Katherine Littler
Co-Lead, Global Health Ethics & Governance Unit, World Health Organisation
I am currently the co-lead of the Global Health Ethics & Governance Unit at WHO Headquarters, Geneva. I am passionate about embedding ethics more effectively in global health ethics decision making and increasing ethics capacity around the globe. Whilst a lot of my current focus is on COVID-related work, I am also focused on supporting the realization of the potential benefits of emerging technologies in different settings via the development of governance mechanisms; the ethics of clinical trial design, with particular reference to human challenge studies and identifying gaps in ethical oversight in global health.
Prior to joining WHO in 2018, I co-led the Global Policy Team at Wellcome, where I provided strategic advice on regulatory, governance and ethical issues. At Wellcome, I led a programme of work focusing on research ethics, global governance and advocacy, epidemic preparedness, genomics and emerging technologies, and evidence into policy. I was involved in international partnerships and sat on many oversight bodies, including: the PHE Ebola Governance Group; the IDDO Ebola Platform Steering Committee; the H3Africa Ethics and Regulatory Working Group and I was the chair of the GLOPID-R data sharing working group.