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Opening Ceremony Speakers

Raj Bhopal
Raj Bhopal is professor of public health in Edinburgh University. His books include Concepts of Epidemiology and Migration, Ethnicity, race and Health (both OUP).

He is leading the first World Congress on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health to be held in Edinburgh in May 2018. He has published on the epidemics of cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes, tackling many perspectives from causal hypotheses to interventions.

He is working on a book provisionally entitled ‘Explaining the epidemic of cardiovascular diseases and type II diabetes in South Asians globally’.
Fiona Hyslop
She was appointed as Cabinet Secretary of Education and Lifelong Learning in 2007 and was responsible for abolishing backend university tuition fees. She has had responsibility for culture and external affairs since 2009 and is currently the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs.S

he was born in Ayrshire in 1964 and with her family spent her early years in England before returning to Ayrshire. She graduated from Glasgow University with an MA (Hons) in Economic History and Sociology.

She completed a post graduate Diploma in Industrial Administration at the Scottish College of Textiles, before moving to Edinburgh to join the financial services company Standard Life where she held various positions in sales and marketing, latterly as Brand Development Manager.

Elected in the first session of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 she has been returned as the Constituency MSP for Linlithgow since 2011.
Jacqueline Weekers
Director, Migration Health Division, International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Jacqueline Weekers is the newly appointed Director of the Migration Health Division at IOM Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Ms. Weekers has been working in the domain of migrant health for some twenty-five years in the Asia Pacific region and at Headquarters level. In her recent role as the IOM Senior Migration Health Policy Advisor she advised Member States, partners and colleagues on the management of migration health issues, relevant strategy and policy development in line with sustainable development goals, and building needed multi-sectoral partnerships, including UN agencies. As part of her functions at IOM and the World Health Organization (WHO) where she worked between 2009 and 2011, she was responsible for the organization of the 2010 and 2017 multi stakeholder Global Consultations on the Health of Migrants, and related Governing Bodies processes. Working hand in hand with WHO, Member States and other key partners, she has widely promoted the mainstreaming of migration health into the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in agreement with public health and human rights principles.
Ms. Weekers has published, trained and presented on a wide range of migrant health and public health related topics in the context of international migration and development. She is a Swiss and Dutch national and has an educational background in psychology, law and public health. Before joining the international community, she worked as a clinician in the United States of America and The Netherlands.
Dr Santino Severoni, Coordinator
Public Health and Migration
Division of Policy and Governance for Health and Well-being
WHO Regional Office for Europe


Dr. Santino Severoni, has held senior positions at the World Health Organization European Office since 2000. In the last 22 years he has been working in several countries in Eastern Africa, Balkans, Central Asia and Western Europe, dedicating his professional work to public health, health sector reforms, health system strengthening, health diplomacy, aid coordination/effectiveness, management of complex emergencies and since 2013 he is coordinating the public health aspect of migration work for the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
Specialties: medicine and surgery at the University of L’Aquila, Italy, degree with honorem in 1990. School for Specialization in the Medical Sciences, degree as Specialist in General Surgery in 1995. In 1998 PhD study on Experimental Surgery at University of L’Aquila, Italy. In 2002 Master in Health Economics at the School of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene of Tor Vergata, Rome - Italy.
Professor Peter Mathieson, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, The University of Edinburgh

Peter Mathieson was born and educated in the United Kingdom. He went to a state grammar school in Penzance, Cornwall and was the first member of his family to go to university. He read Medicine at the London Hospital Medical College and qualified with First Class Honours from the University of London in 1983. After junior medical posts in London, he obtained a research training fellowship from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to study at the University of Cambridge. He was awarded a PhD by the University of Cambridge in 1992. He became Director of Studies for Clinical Medicine at Christ’s College, Cambridge following his PhD. After a further MRC fellowship he moved to Bristol in 1995 as the foundation Professor of Renal Medicine at the University of Bristol and Honorary Consultant Nephrologist, North Bristol NHS Trust. In 1999, he was elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Rona Wilkie
Rona previously played for the the Queen at the opening of the Scottish Parliament and has been crowned winner of the BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician of the Year.