Welcoming three new members to the Elsevier Foundation Board
The Elsevier Foundation is delighted to welcome three new members to the Elsevier Foundation Board: Professor Yap Boum II and Professor Akiça Bahri as external members, and Dr. Richard Horton as an internal member. Each brings deep experience in global health, science and policy, and a long record of working with partners around the world. Together, they will help us convene and spotlight changemakers who accelerate early-stage interventions for systemic change in research and health equity.
Prof. Yap Boum II: epidemiologist and public health leader
Prof. Yap Boum II is a public health leader, epidemiologist, and microbiologist with extensive experience in epidemic preparedness and response across Africa. He currently serves as Deputy Incident Manager of the Mpox and Cholera Incident Management Support Team (IMST), led by Africa CDC and WHO, where he contributes to strengthening continental systems for outbreak detection, coordination, and control.
He is a former Director General of the Institut Pasteur de Bangui and previously served as Africa Representative for Epicentre (MSF), leading research and response efforts across multiple countries.
Prof. Boum is also an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and a Senior Lecturer at the University of Yaoundé I, where he has trained and mentored a new generation of African scientists. He is also the co-founder of The Village, a novel digital platform that leverages artificial intelligence to match needs and resources, breaking barriers and borders by connecting researchers, clinicians, students, institutions, philanthropists, and publishers globally. He is also the co-founder of Kmerpad, an initiative that empowers women through the production and distribution of reusable sanitary pads in Africa. His work focuses on advancing equitable global health, strengthening health systems, and promoting African leadership in research and innovation.
Prof. Akiça Bahri: water resources and agriculture expert
Prof. Akiça Bahri is a Tunisian agricultural engineer. She brings extensive experience in water resources management, with particular expertise in the agricultural use of marginal waters, biosolids, and their environmental impacts. Prof. Bahri served as Tunisia’s Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries (2020-02021), following her role as Secretary of State for Water Resources, and Professor at the National Agricultural Institute of Tunisia. Her international career includes serving as Director for Africa at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) based in Accra, Ghana (2005–2010), and as Coordinator of the African Water Facility (2010–2015) at the African Development Bank.
Earlier, she was Director of Research at Tunisia’s National Research Institute for Agricultural Engineering, Water and Forestry. Her contributions to science and water management have been widely recognized. She has received honors from the Guinness Foundation (1984), the International Foundation for Science (1993), and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (1996). She was awarded the 2009 Prof. C.N.R. Rao Prize for Scientific Research and the International Water Association’s “Women in Water” Award in 2018. In 2005, she was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of California, Davis. Professor Bahri holds an Agricultural Engineering degree from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie de Toulouse, a Doctor-Engineer degree from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, and a Ph.D. in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University.
Dr. Richard Horton: global and planetary health leader
Richard is Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet. He qualified in Physiology and Medicine with honors from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1986. He joined The Lancet in 1990, moving to New York as North American Editor in 1993. In 2016, he chaired the Expert Group for the High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, convened by Presidents Hollande of France and Zuma of South Africa. From 2011 to 2015, he was Co-Chair of the UN’s independent Expert Review Group on Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children’s Health. In 2011, Dr. Horton was elected a Foreign Associate of the US Institute of Medicine and, in 2015, he received the Friendship Award from the Government of China.
In 2019, he was awarded the WHO Director-General’s Health Leaders Award for outstanding leadership in global health and the Roux Prize in recognition of innovation in the application of global health evidence. He now works to develop the idea of planetary health – the health of human civilizations and the ecosystems on which they depend. In 2020, he published The COVID-19 Catastrophe: What’s Gone Wrong and How to Stop It Happening Again. A revised, updated, and expanded second edition was published in 2021.
Join us in welcoming Prof. Boum, Prof. Bahri and Dr. Horton to the Elsevier Foundation Board. Their combined experience in health systems, global health, water and climate resilience will strengthen our work. We look forward to learning from them as the Elsevier Foundation support partners who are building a more inclusive, healthier and more sustainable future for all.