Meet the chairs of the 16th EPH Conference 2023


Anthony Staines

Chair of the 16th European Public Health Conference

Anthony Staines (MB, MSc, PhD, FFPHMI) is Professor of Health Systems at the Centre for Integrated Care and School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin, Ireland. He is an epidemiologist and a public health consultant whose research focusses on the uses of information in health care. He has a particular interest in child health and disability. Working closely with the Health Intelligence Unit in the Health Services Executive in Ireland, he has led a number of projects to deliver innovative health information approaches in Ireland and Europe. He teaches on programmes in public health and health systems within DCU, and on digital health in an innovative national programme led by the Health Services Executive. He was formerly the chair of the Irish Blood Transfusion service, and now leads St. Michael’s House, one of the larger providers of services for people with intellectual disability in Ireland.

 

Regien Biesma-Blanco

Chair of the International Scientific Committee of the 16th EPH Conference

Regien Biesma (BSN, MSc, MSc, PhD) is Associate Professor of Global Maternal and Child Health at the Global Health Unit, Department of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands. She is an epidemiologist and public health specialist with a research focus on estimating and reducing the disparity gap in maternal, neonatal and child health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. She has a particular interest in global nutrition. Her work explores factors during (pre)pregnancy, birth outcomes, early child growth and health and disease later in life. At UMCG, she supervises PhD candidates, coordinates internships in social medicine and leads the advanced research master programme on Health Systems and Prevention. Before joining UMCG in 2018, she spent 11 years at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland where she lectured in Global Public Health and Epidemiology and worked on health systems and policy research in Africa and Asia. She was an invited expert for the World Health Organization expert consultation on maximising positive synergies between health systems and Global Health Initiatives. She is a research fellow at the Aletta School of Public Health, the Netherlands, member of the Working Group on International Nutrition in the Netherlands and member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifecourse Nutrition Center, Agder University, Norway.