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Rafael Obregon, Ph.D., M.A., provides technical leadership and guidance on the development of standards, guidelines, and quality assurance for the application of communication for development principles and strategies across programmatic areas of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), including emergency response and humanitarian action. In this capacity, Dr. Obregon has engaged in several responses to public health emergencies and disease outbreaks, including the 2014 – 2015 West Africa Ebola Outbreak. In 2016 Dr. Obregon also served as a member of the Advisory Committee to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Zika virus and observed increase in neurological disorders and neonatal malformations. Prior to joining UNICEF, he has served as regional advisor for health communication within the Area of Family and Community Health and Child and Adolescent Health Unit at the Pan American Health Organization. Dr Obregon has also been a technical advisor, researcher, and resource/focal person for international/national cooperation agencies and government and nongovernmental organizations, particularly in health and development initiatives. His duties have focused on formative research, project design and evaluation, and capacity strengthening. Dr. Obregon has also been associate professor and guest faculty member at a number of universities, including Ohio University, the Universidad Autónoma in Barcelona, Spain, and the Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, Colombia, where he remains as an adjunct faculty. Throughout his career, he has written several books, book chapters, monographs, manuals, peer-reviewed journal articles and reports on public health communication, participatory communication, and capacity development. He is a member of several editorial boards including the Journal of Health Communication, and has been a member of several scientific committees including the World Congress on Communication and Development, convened by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the Communication Initiative, as well as a member of the Technical Advisory Group for the Global Health Communication Partnership within the Center for Communication Programs at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Obregon earned his Ph.D. in an interdisciplinary program in mass communications, with a concentration on international health, at the College of Communications at Pennsylvania State University in 1999. He received his Master of Arts in international affairs and communication and development from Ohio University in 1994 with a minor in public health. Additionally, he obtained a diploma in education and pedagogy through the National Apprenticeship Service in Colombia in 1990.
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