Meet Dr Ada Moadsiri, whose family inspires her spirit of volunteerism and journey into the public health field. “My mother was an operating room nurse for nearly 50 years. In her youth she was a Red Cross volunteer in Cambodia – that really inspired me to study Public Health,” she said. As a Peace Corps volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga, Dr Moadsiri was recruited to WHO’s Division of Pacific Technical Support. “Every public health student dreams of working for the World Health Organization one day, and I just had a wonderful opportunity to join the Organization.” Dr Moadsiri is currently a technical officer with the Tobacco Free Initiative team at WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office (WPRO) and her work includes supporting Members States in the Western Pacific Region to strengthen implementation of tobacco control measures, guided by local context, Regional Frameworks, as well as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Dr Moadsiri finds the most joy from sharing achievements with our communities and our Member States. “My work largely involves policy development – when a law is passed, the jubilation that my counterparts in the Ministry of Health and country offices in our communities have felt is unmatched, “ she said. “Every parent who has testified, every community or traditional leader who has advocated, every youth who has supported, everyone just gets to share in the knowing that they’ve accomplished something that will impact future generations.”
The World Health Organization’s ‘Who’s WHO’ video series tells the story of the WHO workforce and the work they do to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable. For WHO’s 75th anniversary, we are celebrating the diversity and commitment of many exceptional individuals that work tirelessly, behind-the-scenes to support and enable others.