Dr Hanan Balkhy, the new Regional Director at the World Health Organisation for the Eastern Mediterranean, sat down with Al Majalla in February to discuss her successful career and the priorities in her role as the Gaza war enters its fifth month.
She also shared her views on her work ethic, the most challenging period in her career, work-life balance, and stereotypes about the Arab world in the West.
A Saudi physician by practice, Dr Balkhy grew up in the United States when she was a child. Her family moved back to Saudi Arabia, where she completed her primary and secondary education. She graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University in 1991.
Dr Balkhy did her pediatric residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston between 1993 and 1996. She also received a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases from the Joint Pediatric Infectious Disease Program of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital from 1996 to 1999.
During her fellowship, she worked on the immunological response of Salmonella endotoxin in mice models under the mentorship of Professor Frederick Heinzel. She worked as the Executive Director of Infection Prevention and Control at the Ministry of National Guard in Saudi Arabia for ten years.
Dr Balkhy led the infectious diseases research department at King Abdullah International Research Centre at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences in Riyadh. She was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Infection and Public Health from 2009-2019.
At the World Health Organization, Dr Balkhy serves on several committees related to antimicrobial resistance, including the UN Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (IACG). She is a fellow at the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.
Below is the full transcript of the interview.
What made you stand out from the crowd to get this prestigious role?
The World Health Organization is considered the mecca of most health workers, and they aspire to work there. However, a lot of hard work goes into working with WHO because it has a different mandate.
The mandate is not just technical but also political and operational. I think it was a bit easier for me than others to rise through the ranks of WHO because of my engagement and significant interest in the work that WHO does.
I was on at least 15 different committees over a period of 15 years. I was also leading a WHO Collaborating Centre for ten years, and they've worked a lot on many of the guidelines that were developed and in the training world workshops WHO was conducting.
I saw myself as a WHO partner from a very early stage of my career, which made it much easier to eventually move into the actual system of the WHO.
One of the most fascinating lines I read about you is that the most important factor in determining whether an individual will succeed in his or her job doesn’t have to do with gender or nationality; it is the individual, himself or herself.
Absolutely, I think it's very important to acknowledge that I've always been gender agnostic; I don't expect special treatment or discrimination due to my gender.
I focus on the job at hand and work very hard to produce the product. And when I get what I want, it's all well and good. If I don't, I don't feel bitter or victimize myself ever.
It's really about doing the work at hand and being effective, regardless of where you are or who you are.
