Professor, Chief Executive Officer, Veterinary Medicines Directorate VMD, Surrey, United Kingdom

Professor Borriello graduated in microbiology and has held a number of senior and national posts in Research Councils academia, public health and animal health.  He has published over 350 research papers, is editor-in-chief of two journals which promote submissions from veterinary and human medicine, was the first president of Med-Vet-Net, a European network of human and veterinary institutes, and has held overall national responsibility for antibiotic resistance in both veterinary and human medicine.  He is currently Chief Executive of the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and chairs the European Heads of Medicines Agencies’ Taskforce on veterinary antibiotic resistance.

President of the Chulabhorn Research Institute is the youngest daughter of Their Majesties King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit of Thailand

H.R.H. Princess Chulabhorn is a Professor of Chemistry at Mahidol University where she joined the faculty in 1985. Her special research interests are in the chemistry of natural products and in Thai medicinal plant, environmental health problems of developing countries and cancer research. She was the third person in the world to be awarded UNESCO's Einstein Medal for her continuous effort in promoting scientific collaboration in Asia and the Pacific, and she was the first Asian to be invited to join the Royal Society of Chemistry, in England, as an Honorary Fellow. She is also chairperson of the Working Group on the Chemistry of Natural Products collaborative programme between the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the National Research Council of Thailand.

H.R.H. Princess Chulabhorn has received international recognition for her scientific accomplishments in her appointment to various United Nations posts, namely special advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme and member of the Special High-Level Council for the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction of the United Nations. In addition, she has also been visiting professor at universities in Germany, Japan and U.S.A., and has received numerous honorary doctoral degrees from universities in U.S.A., U.K., Japan and elsewhere. Recently she has received the 2002 Environmental Mutagen Society-Hollaender International fellow Award, and in 2006 the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety Special Recognition Award, and most recently the Nagoya Medal Special Award presented to Her Royal Highness in October 2006 at Nagoya University

Director-General, Swiss Red Cross, Berne, Switzerland

Born in 1963, Markus Mader studied International Affairs and Governance at the University of St Gallen and subsequently became a delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) with missions to Sri Lanka, Peru, Pakistan and Afghanistan. From 1995 to 2001 he was mayor of the Commune of Eggersriet, St Gallen. From 2001 to 2008 he chaired the Board of Directors of the Pestalozzi Children’s Village Foundation in Trogen, Appenzell, which has projects in the children’s village and in 12 different countries. For 10 years Markus Mader was the President of the St Gallen Cantonal Association of the Swiss Red Cross, for 8 years a member of the Swiss Red Cross internal Audit Committee and for 7 years a member of the Foundation Council of Swiss Solidarity. He was also a co-founder and the first Chairman of the the Child Rights Network Switzerland, from 2006 to 2008 President of the Hospital Committee of the Foundation for Children's Hospitals of Eastern Switzerland in St Gallen, and from 2008 to 2010 a member of the Foundation Council of the Lindenhof Hospital in Bern. Markus Mader has taken part in a project group to draft the Swiss NPO Code, the corporate governance guidelines for running and managing non-profit organizations in Switzerland. Since 2008 Markus Mader has been the Director-General of the Swiss Red Cross (SRC), which runs programmes in Switzerland and in over 30 countries worldwide. He is a member of the Foundation Council of Swiss Air-Ambulance (Rega) and the SRC Humanitarian Foundation, both of which are SRC institutions, and sits on the Foundation Councils of Swisscor and, since 2010, once again Swiss Solidarity. In 2011 he became a board member of the Swiss Centre of Expertise in Human Rights. Markus Mader is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) at the University of Basel and a lecturer in Strategy and Leadership in NPOs at the University of Fribourg. Markus Mader is the father of two grown-up adoptive children from Ethiopia.

Head, Secretariat of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC), Paris, France

Helena Molin Valdés, is an experienced leader within the UN system, Helena is since 2013 heading up of the Secretariat for the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC), hosted by the United Nations Environment Program in Paris. She is a former senior executive with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and a long-time proponent of sustainable development, climate change mitigation and adaption, and disaster risk reduction. She was instrumental in making the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) an important force in global disaster management and launched the global Resilient Cities campaign in 2012. Helena has co-authored many papers, handbooks, global reviews and reports on local development, sustainable development, disaster risk reduction and resilience. She worked early in her professional life on improved bricks production from traditional kilns in Central America, and improved cookstoves to reduce indoor air pollution and increase energy efficiency. She holds a Masters degree in architecture and urban development from Lund University, Sweden.

WHO Director for the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health

Dr Maria P. Neira was appointed Director of the Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health at the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland in September 2005. Prior to that, she was Vice-Minister of Health and President of the Spanish Food Safety Agency. She had previously held senior positions in WHO as Director of the Control, Prevention and Eradication Programme on Communicable Diseases and as Coordinator of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control. Dr Neira began her career as a field physician and medical coordinator working with refugees in the Salvador and Honduras and later as a public health adviser in Mozambique and Rwanda. Dr Neira is a Spanish national, and a medical doctor by training. She specialized in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and also obtained an International Diploma in Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management. Among her many distinctions, Dr Neira has been awarded the Médaille de l'Ordre national du Mérite by the Government of France and is a member of the Academy of Medicine, Asturias, Spain.

EAACI Vice-President Communication & Membership, Associate Professor, Allergy & Clinical Immunology, Transylvania University, Brasov, Romania  

Ioana Agache is Associate Professor in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Transylvania University, Brasov, Romania and Vice-President Communication & Membership of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) 2013-2017.  Her research in the field of Asthma and Allergy and Clinical Immunology focused on several key areas, ranging from disease phenotype and endotypes to the concept of integrated management of allergic diseases, with a special focus on the primary care system. She is member of the Steering Committee and co-author of several international and European Guidelines, such as ARIA (Allergic Rhinits and its impact on Asthma), EAACI Allergen Immunotherapy Guidelines and EAACI Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Guidelines. She is Editor of the Global Atlas of Asthma (2013), Global Atlas of Allergy (2014), Global Atlas of Allergic Rhinitis and Chronic Rhinosinusitis (2015), Associate Editor of Clinical and Translational Allergy and a member of the Reviewer Board for Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. She graduated with a medical degree from “Carol Davila” University, Bucharest and absolved Magna Cum Laude her PhD in Internal Medicine.

Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

Robyn Alders, (BSc(Vet), BVSc, DipVetClinStud, USyd; PhD, ANU) is an Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow with the Faculty of Veterinary Science within the University of Sydney.  For over 20 years, she has worked closely with smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and SE Asia as a veterinarian, researcher and colleague, with an emphasis on the development of sustainable infectious disease control in animals in rural areas in support of food security and poverty alleviation.  Robyn’s current research and development interests include domestic and global food and nutrition security, One Health/Ecohealth, gender equity and Science Communication.  She leads the joint CPC/MBI Project Node on "Health Food Systems: Nutrition, Diversity and Safety" and is a member of the SEI Food, People, Planet Research Node.  Robyn is also a member of the Organising Committee of the 2016 International One Health Ecohealth Conference to be held in Melbourne in December 2016.In January 2011, Robyn was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished to veterinary science as a researcher and educator, to the maintenance of food security in developing countries through livestock management and disease control programs.  In August 2014, she was also awarded the Crawford Fund Medal for continued contributions to international agricultural research and development.

Senior Research Fellow

Badaoui Rouhban is a specialist in disaster risk management. He advises public services, civil societies and non-goverrnmental organizations on capacity-building for disaster resilience. He served for several years at UNESCO, Paris, in the Programmes on natural hazards and the environment and is the former Director of UNESCO’s Unit for Disaster Reduction. He is a Global Risk Forum GRF Davos Senior Research Fellow. Dr Rouhban holds a Doctor of Engineering degree from the University Paris VI and has carried out post-doctoral research in engineering seismology at the Tokyo Institute of Technology

Assistant Professor Infectious Diseases in Public Health, Department of Population Health Sciences, Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA

Dr. Andrea Bertke is an Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases in Public Health in the Department of Population Health Sciences in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech. She earned her Ph.D. in Emerging Infectious Diseases from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and her BS in Microbiology from Bowling Green State University. She did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California San Francisco in neurovirology and the University of Texas Medical Branch investigating emerging RNA viruses. She was previously Adjunct Professor of Neuroscience in the San Francisco State University Health Professions Program. Dr. Bertke conducts research comparing the mechanisms by which HSV-1 and HSV-2 establish latent infection and reactivate to cause different presentations and outcomes of recurrent disease, and the role of the autonomic nervous system in these processes. She is a member of the Society for Neuroscience and the American Society of Microbiology. She teaches the graduate course on Principles of Infectious Disease

Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director, Center fro Public Health Practice and Interim Chair of Environmental Health Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

Michael Bisesi, PhD, REHS, CIH is currently the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of the Center for Public Health Practice, Interim Chair of Environmental Health Sciences, and tenured Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences in the College of Public Health at The Ohio State University. He is a member of the International Congress on Pathogens at the Human Animal Interface (ICOPHAI) Scientific planning committee as well as a core taskforce co-leader for Ohio State Global One Health task force. Dr. Bisesi is an Environmental Health Scientist, Board Certified Industrial Hygienist, ABIH Diplomat, AIHA Fellow, and Registered Environmental Health Specialist. His primary scientific expertise includes assessment (monitoring) of human exposure to and control of toxic chemicals and pathogenic microbes; applied environmental toxicology and microbiology; and, hazardous material/emergency incident recognition/response. He has authored/co-authored scientific journal articles, chapters in the Occupational Environment: Its Evaluation and Control (1st and 2nd ed), among many others. He currently serves as Chair of the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health Environmental and Occupational Health Council, Past Chair of the ASPPH Academic Affairs Section, Chair of the Ohio Public Health Association Environmental Council, and Past Chair of the Health Resources, Services and Administration National Leadership Network of Public Health Training Sessions. He recently completed a term as a Senior Scientist for the Centers for Disease Control National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Mayor, City of Davos, Davos, Switzerland

Tarzisius Caviezel is a local Swiss politician and currently the Mayor of the city of Davos. Before starting his political carreer he was a sucessful businessman. In 1982 he founded, the energy company Elektro AG Caviezel in Davos, which is now part of the Burkhalter Holding AG. From 1997 to 2007 he led the Burkhalter Holding AG as CEO and was represented on the board of the Burkhalter Group until 2012.From 2007 to 2011 Tarzisius Caviezel represented the canton of Grisons in the Swiss National Council. Since January 2013, he leads the Chief Magistrate of the the Municipality of Davos, as its Mayor.

Assistant Professor, Disaster Infectious Disease, IRIDeS, Tohoku University, Japan

Haorile Chagan-Yasutan is an Assistant Professor for Disaster-related Infectious Disease at the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS); Division of Emerging Infectious Diseases, Graduate School of Medicine of Tohoku University. She holds a Ph.D. from the Division of Emerging Infectious Diseases of Tohoku University, for which she studied Gal-9 to find the early responsible marker in disaster-related infectious diseases. She published a book on Immunological Diagnosis of Active and Latent TB and 15 other publications. Haorile Chagan-Yasutan is a member of the International AIDS Society, the Japanese Society for Immunology, the American Association of Immunologists and the Japanese Society of Hematology amongst others. In 2011 she received the Mr. Fujino Incentive Award.

Shinichi Egawa is currently a Professor in the Division of International Cooperation for Disaster Medicine, IRIDeS at Tohoku University In 2010 he received the award as the “Best Doctor” in Japan. His major research interests are disaster medicine and surgical and biological therapy of pancreatic cancer. Shinichi Egawa is a member of the Japanese Association for Disaster Medicine; he sits in the Council of the International Association for Pancreatology and is in the Editorial Board of the American Pancreas Association, the Japan Pancreas Society and the Japanese Society of Hapato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery. His recent publications include the “International symposium on disaster medicine and public health management: review of the Hyogo Framework for Action” and “The 2015 Hyogo Framework for Action: cautious optimism”.

Professor, Head of the dermatology Unit, Vetsuisse Faculty in Zürich, Switzerland

Claude is a French veterinarian who leads the dermatology unit at the Vetsuisse Faculty in Zürich. He is especially interested in skin allergic diseases such as atopic dermatitis and virus-induced skin cancer. He has contributed to discover and describe numerous animal papillomaviruses and to better define their pathogenic roles. He has also carried out several epidemiological studies on canine and feline atopic dermatitis. He has published the first work on the quality of life of allergic animals and the impact of this disease on the owners. He has recently proposed criteria for the diagnosis of atopic diseases and these criteria are now widely used for inclusion of individually in clinical studies.

Associate Professor, Department of Resource and Environment Economics, Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tohoku Universit, Sendai, Japan

Keiichi ISHII is an associate professor in the Department of Resource and Environment Economics at the Graduate School of Agricultural Science of Tohoku University. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field of agricultural science and specializes in comparative studies of agricultural policies and agriculture and rural development in the EU, especially in France. He is a member of the Agricultural Economics Society of Japan and the Japan Organic Agriculture Association.

Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health, and Acting Dean, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

Rudovick Kazwala, BVSc, MVM, PhD is a Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Public Health and the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania, a graduate of BVSc at Sokoine University of Agriculture, MVM at University College Dublin and PhD University of Edinburgh, where my thesis was on the molecular Epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis in Tanzania. Through his postgraduate studies was able to establish the first collaborative research between medical and veterinary institutions in Tanzania (1993). The link between Sokoine University of Agriculture and The National Institute for Medical Research brought into place the One health approaches in the studies of zoonotic diseases in Tanzania. Currently, he serves as a member of the Organizing committee of the International Congress on Pathogens at the Human Animal interface (ICOPHAI). To date he is the PI, Co-PI or collaborator in several One Health related collaborative research projects including; “Health in Animal and Livelihood Improvement (HALI) and the Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT Project both funded by USAID Programmes; Veterinary Public Health- Biotechnology (VPH-Biotech) Project between East African Institutions and the Ohio State University) all these addressing zoonoses and animal health impact infectious diseases in the auspices of One Health approaches within Tanzania and beyond. Tandem with achievements in acquiring grants, in a period of the last 15 years he has supervised a total of 30 postgraduate students and mentored three Post-doctoral fellows. He has published over 90 peer-reviewed articles in the areas of zoonotic diseases and one health approaches. Prof. Kazwala is the current Chairman of the Veterinary Council of Tanzania and therefore involved in a number of policy and legislative initiatives relevant to the well being of animals and health of human within Tanzania

Director, Institute for Medical Microbiology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and Chairman, Institute for Biosecurity Research (IBS), Halle, Germany

Professor Kekulé is Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and Chairman of the Institute for Biosecurity Research (IBS).In his research, Professor Kekulé is focused on molecular biology of hepatitis viruses, viral oncogenesis and infectious diseases control. He has been granted several research awards, among them the Karl Heinrich Bauer Award for Cancer Research and the Hans Popper Award for Basic Research of the International Association for the Study of the Liver.Since 1988, Professor Kekulé has been working as a business consultant with focus on research management and biological risk management. He worked at McKinsey in New York and consults a wide array of globally operating companies.Professor Kekulé has been appointed to the German Federal Commission for Homeland Security (“Schutzkommission”), in which he this chairing the Biosecurity and Infectious Diseases Control Group.Aside from his research activities, Professor Kekulé has committed himself to bioethics, including political and social aspects of infectious diseases. He is a regular Op-Ed Columnist for the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel and publishes regularly in other opinion-leading journals such as Die Zeit, Der Spiegel and Neue Zürcher Zeitung. In 2001, he proposed a global fund to fight the Aids epidemic in the underdeveloped world. In the field of bioethics and human reproduction, he argues for a “Human Right to a Natural Genome” as an extension of the UN International Covenants on Human Rights.Prior to his present position, Prof. Kekulé was deputy director at the Institute for Virology, University of Tübingen, and research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Martinsried. He studied medicine, biochemistry and philosophy and holds an M.D. from the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich and a Ph.D. from the Freie Universität, Berlin.

Associate Professor of Becteriology and Dean, Graduate Programs, University of Sao Francisco Valley, Petrolina, Brazil

Mateus Matiuzzi, DVM, PhD is Associate Professor of bacteriology and Dean of Graduate Programs at the University of Sao Francisco Valley (UNIVASF), Petrolina, Brazil within the state of Pernambuco. He completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) and received his PhD in molecular and cellular biology at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Dr. Matiuzzi´s major areas of interest and expertise include Preventive Veterinary Medicine, zoonotic disease epidemiology and food safety. The research projects focuses in dairy goat mastitis, tuberculosis, infectious diseases of aquatic organisms, antimicrobial resistance and alternatives to antimicrobial therapy in the semi-Arid tropical Brazil states. He advised graduate students in veterinary, animal production, health and biology sciences as well as published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles in national and international journals. He has been a founding member of the ICOPHAI and served as the Chair of the Local organizing committee for the ICOPHAI 2013 that was hosted in Porto de Galinhas, Brazil.

Professor, Global Centre for Disaster Statistics IRIDeS, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Dr. Osamu Murao is a professor at IRIDeS, Tohoku University, and the founder of the International Strategy for Disaster Mitigation Laboratory (ISDM).  He was born in Yokohama in 1965, and studied at Graduate School of Architecture, Yokohama National University.  Based on researches at Institute of Industrial Science, University of Tokyo, and University of Tsukuba, he wrote a book, “Architecture, Space, and Disaster,” and received the Prize of Architectural Institute of Japan by “A Series of Studies on Urban and Architectural Space Related to Disaster Management” in 2014. 

Head of the Veneto Region Food Allergy Centre of Excellence for Research and Treatment, University of Padua, Italy

Dr. Maria Antonella Muraro is a Medical Doctor and Consultant in Paediatric Allergy at the Department of Women and Child Health at the University Hospital of Padua. She is also Head of the Veneto Region Food Allergy Centre of Excellence for Research and Treatment, University of Padua, Italy. Since 2009, Dr Muraro has been a member of the Board of Officers of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), Chair of the EAACI Task Force on Anaphylaxis, Chair of the Task Force for the European Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Guidelines and chair of the EAACI Anaphylaxis Awareness Campaign. In 2013 she was appointed EAACI Secretary General. Dr. Muraro is also an independent medical expert for EU Fp7 iFAAM project, European Trilateral Project, ILSI - Food Allergy EG “Prioritisation of allergenic food with respect to public health importance”, as well as founder of a government funded Anaphylaxis Surveillance Network in the North Eastern Italy. The main aims of Dr. Muraro’s research in paediatric allergology include: identification of precocious markers for the diagnosis of the diseases of allergy in children, phenotypes of food allergy and anaphylactic shock. Furthermore, she is researching new protocols for children who are severely affected by anaphylaxis to foods. Her most recent studies evaluate food allergies in children at school in the Venetian Region, and the quality of life of patients as medical advisor of Food Allergy Italia, the national patient association.

Head, Foreign Medical Team Unit, World Health Organization WHO, Geneva, Switzerland 

An Emergency Physician with post graduate qualifications in Surgery, International Health and Tropical Medicine Ian works for the World Health Organisation HQ in Geneva heading the new Foreign Medical Team Unit. Previously the director of disaster preparedness and response and the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre, Darwin, Australia, he led key developments in the Australian Medical Assistance Team (AUSMAT) initiative, in particular an innovative training programme for disaster response teams, and a fully self-sufficient capability for international field hospital deployment for the Australian Government. He has led Australian Government medical team deployments to the Ashmore reef boat explosion, Pakistan floods, Solomon Islands Dengue outbreak and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines including a 50 bedded surgical field hospital and tertiary referral trauma centre for Tacloban city within days of the storm. He is the lead author of the new WHO global  classification and standards for Foreign Medical Team (FMT) deployment to sudden onset disasters which led to his appointment to the WHO. In that role he leads the development of a global registry of FMTs and the increasing role of WHO in their quality assurance and coordination. He was deployed for over 5 months to the West African Ebola outbreak 2014/15 and led the coordination of over 60 FMTs in three countries and the design and build of five large Ebola treatment centres in Monrovia, along with plans for building by the UK, US and WFP in the three worst affected countries. He led the coordination of 142 FMTs in Nepal during the earthquakes of April and May 2015. Lessons learned during these recent responses for a rapid and predictable international health response to all-hazards will reshape the FMT initiative along with the mechanisms of emergency health response within WHO, and is integral to the future of Dr. Norton’s portfolio at WHO.

Assistant Director and Professor, International and Regional Cooperation Office Disaster Information Management and Public Collaboration Division International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Yuichi completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Utsunomiya University, Japan. He received a Ph.D. in Geography at Kent State University in 2001. He conducted research on tornado disaster risk reduction in the U.S.A., Japan, and Bangladesh. During 2002-03, he worked for the World Meteorological Organization and contributed to developing a disaster risk reduction programme and emergency response mechanism when hydrometeorological disasters occur in the WMO’s member countries. During 2003-09, he worked for the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. He contributed to organize the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan in 2005. He assisted developing the International Early Warning Programme and helped manage the ISDR Scientific and Technical Committee as well. Following the Sumatra Tsunami in 2004, he helped develop the Indian Ocean Tsunami Early Warning System. During 2009-12, he worked for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP in Bangkok) as Chief of the Disaster Risk Reduction Section, providing a regional platform for cooperation and policy-making for disaster risk reduction, with particular attention to developing countries and vulnerable groups. ESCAP has an intergovernmental process in disaster risk reduction with its 62 member countries. He proposed to develop disaster statistics in the Asia and Pacific region based on official sources. In November, 2012, he became a professor of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science (IRIDeS), Tohoku University, located in Sendai, Japan. His main role is to promote scientific and technical research outcomes of the IRIDeS and bring them to international policy making processes. He currently acts as an Assistant Director of the IRIDeS, a chair of the Multi-Hazard Program of the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and a Director of the Global Centre for Disaster Statistics, which is a joint programme with UNDP.

Director, Conservation Biology, Denver Zoological Foundation, Denver, USA

Dr. Richard Reading is the founder and director of Denver Zoo's Department of Conservation Biology, and works on interdisciplinary techniques. His areas of interest include grasslands conservation, endangered species conservation, species reintroductions, values and attitudes toward wildlife and conservation, and improving policy approaches to conservation. Currently Dr. Reading's research focuses on native Mongolian ungulates, specifically Bactrian Camels and Argali Sheep. He is also heavily involved in the conservation of Black-tailed prairie dogs.Dr. Richard Reading is the founder and director of Denver Zoo's Department of Conservation Biology, and works on interdisciplinary techniques. His areas of interest include grasslands conservation, endangered species conservation, species reintroductions, values and attitudes toward wildlife and conservation, and improving policy approaches to conservation. Currently Dr. Reading's research focuses on native Mongolian ungulates, specifically Bactrian Camels and Argali Sheep. He is also heavily involved in the conservation of Black-tailed prairie dogs.

Professor, American Humane Endowed Chair, University of Denver, and Chief Science and Policy Advisor, GRF Davos, Denver, USA

Andreas Rechkemmer is chief science and policy advisor of the Global Risk Forum, Davos, Switzerland, and has recently been appointed American Humane Endowed Chair, at the University of Denver. Rechkemmer is a scholar and practitioner of international relations and political science. He has a background in United Nations diplomacy and science-to-practice management, particularly in the areas of global environmental change and climate change, sustainability, human development, and the human and societal dimensions of risk and security. His scholarship also focuses on One Health, a multidisciplinary effort to attain optimal health for people, animals and the environment. He is also a professor of human dimensions of natural resources (affiliate faculty) at Colorado State University, a guest professor at Beijing Normal University in China and an adjunct professor at the University of Cologne in Germany.

Head of the Allergy Unit, Department of Dermatology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

Peter Schmid-Grendelmeier is head of the Allergy Unit of the Department of Dermatology of the University Hospital of Zürich since 2003. He qualified as a Swiss board specialist and is teaching as Professor for Allergy and Dermatology at the University of Zürich and the ETH Zürich. His research focus is namely atopic dermatitis, epidemiology of allergic diseases and molecular and translational allergology including aspects of global and veterinarian health. He has also developed a longstanding activity on education and training including online-based technologies such as the DOIT-platform. He has published more than 120 original articles and is member of the editorial or review board of several well established journals. He also serves in the board of various national and international societies such as the Exam committee of the EAACI and the WAO working group on molecular allergy diagnosis. He is also a member of the SAPALDIA cohort

Director, Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Prepardeness (DEEP Center) and Senior Fellow, Comprehensive Drug Research Center,School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, Florida

James M. Shultz MS, PhD is Director, Center for Disaster and Extreme Event Preparedness (DEEP Center) and Senior Fellow, Comprehensive Drug Research Center, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida. He is Professor, Master of Public Health Program, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. Dr. Shultz is Editor-in-Chief for the peer-reviewed journal Disaster Health. He is directing global mental health programs internationally with vulnerable populations. He directs a variety of disaster behavioral health training programs and has presented throughout the United States, Canada, and worldwide. He is conducting research and publishing on the themes of disaster behavioral health, and complex disaster risks and resilience. Dr. Shultz received his MS in Health Behavior Research and his PhD in Behavioral Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota.

Professor, Division of Global Epidemiology, Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control, Sapporo, Japan

Ayato Takada works as a Professor in the Division of Global Epidemiology at the University Research Center for Zoonosis Control in Sapporo, Japan. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Zambia and a Special Volunteer in the Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Ayato Takada is a member of the Japanese Society of Veterinary Science, the Society of Japanese Virologists and the Japanese Society for Vaccinology. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan and has published more than 70 articles, books and reviews. In 2005, he received the Sugiura Memorial Incentive Award for Young Virologist of the Japanese Society for Virology. He currently investigates the global surveillance of animal influenza and the ecology of hemorrhagic fever viruses in Asia and Africa amongst other projects.

Professor, Executive Director, Institute of Human-Animal Connection, University of Denver, Denver, USA

Philip Tedeschi Clinical Professor coordinates GSSW's Animal-Assisted Social Work Certificate program and teaches forensic social work and experiential therapy approaches. He’s executive director of the Institute for Human-Animal Connection. A certified master therapeutic riding instructor and former course director/instructor with Outward Bound, Tedeschi has many years of experience in non-traditional therapeutic approaches with children, adults and families. He also has experience in interpersonal violence, including animal abuse and sexually abusive youth and adults. An appointed member of the Colorado Sexual Offender Management Board, Tedeschi also evaluates and treats sexual offenders. He is a founder and clinical administrator of Hand Up Homes for Youth Inc., and founder of Sexual Offense Resource Services.

Head, Outbreak Investigation Task Force, Center for Global Health, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Dr Maria Van Kerkhove is the Head of the Outbreak Investigation Task Force at Institut Pasteur’s Center for Global Health.  She is an experienced infectious disease epidemiologist with strong field experience in infectious disease outbreaks and epidemiologic investigations. Her main research interests include zoonotic, respiratory and emerging/re-emerging viruses such as avian influenza, MERS-CoV, Ebola and Marburg.     Dr Van Kerkhove is also currently a technical consultant for WHO as a member of the MERS-CoV task force.  She has worked with WHO to routinely analyze available data from countries and conduct risk assessments, and regularly participates in Missions to affected member states.   Dr Van Kerkhove was previously employed by Imperial College London in the MRC Center for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling where she worked closely with WHO on influenza, yellow fever, meningitis, MERS-CoV and Ebola Virus Disease.

Dean, DU Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver, Denver, USA

Professor James Herbert Williams, PhD., is Dean and Milton Morris Endowed Chair at the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. He holds his MSW from Smith College, MPA from the University of Colorado and PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington-Seattle. Dr. Williams’ research and training has been funded by grants from several federal and state agencies and private foundations. Dr. Williams’ publications and community engagement focus on health promotion and disease prevention, health disparities, economic sustainability, human security, conflict resolution, delinquency and violence, mental health services for African American children in urban schools, disproportionate minority confinement of African American youth in the criminal justice system, community strategies for positive youth development, and social issues of the African American community.  His scholarship has been published in several prominent health and social science journals.  Dr. Williams has 30 plus years of experience as a scholar/educator and social work practitioner.  He has served on two commissions for the Council on Social Work Education and as a member of the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Board of Directors. He is the current President of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work. 

Director, Global Health Programs, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA

Professor Wondwossen is professor of molecular epidemiology, Director of Global Health Programs at The Ohio State University, College of Veterinary Medicine and Chair of the Ohio State Global One Health Task Force.   He completed his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at Addis Ababa University; practiced veterinary medicine in Ethiopia and received his PhD at North Carolina State University. Prof. Wondwossen is the principal investigator of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Fogarty International Center, Global Infectious Diseases, research and training program on Molecular epidemiology of Foodborne pathogens for eastern Africa including Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. He also serves as the founding President of International Congress on Pathogens at the Human Animal Interface (ICOPHAI) (http://icophai.org), a network of more than 990 scientists and policy-makers.  He authored and co-authored more than 120 peer-reviewed scientific publications on international journals as indexed on the ISI Web of Science records. One of his lead articles on One Health include Global One Health I low resource settings (http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0003257).  Prof. Wondwossen serves in scientific advisory capacities for Austrian Government Scientific Competency Center (COMET); Poland Scientific Advisory panel (POMOST); Qatar National Research Foundation (QNRF); Royal Saudi Arabian Science & Technology program; National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and others.