Pradeep Kakkattil Editor

Dr. Judith Kuriansky is a noted international clinical psychologist on the faculty of Columbia University Teachers College and visiting professor at Peking Health Sciences Center. At the United Nations, she is a leader in the civil society community, serving on many NGO Committees and in negotiations about international instruments, as well as moderating, co-producing and serving as a speaker for innumerable side events sponsored by Member States and the World Health Association on a variety of subjects and at many UN conferences. She is the main NGO Representative of the International Association of Applied Psychology and World Council for Psychotherapy for the past 16 years. Her many awards include the Humanitarian Award for Lifetime Achievement in Global Peace and Tolerance. Dr Judy Kuriansky is an internationally known clinical psychologist working at the United Nations for over 18 years, where she had the opportunity, as President of the Psychology Coalition of NGOs accredited by the UN Economic and Social Council, of partnering with the Ambassador of Palau on a successful campaign on the intergovernmental level to secure the inclusion of mental health and wellbeing in the UN Global 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and has similar advocate successfully for the Universal Health Coverage Political Declaration, the Sendai Framework, and the Global Compact for Migration, and co-authored the first policy on Climate Change and Mental Health for the American Public Health Association. She chaired the Global Council on Health as part of the “SDGS in Action” initiative of the United Arab Emirates, featuring the “Health in Your Hands” platform for health innovations she co-founded. She co-developed a Girls Empowerment Camp in Africa, and has led trainings of community leaders and volunteers in psychosocial support worldwide after disasters, for example, in Haiti, Japan, China, St Maarten, Iran, US, as well as for Syrian refugees and during the Ebola epidemic. Pradeep Kakkattil is responsible for building and implementing aninnovation culturedesigned to generate new and innovative solutions for the broader health and HIV response globally at UNAIDS. He is also the co-founder of the Health Innovation Exchange (HIEx), a multilayered platform that connects governments, policy makers, innovators and investors to leverage innovations and technology towards scaling up access to health. HIEx has helped raise over $200m in investments for scaling up health innovations and bridges innovators in the global South and North and ministries of health to facilitate adoption of health technologies to fast-track progress towards SDGs. He has worked in several countries in various capacities and has contributed to health, social empowerment and development and led the UNAIDS engagement and successful adoption by the UN General Assembly of the High-Level Political Declaration on AIDS in 2016. He also helped conceptualize and negotiated the launch of the Solar for health initiative of the International Solar Alliance that brings over 86 member states and has committed to energy security for health sector as a priority.