Environmental Health

Dr. May Massoud holds a PhD in Environmental Management from Imperial College London. She is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Environmental Health and Director of the Interfaculty Graduate Environmental Sciences Program of the American University of Beirut.

She has more than 20 years experience in developing and teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate level in relation to environmental management and sustainability.

She has over 60 publications including articles in peer-reviewed international journals and proceedings of international conferences.

She is a recipient of the First Prize of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Award for the best Environmental Management project for 2008-2010.

Her research interests and publications are focused on solid waste management, wastewater management and reuse, environmental management systems, water resources management and development of integrated management plans (identifying and categorizing different approaches to their development and evaluating approaches in the context of developing countries).

Prof. Madi Al Jaghabir is currently the head of Family Health and Community Medicine Department, at the faculty of Medicine, University of Jordan.  He obtained an MBChB from the University of Jordan's faculty of Medicine in 1978, and an M.S in Occupational Health and a D.Sc in Environmental Health from Tulane University in the United States in 1982 and 1984, respectively. He is a board-certified Occupational Health specialist from the Jordan Medical Council board and had a rotating internship at Jordan University Hospital from 1978 to 1979.

From 1985 to the present, Prof. Al Jaghabir has been a distinguished faculty member at Jordanian universities, having taught at the University of Jordan, Hashemite University, and Applied Science University. In his core research area, Prof.  Al Jaghabir focuses on occupational and environmental health. He has been involved in several funded research studies, as well as having authored a number of peer-reviewed articles in prominent academic journals.

Prof. Al Jaghabir is also a member of various international scientific associations and committees, including the Society of Public Health, Jordan Medical Association, Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Network (WHO), and CEHA/WHO Environmental Health Regional Information Network. He has also been a member of the Jordanian Environmental Protection Society since 1987, the Anti-Smoking Society since 1994, the Arab Society for Public Awareness from Dangerous Drugs and Narcotics since 1996, and the Sustainable Development Society since 1998.

Prof. Al Jaghabir has been involved in training and consulting international and national health organizations including Jordan's Ministry of Health, WHO/UNEP, Jordan's Ministry of Labour, Jordan's Ministry of Industry and Trade, Jordan's Civil Defense, Jordan's Ministry of Water, and Jordan's Ministry of Interior since 1985.

Yaser Y. Issa, is the head of the environmental health unit at Hebron Public Health Directorate, Ministry of Health since 2004.

He hold a PhD in International Health with main focus on Public Health, Environmental health and Occupational Epidemiology (University of Oslo, Norway, 2013).

He had a Master of philosophy in international and community health (MPhiL) (University of Oslo, Norway, 2000). He published different papers and abstracts in different international journals such as Human Reproduction, Environmental Health, The lancet, Occupational and environmental medicine, Environmental Quality Management, and the International Journal of Environmental Health and Toxicology. He published a chapter entitled” Environmental and Social Determinants of Health in Palestine” in the book “Handbook of Healthcare in the Arab World”.

He is a reviewer and editor board for different scientific journals including BMC Public Health, BMC Research Notes, Pan African Medical Journal, and Frontiers. He participated in several local, regional, and international workshops and conferences. Yaser Issaʼs main research interests are public health, environmental health, and occupational epidemiological researches to find out the effect of exposure to different environmental and occupational factors on Public Health and Reproductive health.

Also he is a part-time lecturer (Assistant Professor) at Hebron University since 2003, Palestine Polytechnic University since 2016, and Al-Quds Open University in Hebron since 2000, West Bank and The Arab Academy in Denmark in the Department of Public Health for PhD. Supervised and examined several Bachelor and Master Graduation projects.

He is a member in different societies and institutions related to the health and public health. Furthermore, Issa is a member of the technical committee at ministerial level for the National Center for Occupational health and safety and environment protection and a member of steering committee for medical waste treatment and safety disposal in Southern of West Bank (Hebron and Bethlehem). Recently (2021) he was appointed as the Palestinian Ministry of Health Focal Point for the climate change and health with WHO.

My name is Masud Yunesian, Male, 53 years old. I got my M.D. (as a general practitioner) from Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), in 1992, and my Ph.D. of Epidemiology from the same University in 2000.

I have a good knowledge and fruitful experience in Public Health, especially in Epidemiology in general and in Environmental Epidemiology, specifically. I have also a twelve-year experience in research management, both as human resource/budget, and research integrity evaluation management. Meanwhile, I am also a university professor with almost 20-year experience in teaching Epidemiology, Environmental Epidemiology, Risk Assessment & Risk Management, and Research Methodology to Master and Doctorate students of Public Health and Environmental Health TUMS -as one of the first rank medical universities of Iran.

Working with other faculty members with different expertise, I was able to publish more than 300 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals indexed by SCOPUS. My background knowledge and skills (having a Ph.D. in Epidemiology, passing all credits of MPH in my Ph.D. course, being familiar with quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and being familiar with advanced statistical analyses, and supervising plenty of national and sub-national research projects) along with my experience in applying these capabilities in different disciplines related to health, especially Environmental Health, made interested to cooperate with WHO as Consultant/Advisor. Recently I have been added to 1% highly cited researchers in the field of Environment/Ecology, provided by Thomson Reuters in Essential Science Indicators.

Mazen Malkawi, Environmental Health Regional Advisor, at the World Health Organization (WHO), Eastern Mediterranean Region Office (EMRO), Regional Center for Environmental Health Action (CEHA).

He holds: High Diploma in Water and Environment Information Management from the Free University of Brussels (1998), M.Sc.

in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering from the Jordan University of Science and Technology (1988), and B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from the University of Jordan (1985).

Mr. Malkawi has served since 1988 at different positions in the WHO Centre for Environmental Health Action (CEHA). Currently, he is managing the environmental health exposures program focusing on air pollution, chemical safety, and urban environment, and supporting the implementation of the Arab Strategy and Framework of Action on Environmental Health 2017-2030).

Mr. Malkawi is an active member in several international committees and task forces that are currently working on updating international guidance and standards on air quality, toxic chemicals, sand and dust storms, housing, urban environment and transport and health.

He participated in 100++ International, regional and national meetings on different environmental health aspects, and published 25 articles and chapters in refereed journals and books.