Three new members join GAPA board
At the GAPA board meeting in December 2021 Dr Kumnuan Ungsuchak resigned from the GAPA board and three new board members were elected. These three are:
Dr. Sawitri Assanangkornchai
BOARD MEMBER
Thailand
Sawitri Assanangkornchai is a Professor of Psychiatry working in Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University. She is also the Director of Centre for Alcohol Studies, a national granting agency under the support of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation, with a mission to promote research and policy development on alcohol control.
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.
Ms. Aadielah Maker Diedricks
BOARD MEMBER
South Africa
Aadielah Maker Diedricks has a Masters in Community Health from UNSW, Sydney, Australia; is a public health advocate with experience in developing and producing edutainment and multi-media interventions, training, social mobilisation and campaign management.
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.
Dr. Beatriz Champagne
BOARD MEMBER
Argentina
Beatriz Champagne is a Psychologist from Buenos Aires, Argentina, with a Master of Science and PhD from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, and a Bachelor of Science summa cum laude from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.
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.