One Health in Action: Global Insights from Multisectoral Leaders
Wednesday 16 July | 10:30 – 12:30
This plenary session explores the One Health framework through interdisciplinary lens emphasizing how human, animal, and environmental health are interconnected—not only in theory, but in practice on the frontlines of global health concerns. Drawing on real-world case studies such as pandemic response efforts and climate-driven disease outbreaks, the session will discuss how communication practices, information flows shape both the perception and effectiveness of health interventions. Frontline experiences from data scientists, veterinarians, and environmental stewards will be brought into dialogue with academic perspectives. By centering these lived realities alongside scholarly analysis, the plenary invites researchers to critically reflect their roles in contributing to inclusive, context-aware, and actionable One Health solutions.
Panel Chair & Moderator
May O. Lwin
President’s Chair Professor, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
Panellists
Terdsak Yano
Dr. Terdsak Yano is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Chiang Mai University, Thailand. He earned DVM, M.Sc and Ph.D from Chiang Mai University. He also got Diplomate, Thai Board of Veterinary Public Health (DTBVPH). His major responsibility is teaching and research in Swine clinic, including Swine diseases, Swine clinical rotation and Swine clinical clerkship. He is a trainer of Participatory Epidemiology in Thailand and Southeast Asia. His interests are Swine practice, Epidemiology, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and GIS in Veterinary Sciences.
He did the research about pig health and epidemiology, especially Foot and Mouth Disease. Previously, he and his colleagues in the faculty ran the research about FMD in many aspects such as risk factors, the outbreak of FMD in Northern Thailand and vaccine efficacy. He also performed the research about how to control Streptococcus suis infection in pig and human in Northern Thailand where he was one of researchers who created PODD system. It is a Participatory Animal Health Digital Surveillance system, that focus on animal and human health surveillance by using digital technology and One-health approach. Nowadays, that system is manipulated under the PODD center, Chiang Mai University Thailand.
Kujtim Mersini
Dr. Kujtim Mersini is a leading Albanian veterinary epidemiologist with over two decades of experience in advancing public health, animal health, and environmental conservation through a One Health approach. He currently serves as a researcher at the Agricultural University of Tirana, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and as a senior One Health expert at the Southeast European Center for Surveillance and Control of Infectious Diseases.
Dr. Mersini holds a PhD in Epidemiology and teaches Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Infectious Diseases across undergraduate and professional programs. He previously served as Head of the Veterinary Epidemiology Department at the Food Safety and Veterinary Institute, where he led national efforts to control priority zoonoses such as brucellosis, anthrax, rabies, and avian influenza.
Tan Sri Dr. Jemilah Mahmood
Dr. Mahmood is a medical professional with more than two decades of experience managing crises in health, disasters and conflict settings. She is currently Professor and Executive Director of the Sunway Centre for Planetary Health at Sunway University in Malaysia. She holds advisory council roles in the Government of Malaysia in Climate and Higher Education.
She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Universiti of Malaya, the Sustainability Advisor at Air Asia, and the national advisor of the Malaysian Red Crescent Society. Globally, she is a member of the board of Roche in Switzerland and the Norwegian Refugee Council, a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council of Responsible Resource Use and a Global Ambassador for the Humanitarian Grand Bargain. She currently co chairs the World Economic Forum Steering Committee on Climate and Health. She is a strong advocate of planetary health and sustainability and actively advises on Environment, Social and Governance in the advisory and board roles she holds.
