Environmental Health
Chairperson for the Specialty Committee of Environmental Health
Specialty Committees Members
Dr. Yaser Issa
Dr. Yaser Y. Issa is the Head of the Environmental Health Unit at the Hebron Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health, Palestine, a position he has held since 2004. He earned his Ph.D. in International Health from the University of Oslo, Norway (2013), with a focus on Public Health, Environmental Health, and Occupational Epidemiology. He also holds an M.Phil. in International and Community Health from the same university (2000). Dr. Issa has authored and co-authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and abstracts published in prestigious international journals, including Human Reproduction, Environmental Health, The Lancet, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Environmental Quality Management, and the International Journal of Environmental Health and Toxicology. He is also the contributing author of the chapter titled “Environmental and Social Determinants of Health in Palestine” in the Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World.
He serves on the editorial and review boards of several scientific journals, such as BMC Public Health, BMC Research Notes, the Pan African Medical Journal, and Frontiers. Dr. Issa actively participates in local, regional, and international conferences and workshops. His primary research interests include public health, environmental health, and occupational epidemiology, particularly focusing on the impact of environmental and occupational exposures on public and reproductive health. In addition to his work at the Ministry, he is a part-time Assistant Professor at Hebron University (since 2003), Palestine Polytechnic University (since 2016), and Al-Quds Open University (since 2000), as well as at the Arab Academy in Denmark. He currently teaches Epidemiology and Public Health at the Faculty of Medicine at Hebron University and has supervised and examined numerous undergraduate and postgraduate research projects.
Dr. Issa is an active member of various health-related professional societies and institutions. He is also a member of the Ministerial Technical Committee for the National Center for Occupational Health, Safety, and Environmental Protection, and serves on the Steering Committee for Medical Waste Treatment and Safe Disposal in the southern West Bank (Hebron and Bethlehem). In 2021, he was appointed as the Focal Point for Climate Change and Health at the Palestinian Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization and became a member of the WHO’s ATACH (Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health).
Dr. Maysaa Nemer
Dr. Maysaa Nemer is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Institute of Community and Public Health at Birzeit University, the Director of the Master Program in Community and Public Health, and the coordinator of the Research Ethics Committee at the institute. She holds a PhD in Occupational Epidemiology and MPhil in International Community Health from the University of Oslo, Norway.
Her research is mainly focused on occupational epidemiology, environmental health, and social and economic aspects of occupational and environmental health, with special interest on working women’s health. She has been involved on research projects on a range of topics, including respiratory effects related to environmental exposure to outdoor dust, the effects of environmental and structural factors on working women’s health, occupational exposure and health effects of agriculture workers in the Jordan Valley, gender awareness among healthcare providers, and the aspects of data governance and human rights in digital health initiatives related to maternal and child health services. She has recently completed working on a project on health system and policy response to climate change in Palestine, and currently leading a large project on precarious employment.
She is a member of various international occupational health committees, including the Scientific Committee on Occupational Health in Small-Scale Enterprises and Informal Sectors, ICOH, and the European Cooperation in Science and Technology-OMEGA NET Cost Action on occupational cohorts.