Edwina Zoghbi has been working as the National Professional Officer on noncommunicable diseases and mental health at the World Health Organization in Lebanon since 2013. She holds a BA in psychology, BS in nutrition, and a Master’s degree in public health from the American University of Beirut.

Her work at WHO focuses on strengthening the health system in areas related to noncommunicable diseases, mental health and nutrition. Her experience working at WHO and liaising with the Ministry of Public Health provided her with the opportunity to be involved in devising health-related strategies and action plans, implementing projects, conducting capacity building, implementing educational campaigns, etc., which allowed her to expand my knowledge and skills to help define, critically assess and address several public health problems and issues.

She joined the Dual Career PhD track at UNU MERIT in 2023 and is particularly interested in assessing the performance of the health care system in prisons in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

The topic of her research became of particular interest to me through a project she has been implementing in Lebanon’s largest prison. This project started in 2019 and it enabled improving access to health care services including mental health services for one of the most vulnerable populations- persons in prison.

Throughout the project, she have gained more insight on the needs and challenges facing prisoners’ health care in Lebanon.she also became more aware of the scarcity of research in this field of work and of the importance of addressing inequalities facing people in prison.