Dr. Jeffrey Ashley
U.S. Agency for International Development

Dr. Jeffrey Ashley is director of regional HIV/AIDS programs in East and Central Africa for USAID's Regional Economic Development Services Office in Nairobi (USAID/REDSO).  A public health scientist specializing in international health and epidemiology, Dr. Ashley has been a USAID Foreign Service officer since 1995, serving as a health officer for USAID/Tanzania, chief of health for USAID/Cambodia and Mekong countries, and director of projects for USAID/Angola.  Prior to joining the U.S. diplomatic Foreign Service, he served as public health advisor and supervisor at various relief NGOs in Nicaragua and Angola and during the genocide period in Rwanda in 1994. Dr. Ashley also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay from 1990 to 1992. He speaks eight languages and has traveled extensively in more than 90 countries around the world.

Dr. Bruce Aylward
World Health Organization (WHO)
Coordinator, Global Polio Eradication Initiative

Dr. Bruce Aylward, M.D., Masters of Public Health (MPH), is a Canadian physician and epidemiologist working with WHO’s Global Program for Vaccines and Immunization. Upon joining WHO in 1992, Dr. Aylward initially worked as a medical officer with WHO’s Expanded Program on Immunization, primarily in the areas of measles, neonatal tetanus and hepatitis vaccination, as well as injection safety. In the five-year period from 1993 to 1997, he worked for WHO in national immunization programs at the field level in developing countries, primarily in the area of polio eradication. His assignments included many countries, from Egypt and Iraq in the Middle East, to countries such as Cambodia, Afghanistan and Myanmar in Asia. In 1997, he returned to WHO headquarters to work on the Global Polio Eradication Initiative with a focus on immunization-challenged countries.

Dr. Stephen L. Cochi
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Division Director, Vaccine Preventable Disease Eradication

Dr. Stephen L. Cochi, M.D., MPH, has spent 21 years working in the field of immunization at CDC. He leads CDC’s global immunization activities, with 90 CDC staff providing technical and programmatic support as a major partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, global measles control and mortality reduction initiative, and other priority global immunization activities. Dr. Cochi has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific journal articles, letters and book chapters on vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, and more than 140 CDC publications.

Dr. Ciro de Quadros
Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Director, Division of Vaccines & Immunizations

Dr. Ciro de Quadros, M.D., MPH, pioneered the development of surveillance and containment strategies for smallpox eradication. In 1970, he joined WHO as chief epidemiologist for the Smallpox Eradication Program in Ethiopia. He transferred to PAHO in 1997 to serve as senior advisor on immunizations, where he directed the successful efforts to eradicate polio from the Western Hemisphere. Dr. de Quadros is also an associate adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health and an associate professor at the School of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. He has participated in or presented papers at more than 100 conferences throughout the world and has received several international awards, including the 2000 Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal.

Dr. Donald A. Henderson
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Senior Science Advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services

Dr. D. A. Henderson, M.D., MPH, is Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Service Professor, presently on leave at HHS. Henderson rejoined the Hopkins faculty in 1995, following five years of federal government service at HHS. He first came to Hopkins as dean of faculty in 1977, after directing WHO’s global smallpox eradication campaign for 11 years. During this time, he founded the WHO Expanded Program on Immunization, which now provides six vaccines to children throughout the world and which served to launch the global program for the eradication of polio. Dr. Henderson is the recipient of 13 honorary degrees, medals and awards, including the National Medal of Science, the National Academy of Sciences’ Public Welfare Medal, the Japan Prize and the Edward Jenner Medal from the Royal Society of Medicine.

Dr. Olen Kew
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Chief of the Molecular Virology Section of the Division of Viral Diseases

Dr. Olen Kew, Ph.D., is chief of the Molecular Virology Section of the Division of Viral Diseases at CDC. His laboratory and that of his colleague, Dr. Mark Pallansch, serve as the lead laboratories for the WHO Global Lab Network supporting worldwide polio eradication. A graduate of the University of California-_Irvine, Dr. Kew received his Ph.D. from the University of Washington-Seattle and was a research fellow in biophysics at the University of Wisconsin_-Madison before coming to CDC in 1979. Dr. Kew’s laboratory has supported polio eradication since the beginning of the program in the Americas in 1985.

Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw-Myint
UNICEF

Dr. Thane Oke Kyaw-Myint, a senior pediatrician from Myanmar, is currently working as programme officer, UNICEF Pacific, based in Suva. He also worked for UNICEF as a project officer in the People's Republic of China, and as chief of health and nutrition in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Prior to joining UNICEF, Dr. Kyaw-Myint worked as a senior member of the Department of Child Health of the Institutes of Medicine 1 and 2, Yangon, Myanmar.

Lee Losey
CORE Angola Secretariat

Currently working at the University of Illinois at Chicago on a CDC-funded diabetes project, Lee Losey has traveled the world working to eradicate polio. Most recently, he was director of programs for Mercy Corps in Pakistan and secretariat director and regional technical advisor for a CORE polio eradication initiative in Angola.  During that time, he represented a coalition of non-governmental organizations on the national Interagency Coordinating Committee and other regional meetings focusing on polio eradication and immunization.  He also monitored and provided technical support and grant oversight to organizations working in polio eradication.  In addition, Mr. Losey served as a polio consultant to the World Health Organization in Southern Sudan, monitoring and evaluating the implementation of polio national immunization days in that country.

Jonathan B. Majiyagbe
Rotary International

Born in Lagos, Jonathan B. Majiyagbe has been a Rotary member since 1967.  He is a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Kano.  As chairman of the African Regional PolioPlus Committee and member of the International PolioPlus Committee, Mr. Majiyagbe is dedicated to the global eradication campaign. He is principal counsel in J.B. Majiyagbe & Co., with a wide commercial law practice in Nigeria. He has also served as chairman of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Kano Branch.

David Newberry
CARE, Collaboration and Resources for Child Survival (CORE) Polio Eradication Initiative
CARE Senior Health Advisor, CORE Team Polio Project Director

David Newberry, who has been with CARE as a senior health advisor since 1994, serves as technical advisor for The Last Child. He currently directs a strategic polio eradication coalition, CORE, implemented through polio-endemic country private volunteer organizations and 36 non-government organizations (NGOs). With more than 35 years' experience in public health, Newberry has provided leadership and strategic planning guidance in both primary health care and child survival programming. He served 25 years with CDC's infectious disease unit to help eradicate smallpox; initiated President Carter's guinea worm eradication project in Ghana; and served as a consultant with both Johns Hopkins University's department of international health and with the U.S. government. He has first-hand experience in three disease eradication programs - smallpox, guinea worm and polio.

Ellyn W. Ogden
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
Worldwide Polio Eradication Coordinator/Senior Technical Advisor for Health and Child Survival

Ellyn Ogden, MPH, is responsible for USAID's polio eradication program and related immunization and disease control efforts in more than 40 countries. As the project manager for grants to WHO, UNICEF and NGOs working in polio eradication, Ms. Ogden fosters close linkages between organizations working on polio and broader child health problems. She has more than 15 years of international public health experience in the areas of child survival, disease prevention and control, nutrition, and health and human rights. A former Johns Hopkins University Health and Child Survival Fellow, Ms. Ogden was selected to receive the prestigious “Sustained Outstanding Performance” Award by USAID in 2002.

Dr. Mark A. Pallansch
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Chief of the Enterovirus Section in the National Center for Infectious Diseases

Dr. Mark Pallansch, Ph.D., is chief of the Enterovirus Section in the National Center for Infectious Diseases at CDC. Having spent 18 years at CDC working in the area of virology, Dr. Pallansch is responsible for multiple areas of research and testing with poliovirus and the non-polio enteroviruses. He is directly involved in supporting the design, technology and implementation of the poliovirus laboratory network as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Dr. Pallansch has authored or co-authored more than 110 scientific journal articles and book chapters in the areas of polioviruses, non-polio enteroviruses and diseases associated with infections with these agents.

Carol Pandak
PolioPlus Division Manager
Rotary International

For the past 12 years, Carol Pandak has worked for national and international nonprofit organizations, including the Society of Actuaries, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Rotary International.  At Rotary, Ms. Pandak has spent most of her career with The Rotary Foundation.  Currently, she oversees the day-to-day operation of Rotary's polio eradication initiative.   Ms. Pandak directed a national program at the American Academy of Pediatrics to increase access to health care for all children.  She is also an adjunct lecturer for the International Studies Program at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Herbert A. Pigman
Rotary International
Vice Chairman of the International PolioPlus Committee

As vice chairman of the International PolioPlus Committee of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, Mr. Pigman assists the chairman in developing Rotary’s policies and strategies to achieve polio eradication, directing the efforts of regional and national PolioPlus committees to mobilize hundreds of thousands of volunteers to support eradication efforts, and overseeing Rotary’s advocacy efforts aimed at marshalling needed funds from public and private sector sources. Mr. Pigman became involved with Rotary’s polio eradiation effort in 1986, when he was appointed director of the Rotary International Immunization Task Force for PolioPlus. This task force helped to launch Rotary's child immunization operations throughout Asia, the Pacific, Latin America and Africa. He began his career with Rotary International in 1956 as an editor of The Rotarian magazine.

Sebastião Salgado
Photojournalist
UNICEF Special Representative

Renowned photodocumentarian and UNICEF special representative Sebastião Salgado has dedicated himself to chronicling the lives of the world's dispossessed, creating a body of work that has filled ten books and many exhibitions. Mr. Salgado has created imagery that testifies to the fundamental dignity of all humanity, while simultaneously protesting its violation by war, poverty and other injustices. He has collaborated generously with international humanitarian organizations including UNICEF, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières and Amnesty International. Educated as an economist, he and his wife, Lélia Wanick Salgado, own Amazonas Images, an agency exclusively handling his work, and are presently supporting a reforestation and community revitalization project in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

William T. Sergeant
Rotary International
Chairman of the International PolioPlus Committee

William Sergeant serves as Chairman of the International PolioPlus Committee of The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. Actively involved in Rotary leadership since 1980, Mr. Sergeant previously served as vice president and director of Rotary International, Rotary Foundation trustee and chairman of Rotary International’s Council on Legislation and received the Distinguished Service Award and the Citation for Meritorious Service of The Rotary Foundation for his support of its humanitarian and educational programs. Until his retirement, Mr. Sergeant was the director of the nuclear safeguards and security division of Oak Ridge Operations, U.S. Department of Energy. Since his retirement, he has been a nuclear security consultant and an insurance official. He was the first recipient of the Kellogg’s Hannah Neil World of Children Award in 1998 and is the recipient of the United States Energy Research and Development Administrator's Special Achievement Award.

Robert Steinglass
BASICS
Immunization Team Leader

Robert Steinglass, MPH, is the team leader in charge of immunization at the BASICS II Project, a project funded by USAID to provide technical support throughout the world in the areas of immunization, neonatal health, integrated management of child illness, malaria and nutrition. Mr. Steinglass has been employed by JSI, Inc. since 1987. Since his involvement in smallpox eradication in the early 1970s, Mr. Steinglass has been an advisor to ministries of health and international organizations in the field of child immunization in more than 50 countries. For 10 years, he was the WHO resident advisor for child immunization programs in North Yemen, Oman and Nepal. He has been involved in epidemiological studies, operational and programmatic research, vaccine logistics and cold chain, disease surveillance, health policy formulation, new injection technologies, training and evaluation.

R.E. Turner
United Nations Foundation
Founder and Chairman

R.E. (Ted) Turner, the founder of CNN, is vice chair of AOL-Time Warner Inc. He is an active philanthropist and environmentalist and has received numerous civic and industry awards and honors, including being named Time magazine's "Person of the Year." In 1997, Mr. Turner announced a historic gift of $1 billion in support of UN causes and created the United Nations Foundation. Under Mr. Turner's leadership, the UN Foundation has established four program priorities: environment; population/women; peace, security and human rights; and children's health. As part of its children's health program, the UN Foundation has placed high priority on polio eradication ­ making its largest single donation, $28 million, to support global polio eradication efforts. In addition, the Foundation has teamed with The Rotary Foundation to help mobilize additional resources for polio eradication from the private sector.

Dr. Ronald J. Waldman
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health; Professor of Clinical Public Health

Dr. Ronald Waldman is a medical epidemiologist and specialist in child health in developing countries. He began his career as a volunteer with WHO’s Global Smallpox Eradication Program in 1975 and subsequently worked at CDC for more than 20 years, where he directed technical support activities for the Combating Childhood Communicable Diseases Project. In the 1980s and 1990s, he and his colleagues at CDC published a series of studies on the epidemiology of refugee health and provided public health assistance in a large number of international humanitarian crises. Dr. Waldman previously served as the coordinator of the Task Force on Cholera Control at WHO and the technical director of the BASICS Project. He has worked in complex emergencies in Somalia, Zaire, Rwanda, Bosnia, Albania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and, most recently, Iraq.

Timothy E. Wirth
United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund
President

As president of the UN Foundation since its inception in 1998, Tim Wirth, Ph.D., has organized and led the formulation of the Foundation’s mission and program priorities. He began his political career as a White House fellow under President Lyndon Johnson and was deputy assistant secretary for education in the Nixon administration. Following this position, he embarked on two decades of elected politics, representing Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 1975 - 1987, and joining the U.S. Senate in 1987, where he focused on environmental issues, especially global climate change and population stabilization. From 1993 through 1997, Wirth served in the U.S. Department of State as the first undersecretary for global affairs, where he coordinated U.S. foreign policy in the areas of refugees, population, environment, science, human rights and narcotics. A graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University, Wirth is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees.