Prof Helen Rees

Professor Helen Rees is the Founder and Executive Director of Wits RHI, the largest research Institute at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa. A medical doctor by profession, Professor Rees is a Personal Professor in the University of Witwatersrand’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Co-Director of the Wits African Leadership in Vaccinology Expertise, Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and an Honorary Fellow at Cambridge University’s Murray Edwards College, UK. She holds a Doctor of Science (Medicine) honoris causa from the University of London and a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Rhodes University, RSA. Professor Rees is the Board Chair of the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority. She was Chair of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) and now chairs the WHO’s African Regional Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (RITAG). 

Professor Rees is recognised as a leader in global health and has served on and chaired many other national and global scientific committees and boards. She is the Chair of WHO’s IHR Emergency Committee on Polio and co-Chairs the SAGE working group on Ebola Vaccines, is a member of the IHR Standing Committee on mpox and COVID-19 having previously served on the WHO’s IHR Emergency Committee on COVID-19.  She also served previous IHR Emergency Committees on Ebola and Yellow Fever.  Professor Rees is a member of WHO’s Scientific and Technical Advisory Group on Infectious Hazards and on the new WHO African Regional Emergency Preparedness and Response Technical Advisory Group. She is a steering committee member of the Coalition for Clinical Research for Pandemics in LMICs.  From 2015 to 2016, she was a member of the WHO Review Committee on the Role of the International Health Regulations (2005) in the Ebola Outbreak and Response. She was the Chair of the WHO SAGE Committee on the Use of Vaccines in Humanitarian Emergencies. 

In the field of vaccines, Professor Rees was a member of the Gavi Board and Chair of the Programme and Policy Committee. She currently chairs the Gavi Vaccine Investment Strategy that is tasked with recommending a priority list for vaccine procurement between 2025-2030. She is the newly appointed Chair of the MedAccess Board which is a global not for profit organisation that supports access to neglected therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccines required in LMICs.

Professor Rees has won many international and national awards for her contribution to global health and to science, including being made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE),  being awarded the South African National Order of the Baobab for her contribution to medicine and to medical research, being made an Officer of the French National Order of Merit for her contribution to global health and to the COVID-19 response and receiving the Platinum South African National Batho Pele Award for excellence in contribution to the South African COVID-19 response.  In 2022 she was named a ‘standout voice’ in African public health by Harvard Public Health.