International SBCC Summit 2026

Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD, MPH, an internationally recognized health policy scholar, trusted leader, and unwavering advocate for public health, became the 12 th dean of the Bloomberg School on August 1, 2025. Pollack Porter served as the Bloomberg Centennial Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management from 2022 to 2025. As chair, she strengthened faculty mentoring and development and recruited faculty in key areas such as data science and population health, health services research, advocacy, and health equity. She served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Associate Dean for Faculty, and Vice Dean for Faculty from 2019 to 2022. Pollack Porter was named a Bloomberg Centennial Professor in 2021 for her leadership as director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy and has served on leadership teams with the Center for Health Disparities Solutions and the Center for Injury Research and Policy, among others. Her scholarship draws on injury epidemiology and health impact assessment to identify policies that create safe, healthy, and equitable environments where people live, work, play, and travel. Pollack Porter was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2023. She has led numerous federally funded research studies, published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and reports, and influenced public health practice through leadership roles with the CDC and the National Academies.

Norma Jean Straw is a deputy director leading the entertainment media partnership strategy for the Adolescent and Youth Learning Agenda at the Gates Foundation. This includes partnerships with social impact organizations and private sector media entities in global and regional markets, including sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Her previous roles at the foundation include global creative and advocacy communication for projects such as Goalkeepers and the Generation Equality Forum. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation in 2018, she produced film, tv and digital media for global audiences, including more than 100 episodes of Emmy-nominated and Emmy-winning children’s television.

Yutsu Maiche is a Shuar communicator, aspiring filmmaker, and musician from the Shuar Nation (Ecuador). At 22 years old, he has turned film, communication, and music into tools for territorial defense against the advance of mining and oil extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Since 2021, Maiche has worked for the community media outlet Lanceros Digitales and is an active member of the collectives Lluvia Comunicación and MULLU.TV, through which he highlights attacks on indigenous peoples and violations of the right to nature. His on-the-ground journalistic work has led to two physical attacks against him, the most serious of which occurred on April 12, 2024, when he was attacked while broadcasting from the headquarters of the Shuar Federation, suffering a head wound that required stitches after being stripped of his equipment. Funda Medios and other human rights organizations have recognized his case as an example of high-risk journalism. In 2024, he was selected for the first cohort of Mongabay Latam’s “Indigenous Perspectives from the Ecuadorian Amazon” fellowship, where he produced four reports on the criminalization of defenders and mining conflicts in Shuar territory. He has also been a speaker at FLACSO Ecuador and the Futuro Líquido series, and is a co-founder of the MULLU.TV collective, which is internationally recognized among Indigenous filmmakers in Latin America. He leads Kutukú, an Amazonian band that uses music as a form of resistance and to educate the local community. The band’s name evokes the mountain range that symbolizes the Shuar struggle, and its songs convey messages of conservation and opposition to mining, which gained momentum during the 2023 Referendum, in which oil drilling and metal mining were banned in sensitive areas. He is currently studying film and training new generations of communicators from within the territory, convinced that words, images, and sound are weapons to defend life.

Omayra Casamá is an Emberá leader, educator and advocate for Indigenous women’s leadership, cultural preservation and community well-being in Panama. She is also a social worker. Raised in the traditions and ancestral knowledge of the Emberá People, she has dedicated her life to strengthening her community’s voice, rights and future. Her leadership emerged from the experiences of her people following the displacement of Emberá communities in the Bayano region after the construction of the Bayano hydroelectric dam forced many Indigenous families from their ancestral lands. From a young age, she became involved in efforts to defend Indigenous rights, support community development and create opportunities for women and future generations. For more than three decades, she has worked to advance Indigenous women’s participation and leadership, promote intercultural bilingual education and preserve Emberá language, culture and ancestral knowledge. Casamá has organized and supported initiatives that strengthen the economic empowerment of Indigenous women and expand access to education and leadership opportunities. She has served as coordinator of intercultural bilingual education for Eastern Panama and has participated in regional and international programs focused on Indigenous rights, women’s leadership, climate change, education and sustainable development. Widely recognized as a pioneering woman leader within the Emberá community, Casamá has built bridges between ancestral knowledge and public institutions. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she played a key role in supporting public health communication and access to services in her community, helping ensure that Indigenous perspectives and cultural practices remained central to local response efforts. At the 2026 SBCC Summit, Omayra Casamá will share her perspective on local, ancestral, and cultural approaches to SBCC, drawing on decades of experience advancing community-led solutions grounded in Indigenous knowledge, cultural identity and collective well-being.

Anneka Wickramanayake is director of research, evaluation and design at Jacaranda Health, overseeing the research and data & analytics departments. She has developed an innovative portfolio of mixed methods research methodologies for evaluating scaled AI-enabled solutions, incorporating principles of model evaluation, piloting, implementation research and impact evaluation. She also specializes in human-centered design methodologies for technology. Anneka brings experience in development research and analytics, and monitoring and evaluation, having worked in both the private and public sectors. Prior to joining Jacaranda Health, she worked in Ethiopia as research director for Laterite, managing full-cycle research consultancies. Before that, she was monitoring and evaluation specialist for the American Refugee Committee in Rwanda, leading the M&E strategy and assessing the standard of health care provided. Anneka holds an MPH in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Jorge Correa is Vice Minister of Tourism of the Panama Tourism Authority. He has had a long professional career in the field of marketing and sales. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing with a concentration in sales and a master’s degree in sales and marketing management. With more than 20 years of experience, he has excelled in various strategic roles. He has served as director of sales and marketing at establishments such as the Royal Decameron Hotel and Radisson Decapolis, as well as director of international sales at the Four Points Hotel in Panama City and Colón. In addition, he has held leadership positions at Tocumen International Airport, Republic Parking System, Autostar (Mercedes-Benz – Jeep), Spirits Wine & Group, Mastercool Corp, and 507 Spirits & Wines, serving as CEO and founding partner at several of these companies.

Dino Rech is the CEO of Audere and Founder/CEO of Audere Africa, a nonprofit organization advancing digital health equity through human-centered technology and AI. Trained as an emergency physician and health systems delivery expert, Dino has spent his career working at the intersection of public health, frontline care delivery, and innovation across Africa and globally. With leadership experience spanning organizations including the Gates Foundation, CHAPS, and the Aurum Institute, Dino brings deep expertise in designing and scaling health programs in complex and resource-constrained settings. His work has focused on strengthening health systems, improving access to care, and ensuring that digital innovation meaningfully supports, rather than burdens healthcare workers and communities. At Audere, Dino leads a multidisciplinary team developing AI-powered tools that expand access to trusted health information and support positive health behaviours at scale. Audere’s work increasingly focuses on direct-to-consumer AI platforms that engage individuals in personalized, culturally relevant ways, helping people navigate health decisions, build trust, and access timely support through familiar digital channels. These approaches combine behavioral science, conversational AI, and local contextualization to improve engagement, adherence, and health-seeking behavior across diverse populations. Under Dino’s leadership, Audere has pioneered digital solutions in areas including HIV, tuberculosis, maternal and child health, pandemic response, and community health systems strengthening. The organization’s work emphasizes ethical AI deployment, equitable access, and designing technology that responds to the realities of underserved communities. Dino is also a published researcher and frequent speaker on digital health, AI, and the future of equitable healthcare delivery. His perspective is grounded in years of frontline clinical experience as well as large-scale implementation across governments, NGOs, and private sector partnerships. He is particularly passionate about the role of behavioral insights and trusted digital engagement in shaping healthier communities and more responsive health systems. Based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Dino continues to champion innovative, evidence-driven approaches that bridge technology, behavior change, and public health impact.

Silvio Waisbord is a professor at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. He is past president and current fellow of the International Communication Association. He is the editor of the International Journal of Communication . He is the author and editor of 20 books, as well as articles on journalism and politics, communication studies, media policy, and communication for social change. His most recent book is Introduction to Journalism: Thinking Globally (Polity Press, June 2025). He served as director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University from 2020 to 2023. He is also the former editor-in-chief of the Journal of Communication and the International Journal of Press/Politics . Waisbord received a Licenciatura in Sociology from the Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego.

Adebayo Fayoyin is a seasoned Social and Behavior Change (SBC) and health communication expert with more than 30 years of experience advancing public health and development initiatives across Africa and beyond. He currently serves as board chair of the African Society for Social and Behavior Change and vice chair of the health working group of the International Association of Mass Communication Research (IAMCR). He is also a board member of CCSI Nigeria and a member of the International Steering Committee for the SBCC Summit. Adebayo has held key roles in major international development organizations, including UNFPA, UNICEF, and USAID, where he worked at national, regional, and global levels. At UNFPA, he led a multi-country strategic communication, social mobilization, and media advocacy program focused on sexual and reproductive health and rights in East and Southern Africa. During his time with UNICEF, he coordinated advocacy and behavior change communication efforts across Nigeria, Malawi, and the broader East and Southern Africa region, addressing child survival, education, gender empowerment, and water and sanitation. In Nigeria, he worked with USAID through Family Health Services (FHS), where he developed and manage behavior change and advocacy programs for family planning and safe motherhood. He also served as project director for the National Council for Population and Environmental Activities (NCPEA). An accomplished qualitative researcher, Abedayo has extensive experience applying social research methods to better understand complex health and development challenges. In addition to his professional work, he has contributed to academia through visiting and honorary teaching roles at universities across Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, and South Africa. His career reflects a sustained commitment to improving lives through evidence-based communication strategies, policy advocacy, and capacity strengthening in public health.

Linkedin Priyanka Kher Chief Strategic Partnerships and Communications Officer Breakthrough Priyanka Kher is the chief strategic partnerships and communications officer at Breakthrough, a human rights NGO, where she leads strategic partnerships, organizational positioning and communications. A member of the organization’s […]

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Orlando Quintero Co-Founder Probidsida Foundation Orlando Quintero has spent 40 years as a pediatrician at the Chepo Regional Hospital in Panama. He is a co-founder of the Probidsida Foundation and have served as its executive director for 29 years to date. He has been living with HIV for 39 years.    The most significant work he has done over […]

Martha Ena Mérida National Executive Director PROSALUD Martha Ena Mérida is the national executive director of PROSALUD, a leading non-profit organization focused on improving health outcomes across Bolivia. With more than 35 years of experience in public health, nutrition, and health services management, she […]

Instagram Soraya Bayuelo Castellar Co-Founder Montes de María Línea 21 Collective Communications Corporation Soraya Bayuelo Castellar (El Carmen de Bolívar), Colombia. She is a social communicator-journalist, cultural manager, researcher, and audiovisual producer with over 35 years of experience in community cinema, transformative […]