Board of Directors

ISUH’s Board of Directors provides strategic guidance, fiduciary oversight, and institutional relationships that extend the organization’s global reach. Board members bring distinguished experience spanning academic research, senior government service, global health and multilateral institutions, philanthropy, and leadership across the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors. Together, they contribute the scientific, policy, institutional, and industry perspectives needed to advance urban health across sectors and translate evidence into action at scale.

  • Jeffrey L. Sturchio is past Chairman and CEO at Rabin Martin, a global health strategy consulting firm, and former President and CEO of the Global Health Council. Before joining the Council in 2009, Dr. Sturchio was vice president of Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co. Inc., and president of The Merck Company Foundation. 

    He is currently also chairman of the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa, chairman of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB and Malaria, chairman of the BroadReach Institute for Training and Education, and a member of the boards of ACHAP and the Science History Institute.  Dr. Sturchio is also a visiting scholar at the Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and the Study of Business Enterprise at The Johns Hopkins University; Senior Associate at the Global Health Policy Center of the Center for Strategic and International Studies; a principal of the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Arthur W. Page Society; and an advisor to amfAR,  the Center for Health and Well-Being at Princeton University, he Partnership for Quality Medical Donations,  the Rutgers Global Health Institute, and the TB Alliance. He received an AB in history from Princeton University and a PhD in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania. His publications include The Road to Universal Health Coverage: Innovation, Equity and the New Health Economy (edited with I. Kickbusch and L. Galambos‎, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019).

  • Dr. Boufford is immediate past President of The New York Academy of Medicine. Since January 1, 2018, she is Clinical Professor of Global Public Health at the College of Global Public Health at New York University where she is also Professor of Public Service, Health Policy and Management at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at New York University School of Medicine. She served as Dean of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University from June 1997 to November 2002. Prior to that, she served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from November 1993 to January 1997, and as Acting Assistant Secretary from January 1997 to May 1997. While at HHS, she was the U.S. representative on the Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1994–1997. She served in a variety of senior positions and as President of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC), the largest municipal system in the United States, from December 1985 until October 1989. Dr. Boufford was awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship at the Institute of Medicine in Washington, DC for 1979–1980. She currently serves on the boards of the United Hospital Fund and the Health Effects Institute. She was elected to membership in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1992 and served on its Board on Global Health and Board on African Science Academy Development. She served two four year terms as the Foreign Secretary of the IOM between 2010 and 2014 and was elected to membership for the National Academy of Public Administration in 2015. She received Honorary Doctorate of Science degrees from the State University of New York, Brooklyn, (1992), New York Medical College, (2007), Pace University, (2011) and Toledo University, (2012). She has been a Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine since 1988 and a Trustee since 2004. Dr. Boufford attended Wellesley College for two years and received her BA (Psychology) magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, and her MD, with distinction, from the University of Michigan Medical School. She is Board Certified in pediatrics.

  • Dr. Carlos Dora has a distinguished career in global public health and environment. Until recently, he coordinated the WHO’s global work on health impacts of sector policies (energy, transport, housing, extractive industry) and on articulating a global response to air pollution. He led the development of a new Urban Health Initiative to strengthen health systems capacity in cities to support health, climate and air quality benefits from urban policies, which is under pilot implementation in Africa and Asia. He also led the development of a framework for how public health can contribute to Habitat III objectives and the New Urban Agenda. He previously led knowledge synthesis about the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation policies, in a “Health in a Green Economy” series and contributed to the development of health indicators for post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals. He has worked to include health into strategic environment assessments and into Development Banks Safeguards. He contributed to establishment of an inter-ministerial process for transport health and environment in Europe (THE PEP), led a health task force in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, and earlier engaged in health risk assessments in the ex-Soviet Union. He has worked in academia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and as a visiting professor at Columbia University School of Public Health. He worked at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, with the World Bank, and in the organization and innovation of primary care systems in Brazil, where he also practiced clinical medicine. He has served in many science/policy committees at national and international levels and is engaged in many global partnerships.

    He currently advises governments, civil society and philanthropy about health as it relates to non-heath sector policies and the urban environment. His research and publications include health impact assessment as well as perceptions and communication of science and health risks by scientists, media and politicians. He is a medical doctor and an epidemiologist with an MSc and a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

  • Gerard Lebeda most recently served as Program Director of the International Society for Urban Health (ISUH) and currently, as a part of it's Board of Directors, focuses on cultivating Convention & Visitor Bureau (CVB) / destination relationships for the organization's annual International Conference on Urban Health (ICUH). Previously, Gerard was Deputy Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars, a program he led for 13 years. Mr. Lebeda served on the founding Board of Directors for the Interdisciplinary Association for Population Health Science (IAPHS), a DC-based organization aimed at improving the health of populations through science and innovation. Prior to his work on the Health & Society Scholars program, Gerard worked as a Convention/Meeting Planner for Medical World Communications in Jamesburg, NJ and as an Office Coordinator at the Medical Center at Princeton in Princeton, NJ.

  • Rebecca Weil brings over 20 years of international experience in strategy and operations in the healthcare industry.   She is currently Chief Commercial Officer at Oculis, a Swiss biotech company focused on Ophthalmology.  Previously Dr. Weil held senior executive roles spanning corporate affairs, strategy, marketing, and general management at global healthcare companies including Novartis and Shire.  She has a successful track record of commercializing new products and leading cross-functional teams in the U.S., Europe, and Emerging Markets.

    Dr Weil started her career at McKinsey & Company leading strategic projects for a broad range of healthcare clients.  She earned her PhD in Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her BA at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs.