In this 38th Find-Your-Role-Model session, we welcomed Dr. Gauden Galea, Director of the Division of Non-communicable Diseases and Promoting Health through the Life-course of the WHO Regional Office for Europe. The session started with the brief introduction, career pathway of our guest, and an introduction about the WHO. Dr. Galea told that his division is one among 6 main divisions in the WHO, and is mainly working on preventing Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and addressing their risk factors; also promoting mental and physical wellbeing across the life course, in which the topic of violence is also included. The WHO is responsible for assisting countries in its region to design, establish and promote health programs that are able to tackle the burden of NCDs and their risk factors. As an example, the story of the difficulties in the fight with alcohol and tobacco producers was given. Dr. Galea also mentioned that he is currently working for all 53 countries in the European region, which has become more challenging when considering the current number of staff. Therefore, cooperating with local staff and other stakeholders is necessary for working in this field. In the later part of the session, Dr. Galea gave advice to the university students who are interested in global health; especially those who want to pursue a career in the WHO. Among many useful pieces of advice, for example, MD is not really needed for working in the WHO, while an MPH (Master of Public Health) is something that should be considered achieving before joining the WHO. Although it was only a short period of time with Dr. Galea, all of the participants certainly gained a lot of insight and useful information for their future career design.

HSLP Student Host