Prof. Dorit Nitzan is a physician specializing in public health, emergency preparedness, disaster management, and health systems resilience. She served in senior leadership positions at the World Health Organization (WHO) for 17 years, including as WHO Representative and Head of Country Offices in Serbia, Montenegro, and Ukraine, before being appointed Regional Emergency Director for the WHO European Region, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. In that role, she led WHO’s emergency preparedness and response activities across 53 Member States.
Following her retirement from WHO, Prof. Nitzan returned to lead the Organization’s humanitarian health response in Ukraine at the outbreak of the war. She currently serves as Professor and Director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, where she also directs the Master’s Program in Emergency Medicine – Preparedness and Response and leads the BGU-FOR (Food Systems, One Health and Resilience) Center.
She has received numerous international awards in recognition of her contributions to global public health and emergency management.