Welcoming the New Co-Chair of Our Public Health in Emergencies and Disasters Working Group

A warm welcome to Colette Cunningham for joining our family as Co-Chair of the Public Health in Emergencies and Disasters Working Group.

Colette is a multilingual, initiative-taking, and pragmatic global health professional with over 20 years’ experience in health-related work as a nurse, global health educator, complex humanitarian emergency worker, and international consultant (UN, EU, DFID, USAID, CDC) in both developing and developed world settings. She is a born leader with a history of leadership and coordination in complex public health humanitarian crises and outbreaks, having coordinated healthcare post-earthquake in Haiti in 2010. More recently, Colette has led the Occupational Contact Tracing for First-line workers (regionally) in Ireland during the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colette is a lecturer in the School of Public Health at University College Cork. She earned her MPH from University College Cork, where she also earned a B.A. in European Studies and a PG Certificate in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She holds an M.A. in Public Policy & Management from the University of York and an M.A. in e-Learning Design and Development from Munster Technology University, Cork. Currently, Colette is completing her Ph.D.

We look forward to working together towards our goals of protecting and promoting health and well-being worldwide.