Atlanta Summit on Global Health: The Race to Beat COVID-19 A Virtual Summit

June 1-3, 2021

Overview: The World Affairs Council of Atlanta –in collaboration with CARE USA, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and The Carter Center – hosts its 9th annual Atlanta Global Health Summit. The Summit convenes health experts from the public and private sectors, including senior CDC leadership, Washington policymakers and think tanks, and health experts from the US, the United Kingdom, Africa and India. The Summit’s focus is on the three critical, fast evolving dimensions of the unfolding Covid-19 pandemic: the pandemic’s acceleration of the preexisting hunger crisis complicated by the added challenge of economic recession; the unprecedented and highly problematic effort to launch remarkably promising vaccines worldwide in the race against proliferating variants and misinformation; and the intensifying international debates on critical reforms to better manage the current crisis and lay the groundwork for future preparedness, in a fragmented world beset by nationalism, geopolitical clashes, and acute scarcity.

This event is co-sponsored by the Atlanta Global Studies Center. 

June 1: Multiple Crises: Pandemic, Hunger, Economic Recession and AMR

12:00 Setting the stage: India. How a Second Covid Wave Surprised One Country. Ramanan Laxminarayan, Founder and Director, Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, and Founder of OxygenForIndia In conversaton with Paige Alexander, President and CEO, The Carter Center

12:30 Panel 1: How to Respond to the Food Security Crisis Globally and at Home

• Caitlin Welsh, Director, Global Food Security Program, CSIS
• Barron Segar, President and CEO, World Food Program USA
• Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps
• Moderated by: Michelle Nunn, President and CEO, CARE USA

1:30 Closing Keynote: What Must the G7 Do to Help the Rest of the World

Professor Dame Sally Davies, The United Kingdom Special Envoy on Antimicrobial Resistance + Master, Trinity College, Cambridge

In conversation with J. Stephen Morrison, PhD, SVP and Director, Global Health Policy Center, CSIS

June 2: Can Vaccines Win the Race Against Variants and Misinformation?

12:00 Opening Keynote: Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

In conversation with Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH, President & CEO, The Chicago Community Trust

12:30 Panel 2:

• Heidi Larson, PhD, Founding Director, Vaccine Confidence Project, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
• John Nkengasong, PhD, Director, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)
• Carlos del Rio, MD, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine, and Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
• Moderated by: Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH, President & CEO, The Chicago Community Trust

June 3: What are the Essential Reforms, and How to Achieve Them?

12:00 Opening Keynote: Gayle E. Smith, Coordinator, Global COVID Response and Health Security, U.S. Department of State

In conversation with J. Stephen Morrison, PhD, SVP and Director, Global Health Policy Center, CSIS

12:30 Panel 3:

• Gayle E. Smith, Coordinator, Global COVID Response and Health Security, U.S. Department of State
• Thomas J. Bollyky, Director, Global Health Program, Senior Fellow for Global Health, Economics, and Development, Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
• Stephanie Segal, Senior Fellow, Economics Program, CSIS
• Moderated by: J. Stephen Morrison, PhD, SVP and Director, Global Health Policy Center, CSIS