Richard Brennan, MBBS, MPH

Rick Brennan is Regional Emergency Director for the World Health Organization’s  (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office based in Cairo, Egypt.  He oversees WHO’s support to 22 countries for emergency preparedness, detection, and response, including major humanitarian crises, disease outbreaks, the COVID-19 pandemic, natural disasters, and technological emergencies.  Most recently his team has been supporting country responses to the crises in Gaza, Sudan, Lebanon, and Yemen, while also tackling outbreaks of cholera, dengue, and mpox. Previously, Rick spent seven years at WHO headquarters, where he was the Director of Emergency Operations, Director of Ebola Response and Coordination, and Director of Humanitarian Response.  He played central roles in establishing the Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care, the Global Health Cluster Unit, and the Emergency Medical Teams Initiative. Rick has extensive experience in emergencies in over 40 countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.  He received his medical degree from the University of Sydney, completed emergency medicine training in Australia, and received a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Following 12 years of clinical work, Rick joined the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention focusing on humanitarian and emergency management issues.  Thereafter, he spent 10 years as Health Director of the International Rescue Committee in New York, overseeing global humanitarian health operations. Prior to joining WHO in 2012, he led a large post-conflict health system support project in Liberia for JSI Research and Training. Rick has made several important contributions to advance global health emergency preparedness and response, including leading the development of WHO’s Emergency Response Framework.