WHO Goodwill Ambassadors

In his opening remarks to the Seventy-second World Health Assembly, WHO Director General, Dr Tedros announced the appointment of prominent international footballer Alisson Becker as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Health Promotion.

Alisson Becker is the goalkeeper of the Brazil and Liverpool football teams and an advocate for promoting physical activity, particularly of children.

Alisson Becker is also the husband of fellow WHO Goodwill Ambassador for health promotion, Dr Natália Loewe Becker, a medical doctor and health advocate from Brazil. 

Health promotion is central to efforts to promote healthy lives and guide communities and countries to provide the systems and services needed to ensure people can achieve the highest levels of health and wellbeing.

In his opening remarks to the Seventy-second World Health Assembly, WHO Director General, Dr Tedros announced the appointment of Dr Natália Loewe Becker as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Health Promotion.

Dr Becker is a medical doctor and health advocate from Brazil. She is passionate about promoting childhood immunization, nutrition, healthy lifestyles for children and improving sanitation in local communities.

Dr Becker is also the wife of fellow WHO Goodwill Ambassador for health promotion, footballer Alisson Becker, who is the goalkeeper of the Brazil and Liverpool football teams.

Health promotion is central to efforts to promote healthy lives and guide communities and countries to provide the systems and services needed to ensure people can achieve the highest levels of health and wellbeing.

Michael R. Bloomberg is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013 after 20 years leading the company he founded in 1981. Since leaving City Hall, he has resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP.

Helping people live longer and healthier lives was also top priority for Mayor Bloomberg, who quickly became a national leader on public health. After New York City banned smoking in bars and restaurants, cities and states across the nation – and countries around the world – followed suit. Thanks in part to the Mayor’s public health initiatives, life expectancy in New York City grew by more than 3 years and increased to 2.2 years longer than the national average.

As a philanthropist, Bloomberg has given more than $4.3 billion in support of education, the environment, government innovation, the arts, and public health. His philanthropic investments in public health aim to combat widespread health hazards by spreading proven solutions that protect more people and save more lives. These investments include initiatives to eradicate polio and reduce deaths by noncommunicable diseases by tackling global tobacco use, drowning, and obesity, and improving access to maternal health care. Bloomberg has paid special attention to unmet health needs. To stem deaths and injuries caused by traffic crashes, he has lead efforts to improve road safety, and in 2015, he joined the Australian government to co-fund a $100 million initiative to improve health data systems in low- and middle-income countries.

As Mayor of New York City, Bloomberg brought the city back from the 9/11 terrorist attacks, increased graduation rates and private sector job numbers to record highs, reduced crime by more than 30% and the city’s carbon footprint by 19%, revitalized the waterfront, expanded support for arts and culture, and implemented ambitious anti-poverty programs.

In recognition of his efforts in public health, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was renamed in his honour. In 2016, he helped create the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins University, which will focus on one of the most promising avenues of cancer research today.

Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.

Michael Bloomberg became WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable and injuries in 2016.

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Gordon Brown is the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010 and is widely credited with preventing a second Great Depression through his stewardship of the 2009 London G20 summit. He was one of the first leaders during the global crisis to initiate calls for global financial action, while introducing a range of rescue measures in the UK. In April 2009, he hosted the G20 Summit in London where world leaders committed to make an additional $1.1 trillion available to help the world economy through the crisis and restore credit, growth and jobs. They also pledged to strengthen financial supervision and regulation.

Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1997 to 2007, making him the longest-serving Chancellor in modern history. During ten years at the Treasury, Gordon’s achievements included the Minimum Wage, Sure Start, the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Child Trust Fund, the Child Tax Credit and paid paternity leave. His record on global justice includes his negotiation of debt cancellation for the world’s poorest nations and the tripling of the budget for life-saving aid. His time as Chancellor was also marked by major reform of Britain’s monetary and fiscal policy as well as the sustained investment in health, education and overseas aid.

His role in government continued to shape his views on the importance of education as a fundamental right of every child in the world and the key to unlocking better health, greater social stability, more rights and opportunities for women and a higher standard of living. He is a passionate advocate for global action to ensure education for all. In his role as UN Special Envoy for Global Education, he works closely with key partners to help galvanise support for global education investment and the use of innovative financing to reach the UN’s global goals. He is Chair of the High Level Steering Group for Education Cannot Wait, the fund for education in emergencies; Chair of the Inquiry on Protecting Children in Conflict; and Chair of the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity. 

He recently played a key role leading a group of 275 former world leaders, economists and educationalists calling for international action to prevent the global health crisis creating a “COVID generation” - tens of millions of children with no hope of an education.

In addition to his global education work Gordon is an advisor to the Graça Machel Trust, Chair of the Advisory Board at the Catalyst Trust for Universal Education, a Senior Panel Member at the Kofi Annan Foundation initiative on Electoral Integrity, and he is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Within the United Kingdom, Gordon is also the founder of Our Scottish Future, and the Alliance for Full Employment. 

Gordon is the author of several books including Beyond the Crash: Overcoming the First Crisis of Globalisation, My Scotland, Our Britain and My Life, Our Times and most recently, Seven Ways to Change the World (Simon & Schuster, June 2021).

Gordon has a PhD in History from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer and in television production. He has been awarded several honorary doctorates, most recently Doctor of the University from The Open University.

He is married to Sarah Brown, the Chair of Theirworld and Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, and the couple live in Fife, Scotland with their two sons, John and Fraser.

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Former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed World Health Organization Ambassador for Global Health Financing

In September 2018, the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appointed the philanthropist, humanitarian and health advocate Ray Chambers to serve as a WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy.

This new role is designed to support WHO’s work to mobilize the international community to advance the global health agenda, including achieving global health targets set out in the Sustainable Development Goals.

Mr Chambers previously served as the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Health in Agenda 2030 and for Malaria. Prior to 2016, he held the role of UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Financing the Health Millennium Development Goals, working with multiple funding partners to support international efforts to deliver health care and monitor the impact of such efforts.

Through his ambassadorship with WHO, Mr Chambers will be raising awareness about the role played by WHO to promote health, serve the vulnerable and keep the world safe.

A key area of activity for Mr Chambers will be to advocate for the mobilizing of resources to meet global health targets, working closely with governments, donors and the private sector.

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Ray Chambers appointed WHO Ambassador for Global Strategy

In February 2016, the WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan appointed the London-born, Beijing-based Chinese broadcaster and writer Mr James Chau to serve as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Health.

Mr Chau has 1.7 million followers on Weibo and was a Guest Presenter on BBC World News for the award-winning show "Horizons". He is a Special Contributor to CCTV News where he interviews global leaders and reports breaking news to 85 million viewers.

Mr James Chau has interviewed a range of personalities, amongst them Kofi Annan, Winnie Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Elton John, Paul Kagame, Muhammad Yunus, Joko Widodo, Diane von Furstenberg, Bob Geldof, Annie Lennox, Jimmy Choo, Fatima Bhutto, Kevin Rudd, David Tang, Mary Robinson, Lauren Bush, Arianna Huffington and Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan. Following her release, Mr Chau was the first television journalist from China to interview Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sang Suu Kyi.

He studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music and graduated from Cambridge University. In 2015 Mr Chau was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, an honour that recognises his journalism and his activism as a national Goodwill Ambassador for UNAIDS. Mr Chau is a frequent public speaker and recently moderated events led by philanthropists Bill Gates and Jack Ma.

When asked about the Sustainable Development Goals, Mr Chau said: “What I love about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda, is the way it connects one issue to the next. What I've learned is that the power and magic of health is to drag us all out of isolation, so that people really feel achieving health matters to them all.

We, the mankind, only seem to talk about health when it comes to emergencies, by which time, of course, it is rather late to act well for the global good in the long run. Otherwise, health is often dismissed as a footnote to other global issues. The SDGs can change that, as health is of relevance for many among them. Health is a desired outcome in itself as well as an incentive for all partners to work for the achievement of all SDGs.”

Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world's greatest opera houses and concert halls. Honoured with five Grammy awards and the U.S. National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions, from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Super Bowl.

In November 2022, she starred in the world premiere of The Hours, a new opera based on the award-winning novel and film, at the Metropolitan Opera, and another triumph came in March 2023, with her performance in a new production of Nixon in China at the Opéra de Paris. With Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ms Fleming won the 2023 Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, an album focused on nature as both inspiration and victim of human activity. In addition, she was awarded the 2023 Crystal Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

A leading advocate for research at the intersection of arts and health, Fleming launched the first ongoing collaboration between the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. She is an advisor for major initiatives in this field, including the Sound Health Network at UC San Francisco and the NeuroArts Blueprint at Johns Hopkins University

In May 2019, the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, appointed prominent mental health advocate, Cynthia Germanotta, to serve as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Mental Health. 

In this role, Mrs Germanotta is raising awareness of the importance of mental health, helping mobilize the international community to promote mental health and engaging in global mental health campaigns.

Mrs Germanotta is President of Born This Way Foundation, which she co-founded with her daughter Lady Gaga in 2012, with the goal of supporting the wellness of young people and empowering them to build a kinder, braver world. Under Mrs Germanotta’s leadership, Born This Way Foundation has connected with tens of thousands of young people across the country and around the world, launched innovative youth-focused programming, and conducted cutting edge research to improve the understanding of mental wellness.

Mrs Germanotta, Lady Gaga, and Born This Way Foundation have been the recipient of numerous honours from organizations including the National Council for Behavioral Health, the Family Online Safety Institute, the National Association of School Psychologists, the Anti-Defamation League, Teachers College - Columbia University, and Logo.

Mrs Germanotta is a former telecommunications executive whose career in sales and management spanned twenty-five years. A graduate of West Virginia University, she went on to earn her Masters Degree in Public Administration from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Mrs Germanotta was born and raised in West Virginia and now resides in New York City.

At the 2022 World Health Summit in Berlin, the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the appointment of Henrietta Lacks’ son, Lawrence Lacks, Sr., and his granddaughters, Victoria Baptiste and Veronica Robinson; and Alfred Lacks Carter, Jr., Henrietta Lacks’ grandson, as WHO Goodwill Ambassadors for Cervical Cancer Elimination.

As members of The Lacks Family, Lawrence, Alfred, Victoria, and Veronica are committed to preserving the life and legacy of Henrietta Lacks by educating future generations on the impact of her immortal HeLa cells while promoting health equity and social justice.

Lawrence Lacks, Sr. lives in Baltimore County, Maryland. He advocates in honour of his mother, Henrietta Lacks, who died from metastatic cervical cancer. Lawrence, Henrietta’s eldest son, was 16 when his mother prematurely died on 4 October 1951, leaving behind her husband, 5 children, and her HeLa cells that would change the world as they gave rise to countless medical breakthroughs.

Alfred Lacks Carter is a nonprofit founder living in Baltimore County, Maryland. He advocates for patients, survivors, and families worldwide to ensure that no other wife, mother, or sister dies needlessly from cervical cancer.

Victoria Baptiste, BSN, RN is a nurse living in Baltimore County, Maryland, committed to educating, empowering, and mobilizing patient advocates, health-care providers, clinicians, researchers, community leaders, and policy-makers to increase cervical cancer prevention, screening, and treatment worldwide.

Veronica Robinson is a patient advocate in Baltimore County, Maryland, who promotes community action calling for global leaders, policy-makers, and civil society organizations to provide equal access to cervical cancer education, screening, vaccination, and treatment for all people.

The Lacks Family descendants are taking action to end cervical cancer in honor of Henrietta’s legacy as the “Mother of Modern Medicine” by eliminating cervical cancer worldwide.

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Henrietta Lacks’ family appointed World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassadors for Cervical Cancer Elimination

On 3 June 2011, WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan appointed the famous Chinese soprano and actress Peng Liyuan as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS. Ms Peng is the head of the Chinese Song and Dance Ensemble in the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army and ranked first class in the civil service with the military rank of major general.

Ms. Peng is a strong advocate of health and the control of tuberculosis and HIV. In China she became the Minister of Health Ambassador for HIV/AIDS Prevention in January 2006 and the National Ambassador for TB Control and Prevention in March 2007.

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Speech by WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan

Yohei Sasakawa is Chairman of The Nippon Foundation, a private, non-profit foundation established in 1962 for the purpose of carrying out philanthropic activities, using revenue from motorboat racing. He was appointed as a WHO Goodwill Ambassador in May 2001.

Sasakawa describes the elimination of leprosy as his life’s work. He spends almost one third of every year visiting endemic countries, meeting with political leaders to seek their political commitment to reduce the leprosy burden, liaising with health authorities and frontline health workers, talking to people affected by leprosy, supporting the reintegration of people affected by leprosy into mainstream society and making himself available to the media in order to raise public awareness of the issue.

Meanwhile, he has initiated campaigns and projects to end discrimination and other human rights violations faced by millions of people affected by leprosy around the world. His active lobbying efforts at the United Nations led to his appointment as Japanese Government Goodwill Ambassador for the Human Rights of People Affected by Leprosy.

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