Maria Neira
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

María P. Neira (born 1962) is a Spanish physician, international civil servant and diplomat, who has since 2005, served as the Director of the Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health Department (PHE) of the World Health Organization (WHO).


Biography

María P. Neira studied medicine and surgery at the University of Oviedo in Asturias, Spain. She specialised in endocrinology and metabolic diseases at the Université René Déscartes in Paris, France. She earned a master's degree in public health and a diploma in human nutrition from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, in Paris, France. Neira went on to receive the international diploma in Emergency Preparedness and Crisis Management granted by the University of Geneva in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
. In her early career, Neira was the medical coordinator with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in refugee camps in
Salvador Salvador, meaning "salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...
and
Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
during the armed conflict and the period of instability. She was the Vice Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs in Spain from 2002 and 2005. She also served as President of the Spanish Food Safety and Nutrition Agency. For five years, she was the Public Health Adviser in the Ministry of Health in Maputo and Mozambique. She was the UN Public Health Advisor/Physician for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kigali, Rwanda. Maria Neira joined the WHO in 1993 as the Coordinator of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control. In 1999, she was the Director of the Department of Control, Prevention and Eradication. She was appointed the Director of the Department of Public Health and Environment at the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2005. In November 2019 Maria Neira joined the High Level Advisory Board of the Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change.


Honours and awards

* Médaille de l'Ordre du Mérite National by the Government of France * Spanish National Nutrition Strategy Award * Mujer Extraordinaria Award by Queen Letizia of Spain, * Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Asturias * ''“Inspirational women working towards protecting the environment,”'' International Women's Day Celebration in Geneva, by UNEP (2016)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neira, Maria 1962 births 21st-century diplomats 21st-century civil servants Living people Paris Descartes University alumni Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni Spanish diplomats Spanish women physicians University of Geneva alumni University of Oviedo alumni