Colonel Olivier AOUN, MD, MS is amilitary field physician specialized in deployment related health issues,military occupational medicine, and medical readiness of troops. As aconsequence, Colonel Aoun's areas of interest also include infectious diseases andtropical medicine, vaccinology, toxicology, and combat casualty care. He was asite co-director for the Geosentinel® Network from Jan 2010 to Dec 2012, andhas been a lecturer at the Sorbonne and the Strasbourg Medical Collegessince 2019. COL AOUN is a founding member and the current Chair of the militarytravel interest group of the International Society of Travel Medicine. Since 2009, he has been deployed to theBalkans, Afghanistan, Mali, Mauritania, Lebanon, Côte d'ivoire, and Chad. Heis currently stationed at the 5th Armed Forces Medical Center, Strasbourg,France.

Valerie Rzepka is a Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner, Executive Director, and co-founder of
Canadian Medical Assistance Teams (CMAT), a grassroots emergency medical response
organization that provides medical aid in the wake of major global disasters.
In nearly 15 years of responding to disasters, Valerie has coordinated, supervised and deployed
to medical projects in Thailand, Pakistan, China, Haiti, Chile, Japan, and the Philippines. Most
recently, she oversaw CMAT’s immediate rapid assessment and coordinated the overall
response to the 2015 Nepal earthquake. As a result of her collaboration in United Nations-led
emergency responses, Valerie has consulted for the Pan American Health Organization in
Washington, DC, and World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland as a subject-matter
expert in Emergency Medical Response in the Emergency Medical Teams initiative. 

She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Ryerson University in Toronto, and her
Master of Science in Health Policy jointly from the London School of Economics and a diploma
from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom. She
completed the Primary Health Care Nurse Practitioner program at Laurentian University in 2013.
Valerie has spent many of the last years working in remote First Nations and Inuit communities
in the Canadian Arctic and Sub-arctic and presently works as a Clinical Educator teaching outpost
nurses the advanced practice skills necessary for working in remote communities. She also
works casually as a Critical Care Flight Nurse, transporting patients internationally, and as a
Medical Officer with Holland America and Princess Cruise Lines.

Prior to returning to clinical practice, Valerie spent several years working as a Health Policy
Analyst with the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO), helping to shape legislation,
affecting nursing and health care in Ontario, Canada and around the world. 

Frederic Deycard is the Associate Director for Mali and the Sahel at The Carter Center in Atlanta. As a consultant, Deycard developed the Peace through Health initiative in central Mali, before becoming the project’s manager after it was funded by The Carter Center in 2019. Before joining the Carter Center, Deycard worked as a consultant on violent conflict in Niger, Mali, and Chad and is an expert in political violence, peacebuilding, and conflict analysis. He holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology and a Master's in Conflict Analysis from the Political Studies Institute of Bordeaux, France, and a Master's in Contemporary History from the Michel Montaigne University of Bordeaux.

Dr. Dawd Siraj is a faculty member in the Division of Infectious Disease. He is director of the UW Health Travel Clinic and director of the Global Health Pathway Program. He was the inaugural vice chair for DEI in the Department of Medicine, serving from 2021-2022. Outside of the university, Dr. Siraj is the vice-chair of the Infectious Disease Society of America's (IDSA) Global Health Committee. He also serves as a member of the IDSA exam writers committee and member of the educational committee for ISTM. Dr. Siraj is heavily involved in HIV, Hepatitis and Tropical medicine patient care as well as residency and Infectious diseases fellow training at UW-Madison. He also runs an HIV Inmate Clinic. In 2020, he received a Department of Medicine Chair Commendation in recognition and appreciation of his leadership in the development of the Global Health Pathway. Other honors awarded to Dr. Siraj include being named as a Regional Top Doctor by Castle Connolly and US News and World Report while practicing in North Carolina prior to joining the faculty at UW-Madison. He has also received a Best Exemplary Alumni Award from Jimma University and a Certificate of Recognition in 2009, 2010, and 2013 from the President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for his voluntary service to the people of Ethiopia.