Antoni Plasencia Taradach

Antoni Plasencia is the Director General of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal www.isglobal.org/en/) since October 2014. He is also Medical Consultant in International Health at the Hospital Clinic and Associated Professor at University of Barcelona. He leads a team of 400 people who are actively engaged in improving global health through excellence in research, knowledge translation and its application.
His professional activity has been dedicated to epidemiology and public health for 30 years, in various leading positions, combining research, teaching, practice and management activities, in different prestigious institutions. From 2012-2014 he was Deputy Director of the Center for International Health Research (CRESIB) - Hospital Clinic - University of Barcelona. From 2004-2011, he was Director General of Public Health of the Generalitat of Catalonia, where he was instrumental in the enactment of the Public Health Law of Catalonia, as well as in the creation of the Public Health Agency of Catalonia. Previously, he was Director of the Municipal Institute of Health - Public Health Agency of Barcelona, in different positions. He currently teaches and co-directs the Master in Global Health at the University of Barcelona and participates in the Master of Public Health at the University of Pompeu Fabra and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was previously an Associate in the Health Policy and Management Department at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. He is also Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research. He is a member of different Pucli Health, Scientific and Ethics Advisory Committees in Catalonia.

With a broad biological, social and environmental perspective on health determinants, his main areas of expertise include key global public health areas such as health systems and public health services evaluation and management, infectious diseases, public surveillance, health inequalities, maternal and child health, injuries and environmental health. As part of such activities, Dr. Plasencia has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers in Impact-factor journals, more than half in the area of communicable diseases and public health. He also has an extensive experience in project leadership and management, including EU-funded projects.
Dr. Plasencia graduated in Medicine (MD) from the University of Barcelona in 1981, and holds a Ph.D. from the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1996. He is a specialist in Public Health and Preventive Medicine and obtained a Masters in Public Health from Yale University, USA (1986).