Dr. Natalia Kanem is United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Appointed by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in 2017, Dr. Kanem has more than 30 years of strategic leadership experience in the fields of preventive medicine, public and reproductive health, social justice and philanthropy. She started her research career with the Johns Hopkins and Columbia University schools of medicine and public health.
Dr. Kanem joined the United Nations in 2014 as UNFPA Country Representative in the United Republic of Tanzania. In 2016, she was named Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director in charge of programmes. Previously, she served as founding president of ELMA Philanthropies, Inc., and as senior associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.
At the Ford Foundation from 1992 to 2004, she funded pioneering work on women’s reproductive health and human rights, serving first in West Africa and eventually as Deputy Vice-President for peace and social justice programmes in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and North America.
She holds a medical degree from Columbia University in New York, and a Master’s degree in Public Health with specializations in epidemiology and preventive medicine from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College in history and science.