Can South Korea Help the World Beat the Next Pandemic?
Photo by Jae Young Ju/Getty Images
Sponsored by the Korea Foundation, RAND Corporation, and Georgetown University.
Event Details
Thursday, October 13, 2022 |
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About the Program
South Korea had one of the best success rates in adopting effective nonpharmaceutical interventions to quickly achieved virus containment. As a consequence, South Korea suffered very low mortality without a national lockdown in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. As the world emerges from the long and devastating COVID-19 pandemic and reflects on the losses and the way forward, nations around the world, including the United States, could look to South Korea’s near-perfect response as a model for dealing with future public health crises. Does South Korea’s successful management strategy have other potential benefits? How can South Korea turn its COVID-19 control success into a successful “soft power asset” for health diplomacy? What are the limitations and risks involved in this transformation?
The RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy is hosting this public webinar to convene a multidisciplinary group of public health professionals, international relations experts, and academics to engage in a high-level discussion. The webinar is designed to promote the sharing of innovative ideas and best practices.
Presenters
Ambassador Kathleen Stephens
Ambassador (ret) Kathleen Stephens assumed leadership of the Korea Economic Institute (KEI) as president and CEO in September 2018. Ambassador Stephens was a career diplomat in the United States Foreign Service from 1978–2015. She was U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea from 2008–2011, the first woman and first Korean-speaker to serve in that position. Other overseas assignments included postings to China, former Yugoslavia, Portugal, Northern Ireland, and India. Ambassador Stephens served in a number of policy positions in Washington at the Department of State and the White House. Stephens was an undergraduate at Prescott College, University of Hong Kong and Oxford University, and holds a B.A. Honors from Prescott. She holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
Youngmee Jee
Dr. Youngmee Jee is chief executive officer of the Institut Pasteur Korea and also serves as special representative for health diplomacy at the Korea Foundation. Jee has broad experience in collaborating with WHO and international public health partners. Currently, Jee is a member of the WHO International Health Regulation Emergency Committee on COVID-19 and of the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Blueprint on Research and Development Preparedness for Epidemics. Jee also served as a member of Strategic Advisory Group of Experts for Immunization (SAGE) during 2017–2020. Jee received her M.D. from the College of Medicine, Seoul National University, a Diploma in Medical Microbiology from the London School of Hygiene Tropical Medicine, and her Ph.D. from the University of London.
Tikki Pang
Professor Tikki Pang has been a visiting professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore since 2012. He was previously director of research policy and cooperation, evidence and information for the policy cluster of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining the WHO, he was professor of biomedical sciences at the Institute of Postgraduate Studies and Research at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and lecturer/associate professor in the department of microbiology, faculty of medicine at the University of Malaya. He holds a doctorate in immunology-microbiology from the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia and is a fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, Institute of Biology, American Academy of Microbiology, Academy of Medicine of Malaysia and Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.
Moderator
Jennifer Bouey
Dr. Jennifer Bouey is a senior policy researcher, Tang Chair for China Policy Studies, and an epidemiologist at the RAND Corporation. She also serves as the department chair for Global Health at Georgetown University and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She leads wide-ranged collaborative research initiatives on global health security and health equity. She earned her Ph.D. and M.P.H. in epidemiology from The George Washington University, and her M.D. from Peking University.