Aurelia Attal-Juncqua is a biosecurity policy researcher at RAND. She is dedicated to better understanding the intersection between pandemic preparedness, emerging tech, biosecurity, and biodefense. Previously, she was a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, where her research focused on strengthening the U.S. bioeconomy. Before that, she was a program officer on the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), where she contributed to the success of NASEM’s COVID-19 rapid response work. In 2020, she was awarded NASEM’s Health and Medicine Division Spot Award for her work supporting the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and Other 21st Century Health Threats during the very early days of the COVID-19 crisis. Before joining NASEM, Attal-Juncqua was a senior research associate at the Georgetown University Center for Global Health Science and Security, where she worked alongside the Biological Weapons Convention on projects focused on preparing for and responding to deliberate biological events, as well as with the Guinean government and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a large post-Ebola health security and emergency management capacity-building partnership. Attal-Juncqua received a B.Sc. in biology and microbiology from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London and an M.Sc. in control of infectious diseases from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a DrPH in Health Security from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Mirwais Rahimzai is an infectious disease physician with Masters in Public Health from Tulane University. Dr. Rahimzai has over 25 years of experience in leading public health programs in the field of infectious diseases, maternal and child health, health system strengthening and outbreak response in Asia, Africa, Central and Southern America. He is a Fulbright scholar and a quality improvement specialist who led several large-scale improvement projects in low- and middle-income countries. He is currently the Technical Director for Infectious Disease and Global Health Security at FHI 360 based in Washington DC where he oversees implementation of GHS programs across 30 countries

Aminat Adebayo is a Climate Intersections Project Coordinator at NetHope, where she
contributes to the planning and implementation of anticipatory action, upskilling and climate
equity projects in vulnerable communities around the world using digital technology and
innovation.

She previously served as the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) Outreach
Coordinator at Care About Climate. She reviewed and analyzed the NDCs of countries for their
commitments to greenhouse gas reduction, youth inclusivity, and gender equality.

Aminat has served on the scientific committee for several events including the Planetary Health
Alliance Conference, NetHope Global Summit and the Africa Public Health Students Summit,
where she led the scientific committee.

An early-career researcher, Aminat has authored over 10 research papers on global and
planetary health. She also co-authored a children’s book on planetary health. The digital book,
aiming to reach thousands of children globally explains the complex relationship of climate
change and health to young people.

Aminat’s advisory experience includes serving as an advisory committee member for the
National Center for Healthy Housing fellowship program and the Global University Climate
Forum’s Youth Advisory Board.

John Paul (JP) Tarangelo is a Senior Technical Analyst at RAND where his research focuses on health security, biodefense, and biosecurity policy. Prior to joining RAND, JP spent seven years as a federal contractor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR). His work at ASPR focused on biodefense policy, nonproliferation, countering CBRN threats, and advancing national health security capabilities. JP received ASPR’s Superior Contribution Award in 2023 for his role in developing the Playbook for Biological Incident Response. Before working at ASPR, JP completed internship rotations at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of International Health and Biodefense and HHS’s Office of Global Affairs while pursuing his master’s degree full-time.

JP is a doctoral candidate in the health security track of the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His dissertation research focuses on countering biological weapons disinformation. JP holds an M.S. in public health microbiology and emerging infectious diseases from George Washington University, a B.S. from the University of Miami, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the Project Management Institute.

David Brett-Major, MD MPH, is an Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases physician. He has worked at home, in South America, Africa, and Asia as a clinician, educator, researcher, and in health emergency risk management. He has been part of filovirus emergency response in Guinea, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Uganda; and, worked in health security policy and management on issues such as research in emergencies, Dual Use Research of Concern, high consequence pathogens including pandemic influenza, and all hazards preparedness. He was part of global alert and response coordination against Ebola virus disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, and avian influenza A(H7N9). As a clinical scientist and medical epidemiologist, his research interests focus on risk, how it may be identified, characterized, and managed from patient- and community-centered vantages, particularly related to emerging infectious diseases.

Dr. Feng-jen (Jean) Tsai is the Director and a professor of the Global Health and Health Security program, Taipei Medical University. She is also an adjunct professor of the Graduate Institute of Health and Biotechnology Law at Taipei Medical University. Her research specializations are in the fields of global health policy and law, trade and health, and occupational health. As a scholar trained both in law and public health, Jean applies both quantitative and qualitative approaches to answer questions in global health. Prior to entering academia, Jean worked as a lawyer in Taiwan.

Ximena Garzon-Villalba is an experienced professional in Public Health, appointed as Minister of Health of Ecuador from May 2021 to July 2022. She was member of the International Vaccine Institute Board of Trustees in 2022. Currently, she is Dean of Public Health at USFQ and member of The World Bank Pandemic Fund Technical Advisory Panel. Dr. Garzon-Villalba obtained her Medical Degree at Universidad Central del Ecuador, she holds PhD in Public Health with a concentration in Occupational Health, and a Post-doctorate in Occupational Health Research and Occupational Epidemiology, both from University of South Florida. Dr. Garzon-Villalba has been professor for undergraduate and graduate programs in several Ecuadorian and U.S. Universities. Her research work focusses on Occupational Heat Stress, published in several indexed journals. She was responsible of the design and implementation of the “Plan Fenix” a comprehensive response to the COVID-19 pandemic and led the emblematic “9/100 Vaccination Plan” which reached 9 million fully vaccinated people (more than 50% of the population) before the 100th day of its implementation. Dr. Garzon-Villalba also lead the development of the “Plan Decenal de Salud del Ecuador”, a holistic, interdisciplinary and intersectoral plan designed to improve the public health of her country under the One Health approach.

A/Prof Carmen Huckel Schneider is Deputy Director at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Sydney where she is also lead of the Health Systems and Governance theme. Associate Professor Huckel Schneider holds positions of Co-Director, Academic Education, Sydney School of Public Health; Adviser, Knowledge Exchange, at the Sax Institute; and Honorary Senior Fellow at the George Institute.  A/Prof HuckelSchneider’s areas of expertise are the application of systems approaches for the analysis of health policy (financing, systems, institutions, services and technologies); health system governance and operational models; knowledge translation and exchange; and global health policy and governance.

Yanzhong Huang is a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he directs the Global Health Governance roundtable series. He is also a professor and director of global health studies at Seton Hall University’s School of Diplomacy and International Relations, where he developed the first academic concentration among U.S. professional international affairs schools that explicitly addresses the security and foreign policy aspects of health issues. He is the founding editor of Global Health Governance: The Scholarly Journal for the New Health Security Paradigm.  He is the author of Governing Health in Contemporary China (2013),  Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and Its Challenge to the Chinese State (2020), and The COVID-19 Pandemic and China’s Global Health Leadership (2022). His research has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, American Journal of Public Health, as well as in peer-reviewed academic publications such as The China Journal and Health Security.

Dr. Huang has testified before U.S. congressional committees multiple times and is regularly consulted by major media outlets, the private sector, and governmental and nongovernmental organizations on global health issues and China. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and a member of the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security. In 2012, InsideJersey listed him as one of the “20 Brainiest People in New Jersey.” He has taught at Barnard College and Columbia University. He obtained his BA and MA from Fudan University and his PhD from the University of Chicago.

Professor Siobhan Mor is an interdisciplinary researcher and epidemiologist with a dual background in veterinary medicine and public health. Her research intersects with the areas of global health security and tropical medicine, often (but not exclusively) from a One Health perspective.

A Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM), Prof Mor has held academic appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine in the US (Assistant Professor, 2009-2011), The University of Sydney School of Veterinary Medicine in Australia (Lecturer/Senior Lecturer, 2012-2018) and the University of Liverpool Institute for Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences in the UK (Reader, 2018-2024; Professor, 2025 to present). She holds a joint appointment with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and was based full-time in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 2018 to 2024. She is now based in Nairobi, Kenya.

Prof Mor leads the Global Health Research Group on Zoonotic Causes of Acute Febrile Illness which aims to create a step change in the way fever is diagnosed and managed in children in sub-Saharan Africa. She is a recognised leader in advancing One Health approaches, focusing on capacity building and translating theoretical frameworks into practical applications, particularly within the African context. Her operational expertise and contributions over the last 15 years include serving as: global health advisor for the RESPOND project (part of USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats program) which aimed to strengthen capacity for response to emerging diseases in disease “hotspots”; Research Lead for the Ethiopia hub of the HORN project which aimed to strengthen capacity for One Health research in the Horn of Africa region; as ILRI-PI for the HEAL project which aims to strengthen human-animal-rangeland health service delivery in pastoralist areas of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia; and country coordinator for Ethiopia and Somalia for the COHESA project which aims to increase uptake and adoption of One Health solutions in eastern and southern Africa.