The Union Board of Directors is pleased to announce the election of Dr E Jane Carter (USA) as the new President of The Union. The election took place at their 30 October meeting in Lille, France. In this position, Dr Carter will lead the 91-year-old organisation, which has 14 offices, more than 300 staff and consultants and some 10,000 members and subscribers worldwide. She will also represent the North America Region on the Board.
Dr Carter is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brown University in Rhode Island (USA) and senior consultant at the Rhode Island State TB Clinic. A pulmonologist by training, she is now working on the issue of TB/HIV co-infection and directs the Brown-Kenya Medical Exchange Program, a collaboration with Moi University Medical School (AMPATH) in Eldoret, Kenya. Her work focuses on HIV/AIDS and TB research, training and treatment with emphasis on public health outcomes and case finding in resource-poor settings.
Prof S Bertel Squire (UK), who served as President for the past four years, will now become Past President. Prof Asma El Sony (Sudan), who was Past President, has now retired from the Board after 12 years of service. At the meeting, both were thanked for their outstanding leadership of The Union, during a period of both tremendous growth and economic challenges.
Four other new members were elected to the Board:
Dr Wang Jie (China) of the China Association for Tobacco Control will represent the Tobacco Control Scientific Section;
Mr Khairuddin Ahmed Mukul (Bangladesh) of the National Ant-tuberculosis Association of Bangladesh (NATAB) will represent the South-East Asia Region;
Prof Soumya Swaminathan (India) of the Tuberculosis Research Centre in Chennai will represent the HIV Scientific Section;
Dr Richard Zaleskis (Demark) of the WHO Europe Region Office in Copenhagen will represent the TB Scientific Section.
In addition, Mr Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen (Switzerland), CEO of Vestergaard Frandsen, will serve as a member nominated by the President.