Dr. Susan Pineda Mercado

Dr. Susan Pineda Mercado is a medical doctor and public health expert with extensive experience at international, national, and local levels. Her international work includes a 15-year distinguished career at the World Health Organization, where she retired as Director of Noncommunicable Disease and Health through the Life Course Approach. She is internationally recognized for her work on tobacco control, health promotion, healthy cities, reproductive health, family planning, and strategic health communication. She has also worked in the humanitarian sector with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as Strategic Adviser for COVID-19.  At the national level, in the 1990’s she served as Undersecretary and Chief of Staff of the Department of Health, Philippines and recently was a Board Member of the Expert Panel for Public Health at the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. Since 2018, she was designated with diplomatic status as Special Envoy of the President for Global Health Initiatives. She is currently Director, Food Systems and Resiliency at the Hawai’i Institute for Public Health.