Public Health Emergency Management

Dr. Haitham Bashier

Chairperson for the Specialty Committee of Public Health Emergency Management

Dr. Haitham is an expert Emergency Manager and a Training and Capacity-Building specialist. He’s the director of the Public Health Emergency Management Center (PHEMC) at EMPHNET. He led the Workforce Capacity at EMPHNET. He was the Executive Director of the International Academy of Public Health (IAPH) in Jordan. He worked as an assistant professor at the School of Medicine, National University in Khartoum. Before joining EMPHNET, he worked as the Director of Teaching and Education at the Public Health Institute in Sudan. He worked as the Emergency and Humanitarian Action Department director at FMOH, Sudan, till 2010. Besides teaching, Dr. Haitham is a researcher, supervisor, and external examiner at many universities. His published work is mainly in emergency management, capacity building, and training.

Specialty Committees Members

Dr. Mohammed Moussif

Dr Moussif, Chief Medical Officer at Casablanca International Airport and National Coordinator of Morocco’s points of entry program, is a fellow and graduate of the Centre on Global Health Security at Chatham House in London.  He holds a master’s degree in public health, a Diploma in Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and an MBA in Health Management. Additionally, he has a Diploma in Aviation Medicine from the European School of Aviation Medicine in Frankfurt, a Diploma in Travel Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and a degree in Occupational Medicine.

Dr. Moussif was involved in implementing health measures at Moroccan borders during the Ebola outbreak in 1996, followed by SARS in 2003, the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa from 2012 to 2014, MERS-Cov, Zika in 2016, Ebola in the DRC in 2019, and COVID-19. Dr. Moussif was involved internationally in the revision process of the old IHR from 2003 to 2005. He then represented Morocco during the IHR (2005) negotiations and adoption. He participated in drafting the WHO handbooks and guidelines regarding the points of entry. He has conducted over forty IHR assessment missions abroad, including thirteen Joint External Evaluations (JEEs) across the six WHO regions.  He is a member of the U.S. Department of State’s “Global Health Challenges International Visitor Leadership” program. He is a member of the WHO IHR Review Committee on the IHR functioning during COVID-19 and of the WHO ITH GDG (International Travel and Health Guidelines Development Group). 

The WHO has appointed Dr. Moussif to the WHO Universal Health and Preparedness Review Technical Advisory Group (WHO UHPR TAG) and the WHO Advisory Committee on Variola Virus Research (WHO ACVVR). He also serves on the Africa CDC COVID-19 Steering Committee and as a Technical Advisor for ICAO. In July 2023, he was appointed by the DG of WHO as a member of the IHR Review Committee regarding Standing Recommendations for COVID-19 and a member of the IHR Review Committee regarding Standing Recommendations for mpox. Dr Moussif has been a WHO IHR Roster of Experts member since 2017. Dr Moussif is currently a member of the Pandemic Fund Technical Advisory Panel (TAP).

-Biography published on the Pandemic Fund website: https://www.thepandemicfund.org/node/54

-Biography published on the WHO website: https://www.who.int/about/people/biography/mohamed-moussif