POSTPONED: A COVID-19 Update – Virtual Program

This is a virtual program, instructions on how to join this meeting will be sent the day before the event.

In one of our last in-person programs of 2020, the World Affairs Council partnered with the Washington State China Relations Council for a February 13 rapid response program exploring the possible global health and economic implications of the spread of COVID-19 beyond China. Seven months later, the global death toll stands at at least 814,000 (with over 180,000 of those deaths in the United States), economies around the world are in crisis, and global travel is restricted. We invite you to join us in a conversation with the same panelists from February, virtually now as we must, for a look at where our response fell short, what we must do to get out of this pandemic, the status of the creation and distribution of a vaccine, and what we’ve learned to better prepare for the next global health emergency. Panelists are Gabrielle Fitzgerald, President and CEO, Panorama Global; and Dr. Ann Marie Kimball, Senior Consulting Fellow at the Chatham House Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs and a Strategic Consultant in Global Health at the Rockefeller Foundation. Jeff Hall, Deputy Director, Strategy, Planning and Management at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will serve as the moderator.

About the Speakers
Gabrielle Fitzgerald is the founder and CEO of Panorama, an action tank dedicated to achieving ambitious goals and solving the world’s toughest problems. A global leader who believes innovative approaches and catalytic coalitions can solve the most challenging issues, Gabrielle leads diverse and dynamic teams and collaborates with partners to spark global change.

Prior to founding Panorama, she directed the $100 million Ebola Program at the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, investing in creative approaches to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Gabrielle previously served as the director of Global Program Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading the team that advanced policy and advocacy agendas for the organization’s global issues. In 2014, she won the Gold Medallion award from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs for her leadership on malaria.

Her focus has always been on designing and driving strategies that measurably impact people, organizations, and countries. Earlier in her career, Gabrielle led the public affairs strategy for HIV/AIDS at the United States Agency for International Development and served as the communications director for the U.S. Committee for Refugees. She also served as a speechwriter for President Clinton at The White House.

Gabrielle is the chair of the board of the Washington Global Health Alliance and serves on numerous advisory committees and panels. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts from American University in Washington, DC.

Gabrielle feels fortunate to have traveled to 65 countries, and loves traveling for work and with her family.

Ann Marie Kimball is a physician and epidemiologist. A Senior Consulting Fellow at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs, London) she served as technical and strategic lead for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation surveillance strategy formation. She was also a senior program officer with the foundation, where she developed surveillance strategies not only for the Foundation as a whole, but specifically for Meningitis in West Africa bringing French and American interests together, and carried a portfolio of $100 million in Global Health projects.

Prior to her recruitment to BMGF, she served as professor of epidemiology (adjunct in Medicine and International Affairs) at the University of Washington School of Public Health where she is now emerita. During her tenure at UW, Dr. Kimball founded and directed the APEC Emerging Infections Network, and led research and training programs in Peru and Thailand. She also served as an attending Physician at Harborview Medical Center.

Her research focus on global trade and emerging infections earned her a Fulbright New Century Scholars award and a Guggenheim Scholars award.Her book "Risky Trade : Infectious Disease in an Era of Global Trade (2006)" has served as a core textbook on emerging infections. She has authored numerous scientific publications and served on several Institute of Medicine panels.

Currently she is chair of the World Community Service Committee for the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island, and a member of the Medical Reserve Corps of Bainbridge Island. She is also a Director on the Boards of the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation (Sanaa) , InStedd Corporation (Palo Alto) and Refuge Place,( Monrovia, Liberia). She is a frequent commentator on COVID for MSNBC.

About the Moderator
Jeff Hall is a Deputy Director at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he oversees strategy, planning, and operational management for the China Country Office. In this role, he leads a cross-functional team in supporting the development and execution of policy, advocacy, and communications strategies, including operational guidance, internal programmatic and financial alignment, and external investment support. The foundation’s office in Beijing works on a breadth of issues within China, as well as on many programs related to China’s increasing contributions to global health and development. In addition to his current role, Jeff has previously coordinated the initial foundation-wide response to the recent COVID pandemic and spent several years supporting the foundation’s advocacy and communications activities within the United States.

Raised outside of Washington DC, Jeff received his BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and spent nearly 15 years working in public and private sector consulting around the US and across the globe, including the Middle East and South America. His desire to pursue more mission-driven work led him to the Pacific NW, where he now lives in Seattle, WA.