Dr. Rhonda Sealey-Thomas, a citizen of Antigua and Barbuda, was on Thursday sworn as the brand new Assistant Director of the Pan American Well being Group (PAHO), Regional Workplace for the Americas of the World Well being Group (WHO).
Dr. Sealey-Thomas holds a Bachelor of Drugs, Bachelor of Surgical procedure diploma, in addition to a Grasp of Public Well being and a Doctorate in Public Well being from the College of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. She has labored for the Ministry of Well being in Antigua and Barbuda for over 25 years, most lately serving as Chief Medical Officer from 2005-2023.
In her new put up, Dr. Sealey-Thomas is a part of PAHO’s Government Administration group, together with PAHO Director, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Deputy Director, Mary-Lou Valdez, and Director of Administration, Mrs Kristan Beck.
“Dr. Sealey-Thomas is aware of, understands and shares the values and the mission of this nice group. Certainly, the work of her entire life displays these values of fairness, excellence, solidarity, respect and integrity,” PAHO Director, Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, stated. “The Group is kind of lucky to have her at this important time.”
Throughout the ceremony, the brand new Assistant-Director highlighted the first well being challenges the Area of the Americas should face over the subsequent few years, together with non-communicable ailments, local weather change, the power to have resilient techniques and the pressing have to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response. Dr. Sealey-Thomas expressed her dedication to work with Dr. Barbosa to assist his imaginative and prescient for the way forward for PAHO and for the Area of the Americas.
“There’s a wealth of information, expert personnel, studying establishments and different entities that bind us collectively,” she stated. “It’s my aspiration that in my tenure we work even nearer as a Area according to PAHO’s worth of solidarity.”
Additionally talking on the ceremony, Minister of Well being, Wellness & the Setting of Antigua and Barbuda, Sir Molwyn Joseph. He underscored the “pivotal position” PAHO has performed and “should proceed to play” within the Area, and welcomed Dr. Sealey-Thomas’ appointment “due to our deep information of her capability to carry out efficiently and each confidence in her means to strengthen the PAHO group.”
Dr. Sealey-Thomas oversees the departments of Communicable Illnesses, Prevention, Management and Elimination; Social and Environmental Determinants for Well being Fairness; Proof and Intelligence for Motion in Well being; Well being Methods and Companies; Innovation, Entry to Medicines and Well being Applied sciences; and Noncommunicable Illnesses Prevention and Psychological Well being;; in addition to the Particular Packages on Complete Immunization and the Regional Revolving Funds.
As well as, three PAHO/WHO technical facilities are below Dr. Sealey-Thomas’ accountability: the Pan American Heart for Foot-and-Mouth Illness and Veterinary Public Well being (PANAFTOSA); the Latin American Heart for Perinatology, Ladies and Reproductive Well being (CLAP); and the Latin American and Caribbean Heart on Well being Sciences Data (BIREME).
”Please be assured that I embark on this journey with humility, dedication and compassion,” Dr. Sealey-Thomas concluded. “Allow us to all do not forget that our collective efforts are the driving power behind constructing more healthy, extra resilient, and extra equitable societies all through the Americas.
Biography
Dr. Sealey-Thomas began her profession as a Medical Officer for the Ministry of Well being in Antigua and Barbuda in 1994. She then served because the nation’s Chief Medical Officer from 2005-2023, the place she acted as the first advisor on most pertinent well being points.
Dr. Sealey-Thomas started her collaboration with PAHO in 2004 as Affiliate Guide within the Non-communicable Illnesses Unit, the place she helped form the Group’s strategy to regional challenges similar to diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and most cancers.
She was a member of PAHO’s working group accountable for crafting a Well being Agenda for the Americas throughout 2005-2006, a member of the Group’s advisory group on the Noncommunicable Illness Agenda within the Caribbean and was additionally Chair of the Regional Validation Committee for the Elimination of the Mom to Little one Transmission of HIV and Congenital Syphilis.
