William "Billy" Karesh
Dr. William Karesh is the Executive Vice President for Health and Policy at EcoHealth Alliance. He serves as the president of the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) Working Group on Wildlife Diseases and also chairs the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Wildlife Health Specialist Group, a network of wildlife and health experts around the world. Dr. Karesh also serves on the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Health Regualtions Roster of Experts focused on the human-animal interface and wildlife health. Currently, Dr. Karesh is the Technical Director for the USAID Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program, a $75 million effort focused on predicting and preventing pandemic diseases.
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"EcoHealth Alliance is the only organization in the world that is completely focused on integrating global health with critical conservation challenges to make our world a better place for all. I'm really honored and proud to be a member of the EcoHealth Alliance team and work with our partners around the globe." - Dr. William Karesh
Dr. Karesh has pioneered initiatives focusing attention and resources on solving problems raised by the interactions among wildlife, people, and their animals. International programs under his direction have covered terrain from Argentina to Zambia and include efforts in the Congo Basin to reduce the impact of diseases such as Ebola, measles, and tuberculosis on humans and endangered species such as gorillas and chimpanzees, to global surveillance systems for emerging diseases.
In addition to his work in the private sector, Dr. Karesh has also worked for the USDA, DOD, DOI and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. Dr. Karesh is internationally recognized as an authority on the subject of animal and human health linkages and wildlife. He has published more than 150 scientific papers and numerous book chapters, and written for journals such as Foreign Affairs.