Dr. Jorge Castilla is the senior emergency coordinator for health emergency response at the World Health Organization. During the course of his 30 years of medical humanitarian assistance experience, Castilla has served in a wide array of positions spanning the globe and was involved in the response to conflict, natural disasters and outbreaks. He worked as a general physician, district health director and regional director of epidemiology in Colombia. He also served as a country medical coordinator for eight humanitarian projects in Sudan, worked on sleeping sickness in Uganda and was the country manager for humanitarian medical programs in Mozambique for returnees. Through his work, Castilla also helped with refugee reception in Uganda and DRC, and helped handle epidemics of cholera, meningitis, measles and Ebola. He has worked with the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid, Médecins Sans Frontières and the WHO. Castilla has a master’s in public health from Tulane University and a medical degree from Universidad del Rosario.
