Board members

Her research interests are in social and public health policy, particularly in relation to alcohol and other unhealthy commodities.

She has interest in development and implementation of healthy public policy at the global level and in international collaborative research. She was selected by her peers to receive the Jellinek Memorial Award, the premier international award for alcohol research, for her contributions to ‘the understanding of social and cultural drinking patterns and public attitudes’ and has been Vice President and President of the Kettil Bruun Society for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol.

She has published more than 200 articles in peer reviewed international journals, is a member of the World Health Organisation’s Expert Advisory Panel on Alcohol and Drug Dependence, Member of WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Disease and participant in the WHO Expert meetings on Economic and Commercial Determinants of Health.

He previously served as a tenured professor and Chairperson, Department of Behavioral Health Sciences, School of Public Health and Policy, Morgan State University, Baltimore MD; Professor and Head, Department of Psychology University of Uyo, Nigeria; and Scientist in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence at the World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.

Dr Obot has consulted for several national and international organisations on substance use issues and serves as editor of the African Journal of Drug and Alcohol Studies.

He previously directed the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Dr. Jernigan’s career focus has been on public health practice with a special interest in alcohol and cannabis policy. He has served as an advisor to the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO) and was the principal author of WHO’s first Global Status Report on Alcohol and Global Status Report on Alcohol and Youth.

Dr. Jernigan has written more than 140 peer-reviewed journal articles and contributed chapters to seven books. He has also written about and worked extensively in the field of media advocacy, and trained thousands of students and public health advocates in media advocacy and alcohol-problems prevention.

FORUT allocates part of Mr. Bakke’s time to function as GAPA Secretary. He has previously also held other positions in FORUT, including Assistant Resident Representative in Sri Lanka and worked in journalism.

Mr Ali is an Advance Member of the International Society of Substance Use Professionals (ISSUP), Member of the International Network on Brief Interventions for Alcohol & other Drugs (INEBRIA) and represents VALD at the Word Federation Against Drugs (WFAD). He attended several international meetings on the control and prevention of alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity.
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She is also Advisor at Research for Impact, a Singapore-based think-and-do-tank which aims to make research and evaluation accessible, inclusive and transformative for social and economic development policy and practice in Asia. Gayle Amul is also coordinating the alcohol policy network in her region, the Asia Pacific Alcohol Policy Alliance (APAPA)

Dr. Assanangkornchai’s research interests include epidemiological and clinical studies on alcohol- and substance-related problems, behavioural addiction and mental health problems.

Dr. Assanangkornchai is currently the President of the Asia Pacific Society for Alcohol and Addiction Research (APSAAR). She is also a member of the Workgroup on the Classification of Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders for the ICD-11 Mental and Behavioural Disorders and the Technical Expert Group on Alcohol and Drug Epidemiology of the WHO.

He has worked with the World Health Organization on the development of Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and the Alcohol, Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST). He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, and the co-author of Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity (2022 forthcoming) and Drug Policy and the Public Good. (2018).

His career was as Municipal Chief Executive for 20 years before his election as President of IOGT International (now Movendi International) in 2002. Mr Carlsson is also a member of the Board of EUROCARE – the European Alcohol Policy Alliance, the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance (GAPA) and the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions (ICAA).

Dr Champagne is Director of CLAS, the Coalition for Americas’ Health, and former executive director of the InterAmerican Heart Foundation. CLAS is an alliance of over 200 Non-Governmental Organizations from Latin America, whose purpose is to prevent and control NCDs in the region. Its members include medical societies, patient organizations, healthcare NGOs, consumers NGOs, religious and academic entities. Founded in March 2011, its aim is to reduce inequity, promote human rights, and facilitate effective polices with impact on NCDs risk factors and its determinants. CLAS’ overall goal is to strengthen Civil Society’s action on preventing and controlling NCDs in Latin America through advocacy, education, awareness building, and research, at the national and regional levels, for the implementation of effective policies, in line with the United Nations’ and PAHO-WHO’s goals. In 2018, she was designated World Heart Federation Advocacy Committee Chair, with a global sphere of action. Within CLAS, she helped create an actively engaged Alcohol group focused on advocacy and research. The Coalition became a part of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance in March 2020.

She has worked in the civil society sector for over 25 years in the areas of sexual and reproductive health, HIV and AIDS, gender and alcohol. She managed the award winning Soul Buddyz programme and Soul City Phuza Wise campaign. Currently, she is coordinating the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance bringing together civil society organisations from 7 countries lobbying for health promoting and evidence-based alcohol policies.

Trained in South Africa and the USA in clinical and community psychology and mathematical statistics, his research centres on alcohol and drug epidemiology, burden of disease and policy; alcohol use and HIV/TB; and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Since 2006 he has been a member of the WHO Expert Panel on Drug Dependence and Alcohol Problems and in 2010 was appointed to the board of GAPA.

In 1982 he helped establish and became co-Director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies, London and in 1989 spearheaded the formation of Eurocare, acting as its Honorary Secretary until September 2006. In 2001 he was a co-organiser of an international conference in Syracuse, which led to the establishment of the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance. In 2008 he was the recipient of a special Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Thai Government.

Mr Rutherford has accounted his experience in the autobiography The boy who ‘joined for jelly’; A 66 year journey.

She is a member of the scientific committee of the Turkish Green Crescent Society and has a background as Manager of the Department of Scientific Research and Advocacy with the same organisation.