Policy Round Table on Multiple Micronutrient Supplements for Maternal Nutrition on the sidelines of the 2026 World Health Assembly

Dr. Luz María De Regil is the Director of Department of Nutrition and Food Safety in the World Health Organization. She is responsible for the strategic and managerial work of the Department with Member States and partners to prioritize, plan, implement, monitor and regularly evaluate multisectoral efforts to ensure universal access to effective nutrition actions, safe food and healthy diets, through strengthening health systems and building forward better food systems which recognize the interdependence of the health of humans, animals and the wider environment.

She is an Epidemiologist with 20 years of experience in the public, private, non-for-profit and intergovernmental sectors. Her expertise spans from research in basic science to large scale public health programming and policy. Prior to her current position, she was the Unit Head of Multisectoral Actions in Food Systems at WHO, the Vice-President of Global Technical Services at Nutrition International, in Canada, Epidemiologist at WHO, and Researcher in Mexico and USA.  

Spencer Kirk is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and managing director of Kirk Humanitarian. He and his wife Kristen founded Kirk Humanitarian in 2002 with the mission of improving maternal health around the world. Kirk Humanitarian is the leading purchaser and donor of high-quality and safe UNIMMAP MMS (multiple micronutrient supplements) for low- and middle-income countries governments and NGO partners.

Kirk co-founded Megahertz Corporation in 1985 and served as CEO at Extra Space Storage, Inc. from 2009 to 2016.

Joan Matji, PhD, is the Global Director, Child Nutrition and Development Practice of the Global Programme Division, UNICEF. A national of South Africa, she has worked in the field of nutrition for more than 20years, holding several senior positions including as UNICEF Chief of Nutrition in Ethiopia (2011 – 2014) and as the UNICEF Regional Nutrition Advisor in Nairobi (2015 – 2020) providing technical support and oversight for 21 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. She has also served in a representational role on behalf of the Regional Director in the UNICEF Regional Hub for Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini and Lesotho (BNLE) from 2017 – 2018.  Her most recent assignment for the past 4 years, until March 2025, was serving as UNICEF’s Country Representative to Botswana and Representative to SADC.

Dr. Matji holds a Master of Science degree from the University of London (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) and obtained her Ph.D. degree in Public Health Nutrition in 2009 from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Dr. Allisyn Moran leads the sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn health team in the Department of Sexual, Reproductive, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at the World Health Organization (WHO). She has over twenty-five years of experience in research, programmatic implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of maternal, newborn, and child health initiatives with field experience working in more than 20 countries worldwide.

Prior to joining WHO in 2017, she worked with the United States Agency for International Development, various INGOs and as faculty at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Currently, she holds an honorary appointment at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Rahul Rawat is a Deputy Director on the Maternal, Newborn and Child Nutrition & Health (MNCNH) team at the Gates Foundation which he joined in 2016. Within the team, he leads the end-to-end portfolio on nutrition. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Rahul spent 9 years at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), most recently as a Senior Research Fellow based in Dakar, Senegal, leading the institute’s Africa nutrition program portfolio focused on generating effectiveness evidence of interventions delivered in programmatic settings to address maternal and child undernutrition. He has also worked extensively across South and Southeast Asia.

Rahul has a PhD in International Nutrition from Cornell University, and a Master of Health Science in Global Disease Epidemiology and Control from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Emily Smith’s research focuses on infection and nutrition across the life course, with a goal of generating, analyzing, and translating epidemiological data to improve maternal, newborn, and child health in low- and middle-income countries. She has worked on the design, implementation, and analysis of randomized trials, surveillance, and health service program evaluations in Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Bolivia, Peru, Rwanda, Uganda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and the U.S. to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of health interventions.

Emily has worked closely with WHO to synthesize and translate evidence for use in global policy contexts on topics including: risk of SARS-CoV-2 in pregnancy; mother-to-child transmission of SARS-CoV-2; efficacy and safety of neonatal vitamin A supplementation, and interventions for care and feeding of low birthweight infants. As an epidemiologist, her technical expertise includes study design and data analysis for randomized trials, surveillance, and conducting meta-analyses.

Abdul Ghaffar, MD, PhD serves as Senior Technical Advisor at the Foundation, where he oversees operational and strategic program development within the domain of Healthcare & Development.

Dr. Ghaffar has served as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at the World Health Organization. Before joining the Alliance, he served as Regional Advisor for Research, in the Eastern Mediterranean Office of the World Health Organization. Dr. Ghaffar also worked as a Health Policy and Systems Specialist at the Global Forum for Health Research in Geneva. In his home country (Pakistan), he started his career as a public health physician and later worked in different leadership positions as Assistant Director-General of Policy and Planning; Deputy Director-General of International Health; and Director of the Health Services Academy, a national school of public health.

He has advised many governments in the use of evidence for stronger health systems, helped establish policy and research institutes, published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers, and led the writing and development of prestigious global health reports, including the WHO’s Strategy on Health Policy and Systems Research.

Dr. Ghaffar is a physician by training with a Ph.D. in Health Systems from Johns Hopkins University.

Adnan A. Hyder, MD MPH PhD, is Chief Technical Advisor at the Foundation, where he provides strategic and operational counsel to decision-making, giving, and programs. Dr. Hyder serves as Dean and Robert R. Knox Professor of the Boston University School of Public Health.

Dr. Hyder is an international leader in global health research and has pioneered work around ethics, injuries, health systems, and non-communicable diseases. For over 25 years, he has relentlessly worked to improve global health in low- and middle-income countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Dr. Hyder has been an advocate of ethically designed grant programs for global health research, arguing in favor of the creation of incentives for applicants to focus their research on marginalized communities. He has conducted studies focusing on defining the epidemiological burden, understanding risk factors, exploring potential interventions, estimating economic impact, and appreciating the socio-cultural correlates of diseases and health systems around the world. Dr. Hyder has co-authored over 400 peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals and numerous world reports with organizations like the World Bank, World Health Organization, and UNICEF.

Currently, Dr. Hyder served on several international health boards and societies – including as International President of the World Health Summit 2023, Chair of the board for Health Systems Global 2022-24, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Youth for Road Safety.

Dr. Hyder received his M.D. from the Aga Khan University, Pakistan, and obtained his MPH and Ph.D. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University, USA.