Dr. Qudsia Huda
Regional Adviser, Public Health Emergency Risk Management, Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, World Health Organization
Dr. Qudsia Huda has special interest in the field of public health emergency and disaster risk management. She has demonstrated executive leadership in emergency risk management planning across all categories of disasters, including natural, man-made and epidemics. As the Regional Adviser for Public Health Emergency Risk Management in the Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office of the World Health Organization, Dr. Huda is currently leading the emergency preparedness and disaster management actions in the 22 Arab and North African countries. Her primary role is to support countries in their capacity development efforts for emergency preparedness and disaster risk management. Dr. Huda has held leadership roles in various major emergencies and humanitarian operations around the world, including the Iran Earthquake, South Asian Tsunami, Pakistan Flood, South Asian Earthquake and crisis in many countries in the region, including Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen and Syria.
An accomplished disaster risk management expert with 18 years’ working experience in over 46 countries around the world, Dr. Huda has led several operational research initiatives on floods and cyclones and authored and co-authored numerous books, chapters and articles on various aspects of disaster management, specially focusing in the health sector.
A Bangladeshi national, Dr. Huda graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at Dhaka University (Bangladesh), completed a post-graduate Diploma in Health Economics from the same and pursued her Masters in Population and International Health from Harvard University (USA). She also completed a Humanitarian Studies Initiative program from Harvard University, Tuft University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA).
