SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland was born on 20 April 1939 in Oslo, Norway. She studied medicine at the University of Oslo and obtained her M.D. in 1963. She received a Masters Degree in Public Health from Harvard University in 1965. From 1965 to 1967, Dr. Brundtland served as medical officer at the Norwegian Directorate of Health. From 1968 to 1974, she was Assistant Medical Director at the Oslo Board of Health, Department of School Services. In 1974, she was appointed Minister of Environment, a position she held for five years. In 1981, Dr. Brundtland became Prime Minister of Norway, an office she held a total of three times. At the end of her third term of office in October 1996, she had been Head of Government for more than ten years. At the 101st session of the Executive Board of the World Health Organization, the board members passed a resolution nominating Dr. Brundtland for the post of Director-General of WHO. She became the first woman elected to the post and took office on 21 July 1998. Among her numerous international positions, Dr. Brundtland chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development, which formulated the concept of "sustainable development" and made recommendations leading to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Dr. Brundtland is married and is a mother of four and a grandmother of seven.

Ms. Angela E. V. King

Ms. King joined the United Nations Secretariat in 1966 from the Permanent Mission of Jamaica and began working in the areas of human rights and social development. She worked in the Department of Economic Affairs and participated in the first United Nations conference on women in Mexico City in 1975 and the Conference for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1980. Beginning in 1987, Ms. King served at the director level in the Office of Human Resources Management, as Director of Recruitment and Placement and then as Director of Staff Administration and Training. From 1992-1994, she was on assignment as Chief of Mission of the United Nations Observer Mission in South Africa, one of only three women who have headed a United Nations peace and security mission. Most recently she was deputy to the Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Director of the Operational Services Division. She represented the office at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995. In 1997, Ms. King was appointed Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. Ms. King also chairs the Inter-Agency Committee on Women and Gender and Equality of the Administration Committee on Coordination and continues to head the Division for the Advancement of Women Ms. King has a B.A (Hons.) in History from the University of the West Indies and an M.A. in Educational Sociology and Administration from the University of London, as well as further graduate studies in educational sociology at New York University. Ms. King has one son.

Wanda K. Jones Dr. P.H.

Dr. Wanda Jones is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health /Women's Health of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Before being selected for this position in February 1998, she was the Associate Director for Women's Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to that, she was the Assistant Director for Science in the Office of the Associate Director for HIV/AIDS. A Penn State graduate in medical technology, she has worked in an inner city hospital blood bank and in its hematology laboratory, in a small town hospital as its night shift technologist and then as its microbiologist, and for a state public health laboratory as a laboratory improvement consultant. After obtaining her doctorate in public health laboratory practice from the University of North Carolina, Dr. Jones joined CDC in 1987 as an HIV laboratory trainer. In 1990 she moved to the Office of HIV/AIDS, where she was active in policy issues related to HIV laboratory testing, women and AIDS, HIV vaccine development, and health-care workers. Dr. Jones is recognized for her leadership on women's health issues in Federal and state public health communities.

Pnina Herzog, Ph.C., M.R. Pharm.S.

Pnina Herzog is the President of the International Council of Women, the oldest existing women's international nongovernmental organization. She was First Vice Chairperson of the World Health Organization Executive Board in 1994-1995 and a member of the Board from 1993-1996. During her 34 year career as a civil servant, Mrs. Herzog worked for the Israeli Ministry of Health, where over the years she was in charge of registration of new drugs, intensive drug monitoring, clinical trials, and international relations. She retired from the Ministry of Health as Deputy Director General and Senior Advisor. Mrs. Herzog has a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry from Manchester University. She also studied microbiology, pharmacology, and public health at George Washington University, Ottawa University, and the School of Public Health in Jerusalem. At the International Council of Women, Mrs. Herzog was chair of the Health Committee in 1976-1986, activating national health committees in all ICW affiliates. She later became a member of the ICW board, then its vice president and in 1997 was elected its President.

Elaine M. Wolfson, Ph.D.

Dr. Wolfson is the president of the Global Alliance for Women's Health, chair of the UN NGO Health Committee and an international health policy consultant. She has been studying socio-economic and governmental parameters of women's health policy formation and implementation for over twenty years and is author, co-author and/or editor of articles, monographs, and reports on women's health. Dr Wolfson received a B.A. from Smith College, a Ph.D. from New York University and a Certificate in Business Administration and Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught public policy and organizational management in M.P.A. programs at New York University, Rutgers University, the State University of New York at Stony Brook and Baruch College of the City University of New York. Currently, she is an adjunct faculty member of the Division of Health Policy and Management, Columbia School of Public Health.