Chang-Chuan Chan is a distinguished professor, associate dean and director of the Global Health Center at the National Taiwan University (NTU) College of Public Health (CPH). Chan established the Global Health Practicum in the Republic of Malawi and the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe for NTU students. He began the Global Health PhD program at the CPH in 2012 and is now organizing the Global Health Program Workshop in September 2014 for the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU).

Chan has also been active in ISEE and other international academic activities. He was the secretary of the organizing committee for the 1997 ISEE conference in Taipei, Taiwan, and has been a regular attendee at the society’s annual meetings, as well as an international advisor of the 2010 Joint Conference of ISES & ISEE in Seoul, Korea. He serves as president of the Society for Risk Analysis in Taiwan (TSRA) and East Asia Chapter of International Society of Exposure Science (ISES). He served at Academic Council of ISES from 2008-2011.

Chan has published more than 130 scientific papers in English on issues related to environmental epidemiology, environmental exposure and environmental risk assessment. He is a pioneer in investigating commuter exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particulate matters (PM) in the United States and Taiwan. He was one of the first Taiwanese scientists to conduct epidemiological studies on air pollution in 1990s. He also initiated a series of public health research on PM since 1998 in Taiwan including animal, panel and epidemiological studies, and he established a PM Supersite in 2003 to study the Asian Dust Storm’s health effects in Taipei. Many of his publications on air pollution effects have been included as references in the American Heart Association’s (AHA) scientific statements on PM air pollution and cardiovascular disease in 2010. He is currently involved in cross-country epidemiological studies on air pollution in Malaysia, Thailand and Mongolia and is an international partner of the European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects (ESCAPE). He leads a team from CPH and National Taiwan University Hospital to conduct a cohort study on health impacts of petrochemical complex in Taiwan. Chan maintains close interactions with many environmental epidemiologists, exposure assessors and risk assessment experts around the world.

Angela Chaudhuri joined Swasti in 2004 and is responsible for implementing its technical and management support strategy, as well as long-term, mutually fulfilling partnerships. Her strengths include strategic information systems, program design and writing winning proposals for a range of partners from community groups, civil society and academic partners to local and national governments in the Asia Pacific Region. She strongly believes in team ideation and innovations using a common sense approach and public and social health acumen. As a self-proclaimed gypsy and global citizen, Angela has lived in England, Holland, Singapore, Kolkata and Bangalore. She has worked in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, Maldives, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Thailand, the United States, the UK and Zanzibar. She was an oral surgeon in Bangalore and in the UK before moving into public health, studying at Boston University School of Public Health. She made the move to grasp the gravity of the public health cause, return to her motherland, be part of an important cause and leave behind a legacy.

Chen holds a Ph.D. in health economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a Fulbright scholar, a visiting professor at Harvard University and a professor in the Department of Economics at National Taipei University. Chen is also the President of the Taiwan Society of Health Economics (TaiSHE). His research interests include health economics, health care policy and management, National Health Insurance System and public finance. Chen has published more than 50 research papers in international journals such as American Journal of Public Health, Medical Care, Social Science and Medicine, Health Policy and Planning, Health Policy, and Health Economics. His recent publication, “Do Stock Prices Drive People Crazy,” published in Health Policy and Planning has drawn the attention from Taiwanese and international media.

Chen Wei-Shone, MD, is associate dean of the School of Medicine at National Yang-Ming University and chief of the Division of Experimental Surgery at Veterans General Hospital specializing in colorectal surgery. He completed his MD degree from Kaohsiung Medical University, a master’s degree in epidemiology from the Epidemic Disease Research Institute of Harvard University, and a PhD from National Yang-Ming University. He is also the founding and current president of Global Health Education Society, a NGO based in Taipei, with the goal of promoting global health. For more than a decade, Chen has led a team of medical professionals and medical students to provide medical services and establish health promotion programs in underserved areas such as Ladakh, Nepal, and Sichuan and Xi'an in China. Until recently, his team also extended the services to cover the remote areas in the eastern and western regions of Taiwan. Chen is a firm believer in “learning by serving others;” therefore, he urges medical students to participate in volunteer services for the socially disadvantaged to fathom the true meaning of practicing medicine.

Ya-Wen (Betty) Chiu M.E.M, Ph.D., is associate professor of the Master Program in the Global Health and Development, College of Public Health and Nutrition, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. She earned her master’s degree at Yale University and doctorate at University of California at Berkeley. Before joining Taipei Medical University in 2012, she served in the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and then the National Health Research Institutes. Her research covers health aid and development policy, international health, international organization, evidence-based practice (EBP), health and food security, and health adaptation to climate change.

Chiu is currently involved in the evaluation of humanitarian aid overseas, including short- and long-term medical missions. She has written widely on the effectiveness, strategies and policy on Taiwan’s health assistance. A book she wrote about the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2008 focused on the function and development of WHO and was published in Taiwan. She is one of the authors of a bestselling textbook entitled “International Health” (in Chinese) first published in Taiwan in 2012. In addition, she has published several peer-reviewed articles in relation to EBP of a variety of main and allied health professionals based on several nationwide surveys.

She is a specialist in methods to spread the implementation of EBP and investigating the impacts of EBP dissemination. To complete her work, she designed a series of EBP questionnaires, which are adopted by many international researchers. According to her research findings, Chiu has made many contributions in policy recommendation and policy-making. She is also an active consultant in several professional and scientific societies including Taiwan Evidence-Based Medicine Association, Taiwan Health Corps, Taiwan Harm Reduction Association, and Taiwan Society for Risk Analysis. Furthermore, she is a nationally and internationally recognized speaker. In addition to her professional specialties, she is an amateur soprano and interested in opera and chorus singing. She performed in the National Theater and National Concert Hall several times.

Aya Goto is an associate professor of public health at Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine. Goto’s main research interests are prevention of unintended pregnancy and parenting support. Her translational research in the past 15 years has been conducted in tight collaboration with local communities in Fukushima and Ho Chi Minh City and is combined with the capacity building of local health care professionals in maternal and child health care, as well as epidemiology. Her projects bridge science and local communities, as well as developing and developed countries in Asia.

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake, she has been working closely with public health nurses in Fukushima city, helping them respond appropriately to concerns among parents of small children about elevated background radiation. Recently, their focus is on promotion of health literacy. She also manages parenting support services, based on epidemiological data collected from the Fukushima Health Management Survey, which was launched after the disaster to monitor the health status of all residents in Fukushima prefecture.

Fukushima Radiation and Health: http://www.fmu.ac.jp/radiationhealth/

Song-Lih Huang graduated with an MD degree from National Yang Ming Medical College (’85), Master of Occupational Health (’89) and Doctor of Science (’93) from the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health. He currently teaches at the Institute of Public Health and the International Health Program at National Yang Ming University. His research interests in recent years focus on human rights issues, particularly human rights indicators and the application of human rights principles in various vulnerable populations.

A recent three-year grant from the National Science Council (Taiwan) is a collaborative work across different disciplines to sketch the development of human rights narratives in Taiwan. A longer strand of interest is in tobacco control, including the analysis of effectiveness of population-based interventions on teenagers, using a mixed method involving existing survey data and focus group discussions among teenagers. He also participated in a decade-long project in which he, serving as secretary general of an NGO (Taiwan International Medical Alliance), worked with NGO and governmental partners in Cambodia to advance tobacco control legislations and policies. He has published extensively on tobacco smoking interventions among the youth, as well as human rights issues.

Yujiro Kuroda is a health psychologist and an assistant professor of public health at Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine. His main research interests are psychosocial care after disaster, stakeholder involvement and bioethics. He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University at Albany, SUNY in 2004, and an master’s degree from Kitasato University in 2008. Currently, he is a PhD candidate t the University of Tokyo. He received the Best Paper Award (Kaneko award) from the Japanese Society of General Hospital Psychiatry in 2010 and is active in the Japanese Society of Public Health, Japan Psycho-oncology Society, International Psycho-oncology Society, Japan Society of General Hospital Psychiatry and Japan Association for Bioethics.

After the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, he and his team started a risk communication project in Iitate Village (included in the evacuation zone) with a Japanese government grant. He continues to be an active advisor of the village’s Health and Welfare Department and the national Reconstruction Agency. His current work focuses on re-conducting health promotion plans in the village, working with local and international stakeholders.

Okamura obtained his doctoral degree in health sciences at Kyorin University, Tokyo, and has been actively pursuing his studies on long-term care for the elderly. He is currently an associate professor at Kyorin University and lectures on social welfare theory. He also lectures on community health and social epidemiology in the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies.

Okamura is a certified social worker and care worker with hands-on experience at several nursing homes in Japan. He has served on the council of the Japan Academy for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, as well as on its journal editorial board. He remains involved with long-term care facilities as an accreditation inspector. Furthermore, he contributed to a national program under the Economic Partnership Agreement to enable Indonesian caregivers to work at long-term care facilities in order to obtain Japanese qualification as certified care workers.

He has published several articles on factors associated with quality of care services in long-term care facilities using epidemiological methods. He has also authored publications on acceptance policy of foreign care workers from a moral philosophical viewpoint. In addition he is concerned with the theoretical aspects of migrant care worker policy from the viewpoint of social and global justice. He is presently collaborating with Chiang Mai Rajabhat University, Thailand, on the care of elderly patients with HIV as part of his focus on equitable care burden distribution.

Ruchi Sogarwal has a doctoral degree in epidemiology and more than a decade of professional experience in program science with a special focus on mother and child health, adolescent health and development, and chronic disease (e.g. HIV/AIDS, NCD). She received her training in public health at the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She specializes in mixed methods research – combining quantitative and qualitative research, large-scale survey techniques and evaluating the impact of development programs. She currently serves as associate director at MAMTA: Health Institute for Mother and Child. She leads several programs/initiatives including NCD initiative in India (supported by Medtronic), integration of MCH with NCD in Andhra Pradesh (supported by Bristol-Meyer Squibb), and integration of non-communicable conditions with adolescent reproductive and sexual health (supported by SIDA). Before joining MAMTA, she worked with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, Reproductive and Child Health, AIDS Control Program and NCD. She has significantly contributed in the establishment of a nationwide research agenda for reproductive and child health, HIV/AIDS control and NCD including prioritization of research, using research in the policy, guidelines for ethics in HIV/AIDS research, and capacity building and networking of research institutions.

In addition, she has contributed in planning, conducting and managing various evaluations such as a targeted intervention program in India, a home base care and support program for children living with HIV/AIDS, a mid-term evaluation of NACP-III, assessment of ART services and more. She serves on the editorial boards of various journals including American Journal of Public Health Research and the Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development. She also referees national and international journals including International Journal of the Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Indian Journal of Community Medicine, and PloS One. She has published more than 30 research papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals. 

Byongho Tchoe is president of KIHASA (Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs), a government think-tank founded in 2012. He also served as director of the health care research center at HIRA (Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service) in Korea, a public authority that examines claims from health care providers, administers the provider payment system, and evaluates performances and/or qualities of health care. He has played a pivotal role in making major health care policies as a researcher of government think-tanks for 30 years and served as an advisor to the Minister of Health and Welfare. He was a president of the Korean Association of Health Economics and Policy from 2006-07. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Georgia and an MPA in public policy from Seoul National University. His research interests are health care financing and delivery, health care policy development and politics, and economic evaluation of health care.

Tzeng holds a doctoral degree in public health nutrition and decades of experience in community nutrition programming. She received her training in nutritional science at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan, and her public health education at School of Public Health, University of California at Los Angeles. She currently is an associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Science at Fu Jen Catholic University. Tzeng specializes in nutritional survey methodology, young children nutritional assessment, dietary guidelines and nutrition education initiatives/programs, and cancer nutrition epidemiology. She also serves as a member of the advisory committee on Cancer Prevention Policy and the Advisory Committee on Food Safety and Nutrition of the National Government in Taiwan.

Tzeng was invited to be an advisory counselor for planning and conducting a national nutritional survey of Kiribati adults and students by Taiwan International Cooperation and Development Fund in 2013. Before serving at Fu Jen Catholic University, she worked at the Ministry of Health and Welfare. She made significant contributions to the initiation of national dietary guidelines and establishment of a registered dietitian system, nutrition labeling, national nutritional survey, and food composition database in Taiwan. She referees national and international journals including Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition and Taiwan Journal of Public Health. She has published more than 30 research papers in national and international peer-reviewed journals.

Currently an assistant professor at Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, Walther’s responsibilities include teaching and research within the Master Program in Global Health and Development of the College of Public Health and Nutrition. Besides teaching and research, he trains students in English scientific writing, presentational skills and pursuing students’ research projects.

He received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Amherst College, Mass., in 1993, and a D.Phil. in zoology from Oxford University in 1998. He then pursued a three3-month research project in a rainforest near Mindo, northwestern Ecuador before completing post-doctoral research positions at the Konrad Lorenz-Institute for Comparative Ethology, Vienna, the Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, and the Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, University of Stellenbosch. He was then a science officer for DIVERSITAS – the international program of biodiversity science – for two years and an assistant professor at the American University of Paris for one year.

His research interests are (1) the behavior, ecology and conservation of Afrotropical, Neotropical, East Asian and Palearctic migrant birds, (2) modeling bird and mammal distributions using biostatistical techniques, (3) statistical methods for species richness estimation and conservation area selection, and (4) host-parasite and predator-prey interactions.

Within these fields, he has published 64 scientific papers, reports and book chapters of which 31 are SCI-indexed publications, and these 64 papers have been cited more than 1,200 times. He is currently working on research projects investigating the migratory and territorial behavior of Taiwanese birds, modeling the distribution of African and Taiwanese birds and mammals, selecting conservation areas for African migratory birds, investigating the effects of climate change on African birds, and on the effects of behavior on the evolution of pathogen virulence.