The PAHO/ WHO Representative

 

Dr. Kathleen Israel is a national of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. She studied Nursing in that country and obtained certificates in both general and in Midwifery Nursing in 1974. In 1976, she completed a certificate in Advanced Nursing Education at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. In 1993, she was awarded a Masters Degree in Public Health from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Department of International Community Health in England. In 1991, she obtained a certificate in Population and Development from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in the United States and in 2000, a Doctor of Education Degree for Nova Southeastern University in Florida, majoring in Health Care Education. Dr. Israel's professional experiences started as a Registered Nurse/Midwife in her native St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Subsequently, she became a Nursing Tutor and the Director of Nursing Education in that country. After leaving the profession of nursing, she functioned as Coordinator of the National Family Planning Program in the Ministry of Health in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and then went on to become the first Coordinator of the National Population Planning Unit in the Ministry of Finance and Planning in that country.

After undertaking several short term consultancy assignments with the Pan American Health Organization dating back to 1985, Dr Israel began her more extended association with PAHO in 1992 when she was appointed as Public Health Specialist to the IDB funded Community Health Information Systems Project for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, based at the PAHO headquarters office in Barbados. In 1997, she was appointed to the position of Country Program Analyst for the English Speaking Caribbean Countries and was based at the PAHO headquarters in Washington DC. In January 2003, Dr Israel was appointed to the position of PAHO/WHO Country Representative to Belize. Dr Israel assumed the post of PWR, Country Office Guyana on 27 October 2006. She is a member of several scientific and professional organizations.