Razia Pendse

As Chef de Cabinet, Dr Pendse heads the Director-General’s Office, helping to drive the Organization’s priorities and initiatives, and ensuring alignment within the WHO leadership team and across the three levels of WHO.

Prior to taking up this position, Dr Pendse was Director of Healthier Populations and Noncommunicable Diseases in the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia. Before that she served as the WHO Representative in Sri Lanka, a position that she took up after more than a decade working in the areas of communicable disease and reproductive health at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia. In the course of her WHO career, Dr Pendse has also worked at WHO headquarters in the areas of family and community health.

Dr Pendse holds a Master's degree in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the United Kingdom and a medical degree from the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences in India.