Speaker Spotlight: Natalia Linou
By: Ibrahim Seriki, Travel Scholar and Speaker Ambassador at the 2018 Planetary Health Annual Meeting
Natalia Linou is a policy specialist at UNDP where she joined about a decade ago. She was previously in duty stations in Beirut and Lebanon now currently at the headquarters in New York, United States where she create guidance for the country offices globally. She initially worked as a speech writer in UNDP and later took two years off from UNDP to work as a scientific adviser in the New York City health department where she used her communication and epidemiology skills to handle issues that arise with racism and health. She now leads the planetary health portfolio in UNDP which involves in activities on climate change, biodiversity, conservation, land use etc. with a future focus on human health as well.
She has a doctorate degree from Harvard School of Public Health in social epidemiology. She decided to join UNDP rather than academia because she prefers to practice and support translational research. She has been involved in numerous research work and publications including gender based violence in Nigeria. She has strong interest in gender based violence and will love to head UNFPA in the future but right now she is looking to grow the planetary health portfolio for UNDP.
During the 2018 Planetary Health Meeting, she was the chair for the panel discussion on “Roles and Responsibilities of Global and National Agencies, Governments and Partners.” It was an engaging and enlightening questions and answers session which focused on governance, partnerships and innovations, translational research into policy, advocacy and leadership. Issues like magnitude of planetary health, sharing research and communicate effectively with government and agencies were discussed.
I was excited about meeting Natalia and she really surpassed my expectations after our discussion. She enriched my knowledge about planetary health and how I can benefit from international exposure in my public health career. I will like to thank the organizers of this meeting for this opportunity to learn and connect with an expert in the field of planetary health.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Planetary Health Alliance or its members.
