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Thoko Elphick-Pooley is the Executive Director of Uniting to Combat NTDs and Co-Chair of the G7 Taskforce on Global Health. Born and educated in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in business administration and international development. Thoko has a wealth of experience in strategic leadership, partnership development and institutional relations.

Prior to working at Uniting to Combat NTDs, Thoko was leading the institutional funding team at Sightsavers, overseeing the growth of institutional funding as a source of income for the organisation which grew from 8% in 2009 to over 40% by 2015. Prior to joining Sightsavers, Thoko worked for Education Action in London, Practical Action in the UK and Kenya, CIVICUS in South Africa and a number of organisations in Zimbabwe including for UNESCO.

Seonmi Choi joined the Global Fund as Senior Advisor on Climate Change and Environment in July 2023. As the Global Fund’s focal point for climate change and environment-related matters, she leads and coordinates the overall strategic approach, policies, and tools on climate and environment across the organization.

Seonmi has over 20 years of global experience including over 15 years in the United Nations advancing climate resilience, environmental health, climate finance, and environmental sustainability. Before joining the Global Fund, she worked as UNICEF’s first Climate and Environment Advisor in East Asia-Pacific. During her services at the UNEP and UNDP, she led the joint UN Poverty-Environment Initiative in Asia- Pacific and managed climate resilience projects in Africa. Prior to the UN, she worked for the Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development of the Republic of Korea and sub-regional financial institutions in West Africa.

Marcus Lacerda is an infectious disease specialist with a PhD in Tropical Medicine. He is a physician and researcher at the FMT-HVD and a specialist in Public Health at the Leônidas e Maria Deane Institute (FIOCRUZ-Amazônia), a professor in the Graduate Program in Tropical Medicine at the Amazonas State University and an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). He has supervised 80+ undergraduate, master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral students and has published 400+ scientific papers. He advises and is part of committees and working groups in the WHO Global Malaria Program and is a consultant to the WHO Guidelines Development Group (GDG) for Malaria Chemotherapy. He is a 1B researcher for the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development in the field of Medicine and editor of the Journal of the Brazilian Society of Tropical Medicine and Frontiers Tropical Medicine. His main research focuses are malaria, HIV, histoplasmosis, arboviruses, snakebites, Covid-19 and other emerging diseases. Marcus has been a Commander of the Order of Scientific Merit by the Presidency of Brazil since July 2023.