Dr Dorit Nitzan joined WHO/Europe’s Division of Health Emergencies and Communicable Diseases as Coordinator of Health Emergencies and Programme Manager of Emergency Operations in August 2016. In March 2019, she was appointed Acting Regional Emergency Director, leading the European Region’s WHO Health Emergencies Programme through the full emergency cycle, from prevention and preparedness to response and recovery.

Dr Nitzan joined WHO in 2005. She was Manager of Public Health Services in the South-eastern Europe Health Network and Head of Offices and WHO Representative in Serbia (including Montenegro at that time) until 2012. She then served as WHO Representative in Ukraine until 2016.

Prior to this, Dr Nitzan was in senior management positions in the Israeli Ministry of Health. She was also active in the humanitarian nongovernmental organization Physicians for Human Rights. She supported humanitarian operations in Ethiopia and the Middle East with the World Food Programme, and was a nutrition, food safety, public health and emergency response consultant in China, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation. She led health sector activities in disaster preparedness and response missions to Africa, Asia and South America, and served the search and rescue operations response to the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.

Dr Nitzan is a paediatrician with a degree from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University in Israel. She completed her residency, fellowship and Master of Public Health degree at the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Children’s Hospital in New York City, United States of America. Prior to this, she graduated as a registered dietitian from Hebrew University in Israel.