RTI International’s Rachel Nugent named to expert advisory panel of World Health Organization

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, North Carolina — Rachel Nugent, Ph.D., vice president of RTI International’s Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases Global Initiative, has been named to an advisory panel for the World Health Organization.

Nugent will serve a four-year term on the panel, which advises WHO officials on global noncommunicable diseases (NCDs).

“I am honored to have been chosen by WHO to serve on this important committee to guide its future actions on prevention and control of NCDs around the world,” said Nugent.

Noncommunicable diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, are a growing health threat in low- and middle-income countries. In early 2016, RTI hired Nugent and launched an initiative to work toward reducing premature mortality from these conditions around the world.

RTI’s new NCDs initiative has a global reach with a particular focus on lower and middle income countries, which ties in closely with the goals of the WHO advisory panel. Nugent’s team draws on RTI’s expertise in health communication and behavior change, health care economics, epidemiology, biomarker research, disease surveillance and registries, and medical product development.

Nugent is a well-known expert on global health. Before joining RTI, she was an associate professor of global health at the University of Washington and director and principal investigator of the Disease Control Priorities Network. She previously worked at the Center for Global Development, the Population Reference Bureau, the Fogarty International Center of NIH, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.