Regien Biesma-Blanco

Chair of the International Scientific Committee 2021

Dr Regien Biesma is an epidemiologist / 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 (LMIC). She has a particular interest is global nutrition. In the context of the developmental origins of adult health and disease, her work explores factors during (pre)pregnancy, birth outcomes, early child growth and health and disease later in life.
Regien Biesma works at the Global Health Unit, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), Groningen, the Netherlands, where she coordinates Internships in Social Medicine Abroad and teaches global health at under- and postgraduate level at the medical faculty. She currently supervises PhD candidates and coordinates the ‘Safe Motherhood’ PhD Network. 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 maximizing positive synergies between health systems and Global Health Initiatives.
Regien Bosma is a research fellow at the Aletta School of Public Health, the Netherlands and a member of the Netherlands Working Group on international Nutrition and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lifecourse Nutrition Center, Agder University, Norway.