Carolyn Reynolds is a Co-founder of Pandemic Action Network (PAN), a global coalition of more than 400 organizations working to prevent the next pandemic, and a Senior Associate (non-resident fellow) for Global Health Policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She currently serves as an expert adviser to the CSIS Bipartisan Alliance for Global Health Security and as an observer on the Pandemic Fund governing board and she has served as a senior adviser and consultant to several international organizations and commissions, including the Global Financing Facility, World Bank Group, WHO, Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, and the G20 High-Level Panel on Financing the Global Commons. Prior to co-founding PAN, she served as vice president of policy and advocacy at PATH, a global health non-profit; senior manager of external affairs at the World Bank Group for global health and human development; and co-founder and managing director of the US Global Leadership Campaign. She has also served as acting Africa Subcommittee director for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as legislative director for InterAction. She holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia Univerrsity and a B.A. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia and has authored or co-authored or contributed to numerous policy papers, briefings, and commentaries on global health and development.
As the world approaches the five-year mark for the COVID-19 pandemic, cases are once again on the rise. WHO has declared the mpox outbreak in Africa another Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) and H5N1 bird flu continues to spread. Meanwhile, governments agreed to strengthen the International Health Regulations, but have thus far failed to reach consensus on a global pandemic agreement. The panel will debate if, and how, the world is better prepared than before COVID, and what are the most acute weaknesses in the global health architecture that must be urgently addressed to respond to the next health emergency.