Governance

Suzanne Costello is the Chief Executive of the Institute of Public Health in Ireland. She has overall responsibility for the strategic direction of the Institute. With a background in senior management across a range of health and social issues, Suzanne joined the Institute as Chief Executive at the end of 2018. Prior to joining the Institute, Suzanne served at the CEO of Alcohol Action Ireland and also acted as the Interim Policy Programme Lead for the HSE’s Alcohol Programme. Suzanne was Samaritans Executive Director for Ireland for six years. Suzanne has a primary degree in Social Science from University College Dublin, an MBS, and a Professional Diploma in Strategy, Innovation and Change from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business and was a member of the inaugural Healthy Ireland Council.

Suzanne was elected President of EuroHealthNet at the 2024 General Council Meeting.

Sumina is the National Director of Policy and International Health at Public Health Wales, and leads three teams (Policy; the Wales Health Impact Assessment Support Unit; and the Health and Sustainability Hub). She has a broad portfolio of work, which includes Futures and Foresight; improving population health through policy in various areas, including tackling poor housing, fuel poverty and trade; and supporting the embedding of the sustainable development principle as part of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act.

Sumina has worked in public health since 2005, at a local, regional and national level, and across the domains of public health. This has included undertaking projects on a wide range of topics, such as mental health, prison health, tackling obesity, and improving vaccination uptake, and working with partners from different sectors, including local government and the third sector.

Prior to working in public health, Sumina trained in internal medicine. She has maintained an interest in public health education and supervision, including teaching medical and postgraduate students, supervision of trainees in public health, and supervising students undertaking public health research projects at Cardiff University and Maastricht University.

Pia Sundell is the Executive Director for the Finnish Children’s Welfare Association, having held the position since 2008. She is an expert regarding children’s rights and child welfare, having worked in child welfare for the last twenty years.

Joining the Executive Board, Pia states that investments in wellbeing and health are long-term joint decisions. In addition, NGO’s must have a strong role in implementing them. As a member of the board for SOSTE Finnish Federation for Social Affairs and Health, Pia promotes the goal to increase the impact of social and healthcare organisations in society in order to achieve a situation where the implementation of the preconditions for a good life are realised for all.

Pia looks forward to working with a European network to promote questions regarding social affairs and health. As an active member of a Nordic network that works to promote child welfare and children’s right, Pia feels a network such as EuroHealthNet provides the platform to both contribute and learn from.

She is motivated to create international impact as a member of the Executive Board and is a strong believer in networking to promote change for better social welfare and health equity in Europe.

Lorna is the Service Manager for Health Equity and Inclusion at Public Health Scotland. She is a public health professional with a specialty in health improvement and inequalities, with experience of working at international, national, and local levels. Her current role focuses on collaboration and leadership to influence the Scottish health and social care system, in how it addresses health inequalities and improves health outcomes for all.  Lorna is both an experienced leader and programme manager, and is a strong advocate for promoting equity in policy and practice. Lorna advises and supports Scottish Government policy colleagues, and leads a small team who’s portfolio of work includes: the scoping of inequalities in national frameworks for inspection and procurement, coordination of the national NHS Scotland Improvement Plan for British Sign Language, leadership and delivery of the national Health Promoting Health Service programme – aiming to align interventions for health improvement and equity within acute and community hospital settings, and the testing of health and social care equity indicators in Scotland.

Lorna has worked in the sphere of health improvement and public health since 1995, across the NHS, voluntary and international sectors. She has experience across a broad range of settings and specialties, including public health research and community health needs assessment, addictions, sexual health, maternal and infant health, screening and immunisation, tobacco and inequalities. Her professional interests include quality improvement, inequalities sensitive strategy and practice and improving outcomes for vulnerable groups within mainstream services.

Dr. Mojca Gabrijelčič Blenkuš is the Head of the Healthy Lifestyle Department at the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) in Slovenia. She is a medical doctor and a specialist in public health and has a PhD in social sciences. Her fields of interest and expertise are nutrition, physical activity, and in last few years, aging and frailty. She was head of the Health Promotion centre at the NIPH Slovenia from 2003 to 2010. Today, she is mostly involved in policy and programme development, and in research projects. Her main academic interest is in public policies; she holds assistant professorship at the Faculty of Health Sciences where she teaches health promotion theory and health in all policies.

As well as national nutrition and physical activity strategic policy development, Mojca participated in the assessment of the health impacts of agriculture and nutrition policies in Slovenia, with a special emphasis on assessing the impact of accession of Slovenia to EU and health equity. She coordinated the evaluation of the Slovene nutrition policy in 2010 and the working group for the preparation of the national nutrition and health enhancing physical activity strategy for 2015-25. In the period 2014 – 2016 she coordinated the background activities and stakeholders involvement in the process of preparation of the Slovene active and healthy ageing strategy.

She has been the WHO national counterpart for nutrition since 2000. She was a member of the drafting group of the WHO Obesity Charter in 2006, and of the drafting groups for the preparation of the ‘WHO Steps to Health – A European Framework to promote Physical Activity for Health 2007’ document. She has been actively involved in the work of the WHO action networks on nutrition and inequalities since 2008. At the EU level, she participates in the work of HLG on nutrition and physical activity and was nominated as a national representative in the Steering group for the Evaluation of the EU Platform on Nutrition, Physical activity and Obesity in 2009/10, and as a member of the Steering group for the Evaluation of the EU White paper on nutrition 2007-13.

Raffaella is the Head of the Health Equity ISS Operative Unit at the Italian Institute of Health. Since 1992, she has worked as a researcher at Istituto Superiore di Sanità – ISS  (the Italian National Institute of Health) and since 2019 she has been Director of the Unit Health Equity ISS – HEISS.

She has been responsible for the development of operational research initiatives to improve the quality of care of people with HIV infection in African countries and for conducting projects to tackle health inequalities at national and European level. Since 2018, she has been the project coordinator of the Joint Action Health Equity Europe (JAHEE) funded by CHAFEA (3rd EU Health Programme) and of a national project on health equity within the National Prevention Plan (A health equity focused National Prevention Plan (NPP) 2020-2025: Putting Health Equity Audit (HEA) in practice: from the National Prevention Plan (NPP) to each Regional Prevention Plan RPP) funded by Italian Ministry of Health.

Since 2020, she has been member of the Scientific Working Group of the Italian Health Equity Status Report (IHESR) coordinated by WHO Regional Office for Europe and the coordinator of the  working group on SDG3 (ensure healthy lives and promote wellbeing for all at all ages) for ASVIS (Alleanza Italiana per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile) of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.

Professor Plamen Dimitrov is the Director of the Bulgarian National Center of Public Health and Analyses. Dr. Dimitrov graduated in Medicine in 1988. He has MS degree in Epidemiology (2001), a PhD degree in Social Medicine and Health Management (2004), and a Master of Public Health (2011). His professional interests are in the field of public health, chronic non-communicable diseases, health promotion and disease prevention, social determinants of health, epidemiology and biostatistics. He has been a chair and member of working groups engaged with the development of the Bulgarian national programs, strategies and reports related to health, e.g.  chair of working group of the MoH for preparation of the National Program on non-communicable diseases prevention (currently National coordinator of the Program); chair and member of working group of the MoH for preparation of the Report on the health of the citizens and implementation of the National Health Strategy. He has been a consultant to WHO on NCDs, and currently is the WHO national focal point for Noncommunicable diseases, and for Equity, social determinants, gender equality and human rights. He is also the in-country project director for projects within the Public Health Program of the EU. He is an International Affiliated Faculty at the Institute for Global Health, Michigan State University, USA, and a Professor at the South-West University, Bulgaria.

Daniela Kallayova is the Senior Public Health Officer at the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, responsible for health promotion and disease prevention, with a focus on cancer control and the health of vulnerable groups. She is a member of the Steering Group on Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and the Management of Non-Communicable Diseases and a member of the EU4Health Steering Group within the European Commission. Her previous professional experiences include a position of Vice Dean for International Affairs (2008-2011) and Head of the Public Health Department (2010-2011) within the Faculty of Health Care and Social Work, Trnava University, Slovakia.

Lisa Leonardini is the Health and Social Manager for the Veneto Region in Italy. She is a psychologist and psychotherapist who has a Master’s degree in drafting and managing European projects. She has served as the technical coordinator of the ProMIS (Programma Mattone Internazionale Salute) since 2010. Additionally, Lisa has assumed the role of manager of the Health and Social Area at the Veneto Region since 2022.

Previously, Lisa directed an NGO specialising in social services. Lisa’s responsibilities covered a wide range of critical areas including: education, communities for unaccompanied minors, centres for asylum seekers, therapeutic communities for drug addiction, social and labour inclusion, prevention, and wellbeing promotion.

Petra Plunger works as a senior health expert and health promotion professional in the Competence Centre for Future Health Promotion / Austrian Health Promotion Fund at the Austrian National Public Health Institute. She specialises in developing intersectoral approaches, concepts, and implementation strategies for healthy ageing and caring communities, as well as capacity building and knowledge management in health promotion, linking expertise from practice, policy, training, and research both at the national and international level.

Before joining the Competence Centre in April 2022, she worked as a researcher in inter- and transdisciplinary research in health promotion and palliative care, focusing on ageing, living with dementia, community-based health promotion, and organisational development in health care. She has over 25 years of experience in health promotion and a specific interest in health equity in participatory approaches to involving vulnerable populations, and health promotion ethics.

At the Austrian Public Health Association, she co-hosts a competence group for participatory approaches, is a member of the International Collaboration for Participatory Health Research, and is a reviewer for scientific journals. She also teaches on the topic of health promotion and supervises master theses. Petra’s background is in pharmacy, and she holds a MPH degree from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in palliative care and organisational ethics.

Yvette Shajanian Zarneh is the Head of Unit for the Planning, Strategy, Knowledge Transfer, International Relations at the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA). She joined BZgA as Scientific Project Officer in 2014 and holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and in Management of Health and Social Services. She brings more than 20 years of experience as a researcher and project manager in the fields of public health, health care system development, and financing, also at the international level, and is responsible for the international activities and representation of the Federal Centre for Health Education. In this capacity, she is a member of national and international public health associations, networks, and committees.