WHO Director-General Special Envoys

Mr José Luis Castro

Appointment date: 1 September 2024

Mr Castro founded the global health organization Vital Strategies and led it for 20 years. During his tenure, Vital Strategies grew from a small nonprofit focused primarily on lung health to a US$ 100 million organization with a global team of more than 400 working on global health issues, including tobacco control, environmental and climate health, road safety, food policy, overdose prevention, and data for health. The organization now reaches into more than 80 countries, mostly low- and middle-income.

Mr Castro served for eight years as the Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, a post he held while also leading Vital Strategies. During his leadership, The Union expanded its global portfolio with offices in 13 countries, staff of more than 600 worldwide, and almost 200 projects in 89 countries. During his tenure, Mr Castro forged new strategic partnerships, including with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, USAID, the U.K. Department for International Development, and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

He served from 2017 to 2019 as the first president of the NCD Alliance, a network of civil society organizations in 170 countries dedicated to combating the global epidemic of noncommunicable diseases. In 2014, Mr Castro co-founded the Global TB Caucus, an international network of over 2300 parliamentarians from 132 countries.

Between 1993 and 2001, Mr Castro worked with WHO South-East Asia Regional Office to assist the government of India in the implementation of the largest tuberculosis control programme in the world. Prior to that, during the largest outbreak of multidrug-resistant TB ever to occur in the United States of America, Mr Castro helped build the programme that is still the foundation for TB control in New York City.

Mr Castro earned his Master of Public Administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Pace University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society, and serves on the Advisory Board on Dyson College of Arts and Sciences.

Announcement of the appointment of Mr José Luis Castro →

Sir Liam Donaldson

Appointment date: 1 January 2024

Sir Liam Donaldson is recognized as an international champion of public health and patient safety. He was the founding Chair of the World Health Organization’s World Alliance for Patient Safety, launched in 2004 and has served as Vice-Chair of the World Health Organization’s Executive Board. More recently, Sir Liam has led the development of the Global Patient Safety Action Plan 2021-2030 and the WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm.

In addition to his new role as the WHO Director-General Special Envoy for Patient Safety, Sir Liam is Chair of the Independent Monitoring Board for the Global Polio Eradication Programme, and Chair of the Transition Monitoring Board of the same Programme. In the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, he is Chair of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) for the North East and North Cumbria and Professor of Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Earlier in his career, Sir Liam was Chief Medical Officer for England, and the United Kingdom's Chief Medical Adviser. He has produced landmark reports which have set health policy and legislation in fields such as stem cell research, clinical governance, patient safety and quality of health care, infectious disease control, patient empowerment, clinical performance, smoke-free public places, medical regulation, and organ and tissue retention.

Sir Liam has authored over 210 papers in peer-reviewed journals and a standard textbook of public health. He has received many honours and awards including: a Knighthood in 2002, 15 honorary degrees from British universities, the Gold Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and a Picker Institute Award for leadership in patient-centred care.

Sir Liam initially trained as a surgeon in Birmingham.

Dr Vanessa Kerry

Appointment date: 22 June 2023

Dr Kerry is the co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health (Seed), a non-profit organization focused on health systems strengthening and transformation through long-term investments and training of the health workforce. Under her leadership, Seed has helped educate more than 34 000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in seven countries, helping to improve health care for more than 73 million people.

Dr Kerry has spoken and written about the effects of climate change on human health and health systems and the need to integrate a health-centred response into climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Dr Kerry is supporting the COP28 Presidency to shape the first-ever COP Day of Health and leading efforts to build advocacy around the impact of climate change on health and ensure equitable and just climate action.

She is a critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and is the associate director of partnerships and global initiatives at the MGH Center for Global Health. She directs the Global Public Policy and Social Change programme at Harvard Medical School, focusing on links between security and health. She is the mother of two children.

Announcement of the appointment of Dr Vanessa Kerry →