communication and Deputy Head of School in the School of Communication and Arts at The University of Queensland. His research examines the algorithmic and participatory advertising model of digital media platforms, with a focus on digital alcohol marketing. He is the author of Brand Machines, Sensory Media and Calculative Culture (2016), Media and Society: production, content and participation (2015), Pop Brands: branding, popular music and young people (2010). He is the co-editor of Digital Intimate Publics and Social Media (2018). He has also been involved in research projects on alcohol-related harms and nightlife culture and the use of digital media in fostering cultural change in drinking culture. He is the director of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education.
Sally Casswell
Sally Casswell holds a personal chair in social and health research and is Director of SHORE (a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre) and Co-director of the SHORE and Whariki Research Centre, Massey University, New Zealand. Her research interests include the development and implementation of healthy public policy at the global level and she co-ordinates international collaborative research on alcohol policy (www.IACstudy.org). She is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Expert Advisory Panel on Alcohol and Drug Dependence and was a founding member and is Chair of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance.
Frank J. Chaloupka
Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Director of the UIC Health Policy Center
Frank J. Chaloupka is a Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Director of the UIC Health Policy Center. He holds appointments in the School of Public Health’s Division of Health Policy and Administration, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ Department of Economics. Hundreds of professional publications and presentations have resulted from Dr. Chaloupka's research on the effects of prices, policies, and other environmental factors on tobacco use, alcohol use and abuse, illicit drug use, diet, physical activity, obesity, and related outcomes. Much of this research has focused on youth and young adults. At GAPC 2020 Frank Chaloupka is speaking on "Economic costs of alcohol and critical analysis of industry arguments.
Beatriz Champagne
Beatriz Champagne As a member of the Inter American Heart Foundation, Beatriz is dedicated to the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases or NCDs, heart diseases and stroke in the Americas. She helped found her organization and was Executive Director from 1995 to 2017. She continues her active engagement with a focus on advocacy. In 2018, she was designated World Heart Federation Advocacy Committee Chair, with a global sphere of action.
Beatriz’s contributions include advocacy to promote and defend policies supporting good nutrition, physical activity, control of tobacco and alcohol. She organized and has led the Healthy Latin America Coalition (CLAS) that has more than 300 member organizations in the region and has been instrumental in presenting a coherent response from civil society to issues arising nationally and internationally. She advocates for salt reduction in the region as part of the “Scaling up Salt Reduction Consortium.”
Her organization received the 2009 Luther L. Terry Awards for Exemplary Leadership in Tobacco Control. The CLAS coalition received the 2017 Sharjah Award for Excellence in NCD Civil Society Action for its initiative “Rapid Regional Response to Strengthen and Defend National NCD Policies”. More recently she received the 2018 WHO World No Tobacco Day Award.
She holds a Master of Science and Ph.D. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and a Bachelor of Science summa cum laude from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She was born and spend her formative years in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Suzanne Costello
CEO of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland
Suzanne Costello is the CEO of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland since December 2018.
Previously, Suzanne worked for Alcohol Action Ireland, where she served as the organisation’s CEO from 2013. From 2015, Suzanne also acted as the Interim Policy Lead for the Health Service Executive (HSE) Alcohol Programme. In both roles, Suzanne was involved in the campaign to support the passage of the Public Health Alcohol Act which became law in Ireland 2018.
Prior to joining Alcohol Action Ireland, Suzanne was Samaritans Executive Director for Ireland for six years.
Suzanne has a primary degree in Social Science from University College Dublin, and an MBS from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, UCD.
Cynthia Dapaah-Ntow
Cynthia Dapaah-Ntow is a Senior Legal Advisor with the Food and Drugs Authority, Ghana.
With a wide range of expertise in Food, Drugs, Herbal Medicinal Products, Cosmetics and Medical Devices Regulation, she has since joining the FDA in 2014 supported regulatory work with the development of guidelines and regulations in the health sector. She established the Legal Department of the FDA, and is currently working to ensure that judges, investigators, police officers and relevant stakeholders are trained on the FDA law to enhance enforcement.
Cynthia is currently spearheading the development of the Alcohol Control Bill to strengthen the regulation of the production, advertisement and sale of Alcohol in accordance with meeting the SDGs.
Before joining the FDA, Cynthia practiced law with the law firm E. A. Mingle & Co.
Alison Douglas
Alison Douglas joined Alcohol Focus Scotland (AFS) as Chief Executive in December 2015. AFS’s mission is to prevent and reduce alcohol harm, including cancer, by advocating for effective policy interventions at population level. Alison’s commitment to tackling alcohol harm stems from her time as Head of Alcohol Policy and Delivery at Scottish Government from 2007 to 2012. In this capacity she was responsible for developing and implementing Scotland’s national alcohol strategy, "Changing Scotland's Relationship with Alcohol", including the proposal to establish a minimum unit price for alcohol.
Scotland became the first country to introduce minimum pricing until in May 2018. Alison will be introducing a video from the Scottish Children's Parliament which recently ran an investigation into how alcohol affects children aged 9-11 years old and what they want done about it.
Boi-Jeneh Jalloh
Boi-Jeneh is the Executive Director of Foundation for Rural and Urban Transformation (FoRUT). She is the Head of Secretariat for the Sierra Leone Alcohol Policy Alliance (SLAPA) and Treasurer of the West African Alcohol Policy Alliance (WAAPA). She is a member of the Alcohol Control Technical Working Group in the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in Sierra Leone. She is the National Chairperson of the Child Rights Coalition of Sierra Leone and Head of Secretariat for People Power Movement–Sierra Leone.
Boi-Jeneh’s work includes providing direction to SLAPA’s advocacy and high-level lobby actions for alcohol control in Sierra Leone, including the integration of alcohol control into the National Policy for Non-communicable Diseases and a new legislation, and mainstreaming alcohol in education, child rights and women’s rights. She spearheaded the production of a policy brief that draws her government’s attention to the threat that alcohol and drug use poses for child development and completion of school in a country where there are little restrictions on alcohol use, even among children. Before joining FoRUT, Boi-Jeneh worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Sierra Leone as Programme Development Specialist and as Director of the Human Rights and Social Services Department of the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone.
Ruth Lopert
Non-resident fellow, Center for Global Development
Ruth Lopert is a public health physician and consultant in global health, pharmaceutical regulation and policy, and health technology assessment. She is non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC, a chercheur associé principal at the University of Strasbourg, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management at George Washington University, where she held a Visiting Professorship in 2011-12 and a Harkness Fellowship in 2006-07. From 2008-11 Ruth was the chief medical officer in the Australian drug and therapeutics regulatory agency, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, and prior to that established and directed the pharmaceutical policy unit in the Department of Health. Ruth is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, a member of l’academie nationale de pharmacie of France, and a former member of the WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Policies & Management. Ruth is currently based in The Hague where she is studying international law. At GAPC Ruth will speak about 'The new syntax of “sin taxes”: Excise taxes as a tool to reduce harm and mobilise revenue.'
Martin McKee
Professor of European Public Health, Past President, European Public Health Association, Research Director European Observatory on Health Systems & Policies
Martin McKee is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he founded the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST), a WHO Collaborating Centre. He is also Research Director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and Past President of the European Public Health Association. He has written extensively on health and health policy, with a particular focus on countries undergoing political and social transition. AT GAPC Professor McKee will speak on "Corporate and Commercial Determinants of Health".
Nijole Gostautaite Midttun
Nijole Gostautaite Midttun is the president of the Lithuanian Tobacco and Alcohol Control Coalition, and director of the non-profit “Mental health initiative”. Has been actively involved in mental health advocacy, with a strong focus on alcohol and tobacco control policy for over a decade. She has background in medicine, psychiatry and health psychology, has worked in variety of mental health services in Lithuania and Norway. With more than 15 years of teaching experience in mental health, counseling, health advocacy, and addiction. Some of the most recent projects involve WHO Quality rights implementation in residential psychosocial institutions, development of the brief smoking cessation intervention for schools, contributing to the development of the National substance control program, developing and implementing addiction counselor services in Lithuania. At GAPC Nijole Midttun will speak in a panel on ‘Successes and failures in alcohol policy development
Maria Neufeld
Maria Neufeld is a scientist who focuses on health policy research in the areas of mental health and substance use, with a special interest in drinking patterns, socio-economic status and alcohol-attributable harm at the individual as well as population level. Maria completed her graduate studies at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany and the University of Vienna, Austria. Leading own studies on alcohol consumption and policy in Russia and collaborating with other Russian experts on theirs, she further serves as a Consultant for the Alcohol and Illicit Drugs Programme at the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases in Moscow.
Diarmid O'Sullivan
Diarmid O'Sullivan is an investigator and researcher specialising in abuses of power by big corporations. He has worked for Global Witness, the anti-corruption watchdog group, as well as the development charity ActionAid UK, and was an Open Society Fellow in 2012-13. He has been a board member of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a member of the European Commission's Platform for Tax Good Governance and a steering group member of the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT). He is based in London."
David (Rāwiri) Ratū
David Rawiri Ratu is an indigenous Maori of Aotearoa, New Zealand. He holds several positions at community level related to alcohol harm, including as a Maori Warden, an organisation with legal responsibilities in relation to Maori and alcohol. He has expressed strong concern over the disproportionate alcohol harm experienced by Maori and has critiqued the licensing processes. Under the Treaty of Waitangi (the founding document for New Zealand) the Crown undertook to protect Maori and in 2018 David initiated a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal (which advises NZ government) arguing the government has breached the Treaty by failing to protect Maori from alcohol harm. Mr. Ratū has spoken extensively at various hui/conferences including sharing a speaking role with Auckland Regional Public Health Services (ARPHS) at the IHUPE indigenous peoples conference in Rotorua on alcohol and the harm to Māori (2019). In 2019 he was the recipient of the Health Ministers Volunteer of the Year Award, for work carried out in the alcohol space and raising issues concerning the unequal harm of alcohol on Māori people.
Jürgen Rehm
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Professor Jürgen Rehm is a leader in generating and analysing the scientific data needed to inform policy-makers of strategies to reduce alcohol-related harm. His recent research has more and more included interactions between socio-economic status, poverty and substance use, including analysis of policies and interventions with respect to reducing or increasing inequalities. At GAPC Dr. Rehm will speak in the opening session about "Trends in global alcohol exposure and harm and implication for equity"
Fiona Ryan
Fiona Ryan is the CEO of Sonas, the largest frontline domestic violence support services agency in Ireland. She is a member of the monitoring committee for the Irish National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender-based Violence, as well as the advisory group for the Study of Familicide and Domestic Homicide Reviews under the auspices of the Irish Department of Justice.
She was previously CEO of Alcohol Action Ireland where she campaigned for minimum pricing in Ireland and recognition of the impact of parental/ adult drinking on children and was a member of the Irish National Substance Misuse Strategy steering group. She was advocacy/campaigns manager for Barnardos children’s charity. Prior to her work in the NGO sector, she worked in public affairs and media in Dublin and Belfast. She has a Masters in Journalism and a Masters in Business Administration.
Viroj Tangcharoensathien
Dr Viroj Tangcharoensathien, MD. PhD, is the Senior Adviser, International Health Policy Program (IHPP), Ministry of Public Health, Advisor on Global Health to Permanent Secretary Office of the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand and the Secretary General of IHPP Foundation.
While working for nearly 10 years as a rural doctor he completed an award winning PhD on community health financing at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Viroj has held various positions in the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). In 2001 he joined the newly created International Health Policy Programme (IHPP), Ministry of Public Health, Thailand.
His scholarly contributions are huge with 227 international publications, the majority of which are in high impact peer-reviewed publications.
He has also held influential roles in global technical and advisory bodies, including in GAVI and the Global Fund. Dr Viroj has been involved in a number of intergovernmental negotiations including as chair of drafting groups and negotiations at the WHA and WHO Executive Board.
Dr Thaksaphon (Mek) Thamarangsi
Dr Thaksaphon (Mek) Thamarangsi is working with World Health Organization, Regional Office for South-East Asia as the Director of Non-Communicable Diseases and Environmental Health, before restructured in 2020 into the Department of Healthier Populations and Non-Communicable Diseases. Among many other areas of responsibility, he also provides technical support to WHO Member States in the Region in the areas of health promotion, NCD prevention and control, mental health, injury prevention, social and environmental determinants of health. All of which are very relevant to alcohol use and related harm. Also known by his nick name, he got Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health both from Mahidol University-Thailand, and PhD from Massey University- New Zealand. Prior to serving WHO in 2015, Dr Mek was the Director of the International Health Policy Program-IHPP (2015), Health Promotion Policy Research Center-HPR (2013-15), Center for Alcohol Studies-CAS (2009-13), Manager for the Thai NCD Network (2013-15). Apart from global health and collective capacity building, Dr Mek is interested in promoting evidence-based response by working closely with academics, civil society, regulators and policy makers in alcohol and other health promotion areas.
Sumnima Tuladhar
Sumnima Tuladhar, Executive Director, CWIN-Nepal
Sumnima Tuladhar has extensive experience in child protection issues, child sexual abuse, online child protection, street children, human trafficking, child participation and children in armed conflict. She has conducted and published various researches on trafficking, child sexual abuse, children and substance use, children in conflict, child labour etc. As an expert on child rights in Nepal, she is engage in policy advocacy on child rights and conducts awareness programs to social workers, health officials, teachers and law enforcing agencies on regular basis. Sumnima is the National Coordinator of Nepal Alcohol Policy Alliance (NAPA) and is actively engaged in advocacy for the comprehensive national alcohol policy in Nepal. She is also actively engaged in advocating for the prevention of drug use in children. Sumnima is a former board member of ECPAT International and a founding member of AATWIN (Alliance against trafficking in women and children) and Women's Network for Peace (Shanti Malika). She is also associated with the Duke of Edinburgh International Awards in Nepal. Sumnima has been working passionately towards these causes for the past 32 years in the child rights. She currently serves as an Executive Director of CWIN-Nepal. Sumnima has a Masters degree in Humanities and has received number of training's on various subjects related to child rights.
Douglas Webb
Douglas Webb is with UNDP, as a Team Leader in the HIV, Health and Development Practice. In 2014-2015 he was seconded to be a Deputy Director in the UN Mission for the Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) in West Africa. In UNDP his work focuses on infectious and chronic epidemic response governance and the social determinants of health. From 2008-2011 he was with UNICEF in Ethiopia managing UNICEF’s child focused social protection, HIV prevention and AIDS impact mitigation. He was the Chief of the Children and AIDS Section in the UNICEF Regional Office in Kenya (2004-8). He was the Global HIV/AIDS Adviser for Save the Children UK (2000-2004). Previous appointments included to UNICEF Zambia (1995-1997). His doctoral thesis examined HIV and AIDS in Southern Africa (University of London, 1995). He has over 50 published articles and book chapters and is the author of HIV and AIDS in Africa and co-editor of Social Protection for Africa’s Children.