Conference “Digital health in times of crisis” 9th October 2025

Dr. Anaid (Aniya) Atasuntseva is a licensed clinical psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. She also serves as chief mental health advisor at Telehelp Ukraine, a non-profit volunteer effort seeking to provider telehealth medical and mental health consultation and support to individuals in Ukraine affected by the Russian invasion. In addition to providing direct care, Telehelp Ukraine partners with international agencies to identify needs and train Ukrainian based of mental health professionals in evidence-based practices. Dr. Atasuntseva is an expert in treating adolescents presenting with suicidality and self-harming behaviors. Her additional areas of clinical focus include the treatment of trauma and disordered eating.

Dr. Rabih El Chammay is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst recognized for his leadership in mental health in Lebanon and internationally. Since 2014, he has led the National Mental Health Program within the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, in partnership with WHO, UNICEF, and the International Medical Corps, with the goal of reforming the care system and raising public awareness of mental health issues. He is also a Lecturer at Saint Joseph University and practices at Hôtel Dieu de France Hospital in Beirut. With over 15 years of experience with international agencies such as WHO, UNHCR, and UNICEF, he brings recognized technical and strategic expertise. He served as Chair of the WHO Advisory Group on Mental Health from 2022 to 2024 and was subsequently renewed for a second term from 2025 to 2027. Fully dedicated, he works to improve care and promote mental health as a fundamental right

Lola Kola is a researcher in global mental health with over 15 years of experience in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in West Africa. She is a Medical Sociologist with extensive experience in the development and clinical implementation of mental health digital interventions in low- and middle-income countries, particularly across Sub-Saharan Africa She is affiliated to the University of Ibadan and Kings College London. Her research project has been funded by major funders such as the National Institute of Health USA, the Wellcome Trust, UK, Medical Research Council, UK, Grand Challenges Canada and the IDRC, Canada. Her work has been published in The Lancet, Nature, JAMA, World Psychiatry and other leading journals. She teaches and mentoring young researchers.

Hemes Nkwa is a doctor specialising in field epidemiology and president of Youth for Health and Development of Africa (YOHEDA), an organisation that has already trained and raised awareness among more than 50,000 young people, women and vulnerable individuals in Central Africa on health and access to reliable information. Committed to the front line in crises such as COVID-19 and maternal deaths in Cameroon, she also coordinates the International Council for Dialogue and Partnership, a pan-African platform building bridges between civil society, decision-makers and international partners. Her work, at the intersection of digital health, citizen diplomacy and social innovation, makes her a key voice in thinking about digital health as a lever for equity in times of crisis.

Koshal is a Public Health Practitioner at Ministry of Health and Population Nepal. With more than 15 years of professional experience in Nepalese health system, he has been undertaking responsibility of implementing various disease surveillance, outbreak response and epidemiological research activities. He has led several outbreak investigations and surveillance programs for nationally prioritized infectious diseases like COVID-19, Cholera and Dengue. Currently working as the focal point for implementation of Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) in Nepal, he is also engaged working closely with Academia, Professional Organizations, International organizations and UN agencies. His research works focus on epidemiology, digital health, surveillance, migrant health and community-based interventions.

With over 25 years of experience in public health, including with the US CDC and WHO. In UNICEF, he contributes to shaping global strategies for public health emergencies. He focuses on infectious diseases epidemiology, transmission dynamics, and modeling. He seeks to understand how pathogens spread within and between populations and to identify drivers of outbreaks to inform timely, and effective responses. He explores the intersection of outbreak response and public health policy, examining how health systems and governance influence epidemic trajectories. He focuses on the challenges of responding to threats in resource-constrained and emergency-prone settings.

Dr Justus Nsio Mbeta is an experienced epidemiologist and manager with over twenty years of experience in epidemic surveillance and response. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), he has held several senior positions, including National Director of the National Border Hygiene Programme, Coordinator of the Management Unit of the Technical Secretariat for the Global Fund's C19-RM Grant, National Coordinator for Epidemics and Deputy Country Director of Africa CDC.

Dr. Anushka R. Patel is a trauma-focused clinical psychologist. She is based at Mass General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she is conducting NIMH-funded research on domestic violence. Anushka specializes in assessing and treating trauma reactions with a cultural lens in low-resource settings. Anushka is leveraging strengths in low-resource communities, such as high cellphone usage, to improve access to care and using briefer treatment designs (e.g., single-session interventions) to improve adoption of care at scale. Anushka’s work has been cited in Al Jazeera and New York Times. Anushka has been with the EMPOWER project since 2020, which aims to build the mental health workforce globally using a suite of digital trainings designed for non-specialist frontline health workers. Anushka co-led content development for two EMPOWER courses; she is currently designing the methodology for competency assessments to ‘graduate’ EMPOWER-trained learners into delivering case-based care.

Steven Wanyee, is a digital health specialist with over 25 years experience at the “frontlines'' of implementing digital interventions, services and applications in health predominantly in over 20 Low to Medium Income Countries (LMICs) in Africa. His work spans across the entire spectrum of digital transformation in health technology solution development and deployment at scale; Policy, strategy and guidelines development including an enterprise approach to digital health founded on sound infrastructure; Informatics workforce development; Promoting and supporting adoption and use of standards such as HL7 FHIR. Globally, he works closely with organizations contributing significantly to development of digital health that include WHO, World Bank, US and Africa CDC, GIZ, Global Fund, Gates Foundation, McGovern Foundation among many others. One of his current projects is supporting AfricaCDC to refresh its Digital Transformation Strategy, develop a Digital Health and Data Governance Framework and establish the first Standards, AI and Interoperability Lab in Africa.