Ambassador Dr. John Nkengasong
Dr. John N. Nkengasong is an Ambassador at Large and serves as the U.S. Department of State’s U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Health Diplomacy. In this role, Dr. Nkengasong oversees the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – PEPFAR; which is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history, prevent millions of HIV infections, save lives, and make progress toward ending the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Previously, Dr. Nkengasong served as the first director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Through his leadership, a framework for transforming Africa CDC into a full autonomous health agency of the Africa Union was established. As Africa CDC director, Dr. Nkengasong also led the COVID-19 response in Africa, coordinating with heads of state and governments across the continent, among other achievements to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, he helped secure 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines at the height of vaccine scarcity. During his tenure, he was appointed as one of the World Health Organization’s special envoys on COVID-19 preparedness and response. Dr. Nkengasong also served as acting deputy principal director of the Center for Global Health, as well as the Division of Global HIV and TB’s chief of the International Laboratory Branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a world-renowned public health leader, Dr. Nkengasong’s contributions to global health have been recognized by numerous prestigious awards and honors including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2020 Global Goalkeeper Award; Time Magazine, 2021 Time 100 List of Most Influential People; Fortune magazine, 2021 World’s 50 Greatest Leaders; Bloomberg, 2021 Bloomberg 50 Influential People; and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Shepard Award and William Watson Medal of Excellence. In 2022, he became the first laureate of the Virchow Prize for Global Health. Dr. Nkengasong also holds the rare honor of being knighted by the governments of Sénégal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Cameroon.
J. Stephen Morrison
Dr. J. Stephen Morrison is a Senior Vice President at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where he has directed the Global Health Policy Center since he founded it in September 2008. From 2000 until 2008, he directed the CSIS Africa Program, while also launching the CSIS Task Force on HIV/AIDS (2001-2007), co-chaired by Senators John Kerry and Bill Frist. During the Clinton administration, he served on the Policy Planning Staff, under Secretaries of State Christopher and Albright, and prior to that, conceptualized and founded USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives. He served in the U.S. embassy in Addis Ababa 1992-1993, directing its transitional work promoting democracy and good governance. From 1987-1991, he was senior staff on the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-MI.)
In recent years at CSIS, Morrison has directed several high-level commissions, most notably the CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security (begun in 2018, ongoing), and the CSIS Task Force on Women’s and Family Health (2015-2017.) He is the author of diverse analytic reports and commentaries, a frequent voice on global health, U.S. foreign policy, and international security, across a range of media. During 2021-2022, he has been the James S. Schlesinger Distinguished Professor at the Miller Center at the University of Virginia. He also serves on advisor boards at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. His hour-long award-winning documentary film, The New Barbarianism (2017) focuses on the surge of violence against the health sector in over two dozen conflicts. A feature length documentary, The Pandemic Paradox, on the course of HIV/AIDS over the past 40 years and the risks of regression, compounded by the coronavirus pandemic, was released in 2020. In 2022, he created the CSIS video series, ‘Ukraine: The Human Price of War.’ Morrison received his PhD in political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a graduate, magna cum laude, of Yale College.
Han Kang
Han Kang is honored to work with Washington and Mission colleagues in efforts toward ending the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. A senior-level officer with the U.S. Foreign Service, he previously served as the Acting Deputy Mission Director for USAID/Burma and led USAID health teams in Burma, Ethiopia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Zambia. Han received a Distinguished Honor Award from USAID, Superior Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State, and two Meritorious Honor Awards from USAID for his accomplishments in development and humanitarian assistance. Before joining USAID in 2007, he worked with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate and control disease outbreaks in the United States-Mexico border region. Han co-authored a book on HIV/AIDS in South Asia and articles on global health and development. He began his career by providing HIV/AIDS care in clinics serving ethnic minority communities. Han graduated from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Fulbright Scholar, Princeton University as a Truman Scholar, and the University of California-Irvine as a Regents’ Scholar. Born and raised in Taiwan and educated in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, Han is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Spanish
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