Members: International Task Force for Disease Eradication

Current Task Force Members 

Kashef Ijaz, M.D., M.P.H. (Chair, 2021–Present; Member, 2020–Present)
Vice President for Health Programs
The Carter Center

Dr. Kashef Ijaz was previously the principal deputy director in the Division of Global Health Protection, Center for Global Health, at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He served as deputy director for science and programs in the Center for Global Health and chief of the Tuberculosis Field Services and Evaluation Branch in the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention. He helped lead the CDC’s responses to the West Africa Ebola epidemic of 2014-16, the MERS-CoV outbreak of 2013-14, and the H1N1 pandemic of 2009. A public health physician by training, Ijaz began his career as a medical epidemiologist at the Arkansas Department of Health, where he worked with marginalized rural populations at the state, local, and community levels. He has worked extensively in Asia, Africa, and across the developing world on malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases. 

Fatima (Fatoumata) Barry, Ph.D. (2023–Present)
Health Specialist
Health, Nutrition, and Population Global Practice
The World Bank

Fatima Barry leads the World Bank’s neglected tropical diseases work through the Deworming Africa Initiative and has been the World Bank’s Health, Nutrition and Population focal point for School Health and Nutrition since 2020.  She also supports health operations in West and Central Africa focused on health systems strengthening; pandemic preparedness and response; and maternal, child, and adolescent health. Prior to joining the World Bank, Barry worked for several national and international organizations in the fields of public health, human development, and program management, including Population Services International, International Fund for Agricultural Development, LITE-Africa, and the Aspen Institute. She holds a doctorate in geography, environment, and spatial sciences from Michigan State University, with a concentration on environmental health. She also earned a dual master’s degree in international relations and in natural resources and sustainable development from American University in Washington, D.C. and the U.N.-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica.

Simon Bland (2022–Present)
Chief Executive Officer
Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) 

Simon Bland has over 35 years of international development experience in marine and natural resource management, development economics, and global health. He was a volunteer with Voluntary Services Overseas in Papua New Guinea and then joined the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, where he led country programs in Russia, Ukraine, Kenya, and Somalia. Bland is the former director of the UNAIDS New York Office. Currently, he is the vice-chair of the board of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria and is a trustee of Malaria No More (U.K.). He is a member of the Forum on Public Private Partnerships within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in Washington, D.C., and was chair of the board of the Global Fund in 2011. He was awarded a Commander of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday Honor’s list in 2013 for service to global health. 

Ibrahima Socé Fall, Dr.Med., Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Sc. (2022–Present)
Director
Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases
World Health Organization (WHO)

Dr. Ibrahima Socé Fall is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and global health leader. Before being appointed to his current director position at WHO, he served as assistant director-general in charge of WHO’s emergency response. During his term, he led the organization’s response to high-impact epidemics, humanitarian crises, and acute public health events. In other previous roles he served as the regional emergency director in WHO’s African Region and the WHO representative in Mali. Fall was also appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General as Ebola crisis manager and head of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. He was trained as a military physician and has over 30 years of experience in medical practice and public health. Prior to joining WHO, Fall led Senegal’s efforts to interrupt dracunculiasis transmission in the 1990s. He is a fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians of the U.K.

Peter Figueroa, B.Sc., M.B.B.S., D.P.H., Ph.D. (2017–Present)
Professor of Public Health, Epidemiology, and HIV/AIDS
The University of the West Indies, Jamaica 

Dr. J. Peter Figueroa is a professor of public health, epidemiology, and HIV/AIDS at The University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica, where he has led the development of a Doctor of Public Health program. He was the national epidemiologist in Jamaica and led the National HIV/STI Program for more than 20 years. He also served as chief medical officer. He is chair of the Pan American Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Immunization, and he was a member of WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). Figueroa is part of the WHO working group on COVID-19 vaccines and a member of the UNAIDS scientific expert panel. He has published widely on communicable diseases, HIV/ STIs, HTLV-1, and public health. Figueroa has received many awards for his work, including a WHO award for global health leadership in 2019.

Donald R. Hopkins, M.D., M.P.H. (Chair, 2001–2016; Member, 2001–Present)
Special Advisor, Guinea Worm Eradication
The Carter Center

Dr. Donald R. Hopkins served as the former vice president for health programs at The Carter Center. He first joined the Center in 1987 as the senior consultant for the health programs, where he led the Center's efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease and river blindness. Hopkins' professional experience includes serving as deputy director and acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He was an assistant professor of tropical public health at Harvard School of Public Health, and he participated the Smallpox Eradication Program in Sierra Leone, India, and Ethiopia. He also co-chaired the 1997 Dahlem Conference in Berlin. Hopkins served as the Project Director for the first International Task Force for Disease Eradication. He is board certified in both pediatrics and public health. Hopkins has been a member of seven United States delegations to the World Health Assembly. 

Patrick Lammie, Ph.D. (2022–Present)
Director
Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center
The Task Force for Global Health

Patrick Lammie provides technical guidance and strategic oversight for the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases, an operational research portfolio that the NTD support center manages on behalf of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, and UKAid. He is a former senior staff scientist in the Disease Elimination and Control Group in the Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where his research was focused on lymphatic filariasis and integrated serosurveillance. He continues to support efforts to develop new tools and strategies to monitor and evaluate filariasis and other NTDs. Lammie served on the WHO's NTD Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group and on the Regional Program Review Groups for PAHO, AFRO, SEARO, and WPRO. He is currently serving as chair of WHO’s NTD Diagnostic and Technical Advisory Group and as the co-chair for the Strategic Technical Advisory Group on Disease Elimination for PAHO. 

Kim Lindblade, Ph.D. (2022–Present)
PMI Insights Technical Director and Senior Technical Advisor
Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases
PATH

Kim Lindblade is the technical director for the President’s Malaria Initiative Insights Project and senior technical advisor to the Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases department of PATH in Geneva. As former head of the Malaria Elimination Unit for the World Health Organization, she oversaw the development of the first WHO malaria elimination guidelines, supported countries in all regions of the world to eliminate malaria, and edited the report of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group on Malaria Eradication. Lindblade supported control of influenza in Thailand and Lao, and she assisted in the interruption of transmission of Ebola in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. She supported the Ministry of Health of Guatemala to eliminate onchocerciasis and monitor for emerging infectious diseases. She also led operational research efforts for malaria at the CDC-KEMRI program in Kenya and at the CDC Malaria Branch. 

David Molyneux, Ph.D., D.Sc. (2001–Present)
Professor of Tropical Health Sciences
Department of Parasitology
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

David Molyneux is the former director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. He is a member of the WHO Expert Panel on Parasitic Diseases and former president of the British Society of Parasitology and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is also a member of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group of the World Bank/UNDP/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases and a member of the International Commission for the Certification of Dracunculiasis Eradication. Molyneux is the former chair on the Expert Advisory Committee, Onchocerciasis Control Programme and was the executive secretary for the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis. He has been involved in several initiatives on the impact of change on vectors and disease distribution and contributed to books on biodiversity and infectious diseases for Harvard Medical School and the U.N. Millennium Assessment. 

Ana Morice Trejos, M.D., M.P.H., M.Sc. (2019–Present)
Pediatrician/Epidemiologist
Independent Consultant

Dr. Ana Morice Trejos is the former technical director of the Costa Rican Institute for Research and Training in Health and Nutrition and vice-minister of health in Costa Rica. An international consultant who’s worked with PAHO, WHO, and CDC, she’s been responsible for implementing measles and rubella elimination strategies and developing the regional protocol to verify measles, rubella, and congenital rubella syndrome elimination in the Americas. She has international experience in designing tools and training for monitoring coverage of public health interventions, data quality assessment, planning and microplanning for immunization service delivery and mass drug administration to eliminate neglected tropical diseases. 

Rory Nefdt, Ph.D., M.Sc. (2025–Present)
Senior Health Advisor
UNICEF

Rory Nefdt currently holds the position of senior health advisor at UNICEF, where he leads the Child Health Unit at their headquarters in New York. His work has primarily focused on combating major childhood diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria through integrated health service delivery. Over the last five years, Nefdt and his team have expanded the scope of the child health program to include prevention and management strategies for noncommunicable diseases among children — such as diabetes, sickle cell disease, rheumatic heart disease — and neglected tropical diseases, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. His career spans multiple roles across Africa, including a stint as the national malaria control program manager in Zambia. Nefdt also served in UNICEF's country offices in Zambia, Ethiopia, Kenya, as well as UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, where he supported community-level primary health care in over 21 countries.

William Schluter, M.D., M.S.P.H. (2019–Present)
Bureau Chief for Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. W. William Schluter served as the director for the Global Immunization Division at the CDC, before he was appointed to his current position. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing programs that supported the strengthening of immunization and vaccine-preventable disease surveillance systems, as well as disease-specific efforts including polio eradication and measles and rubella elimination. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Schluter was one of CDC’s principal contributors to efforts to support global COVID-19 vaccination systems and delivery. He also supported immunization programs in multiple countries, which included long-term assignments in the World Health Organization offices for Ethiopia, Nepal, and the Western Pacific Region based in the Philippines. Schluter attended Creighton University School of Medicine before completing residency training in family medicine, and general preventive medicine and public health. He served as an epidemic intelligence service officer at CDC in the National Immunization Program. 

Faisal Sultan, M.B.B.S. (2021-Present)
Chief Executive Officer and Consultant Physician
Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Pakistan

Dr. Faisal Sultan served as the Pakistan prime minister’s focal person on COVID-19 and as the special assistant to the prime minister on national health services, regulation, and coordination. He graduated from King Edward Medical College in Lahore. Sultan is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine in the specialties of internal medicine and infectious disease. He is also a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan. Sultan was an examiner in infectious diseases for the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Pakistan and has authored multiple publications. He has also served as a member of advisory committees for various organizations, including the Punjab Healthcare Commission, National AIDS Control Program, Pakistan Medical Research Council, University of Health Science of Pakistan, and the School of Biological Sciences at the University of the Punjab. 

Jordan Tappero, M.D., M.P.H. (2018-Present)
Deputy Director
Global Health, Neglected Tropical Diseases
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Dr. Jordan Tappero is a physician epidemiologist by training and joined the Gates Foundation after completing a 25-year career with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At present, he is focused on the eradication of Guinea worm, and the global elimination of lymphatic filariasis, human African trypanosomiasis, and visceral leishmaniasis in Asia. He served as CDC incident manager for complex humanitarian emergencies, including Haiti post-earthquake cholera and West African Ebola epidemics. Tappero has global health experience across four continents, including 14 years residing overseas as a CDC country director in Botswana, Thailand, Uganda, and Haiti. In 2017, he retired from the U.S. Public Health Service at the rank of rear admiral and assistant surgeon general. In 2020, Tappero provided direct foundation support to WHO in Geneva to establish a global surveillance system for COVID-19, and he returned in February and March of 2021 to develop WHO surveillance guidance for SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Dyann Wirth, Ph.D., M.A. (2001–Present)
Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Director of Harvard Malaria Initiative
Harvard School of Public Health 

Dyann Wirth is the former chair of the WHO/UNDP/World Bank Tropical Disease Research Steering Committee on Drugs for Malaria. She is the recipient of the Burroughs Welcome Award in Molecular Parasitology. Wirth is the immediate past president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the present chair of Harvard’s Division of Biological Sciences. Her research has focused on the Leishmania parasite, for which her laboratory has previously developed a transfection system. Recently, Wirth’s lab developed an analogous transfection system for the malaria parasite. By analyzing these two protozoan systems in parallel, she hopes both to understand the mechanism of drug resistance in protozoan parasites and to use this information to develop new approaches to either preventing or reversing drug resistance in these organisms.