Susan Phillips - Chair of the Governing Board

Susan is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences & Medicine at Bond University, Queensland, Australia. She has held leadership positions in the field of evidence-based medicine since 2001 when she joined the Australian federal government’s newly established National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS).
Susan is renowned for her achievements in translating research evidence into clinical practice. Her wealth of experience, gained from senior management roles at NICS where she became Interim Executive Director after the institute’s merger with Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council, and later Chief Executive Officer at Therapeutic Guidelines Ltd, are testament to this. Her contribution to research translation was recognised with an Australia Day Medallion in 2008.
Susan’s extensive Board experience encompasses roles in organisations ranging from the Guidelines-International-Network (G-I-N), where she served as an elected Trustee for three terms, including two years as Vice-Chair, to Therapeutic Guidelines, and Therapeutic Guidelines Foundation. Susan has also served as Chair of other charities and not for profit organisations, including Climate for Change. She has been a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) since 2015

Juan Franco

Juan Franco, MD MSc PhD is a family physician and researcher with expertise in evidence-informed healthcare with a focus on evidence synthesis and shared-decision making. He is the Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine and Clinical Editor for the BMJ. He works as a Senior Clinical Scientist for the Cochrane Metabolic and Endocrine Disorders, based at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany, where he leads evidence synthesis projects related to the field of obesity and diabetes while also collaborating with the Urology Group, of which he is a contact editor. Previously (2017-2022), he was the Director of the Cochrane Associate Center at the Instituto Universitario Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires and a member of Cochrane's Geographic Group Executive. Juan joined the Governing Board as an elective member in 2020, and he is part of the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee and the Diversity and Inclusion Programme. Juan enjoys the collaborative nature of Cochrane and has experience building capacity for evidence synthesis, previously through the Cochrane International Mobility Programme and recently through the Cochrane US Mentorship Program.

Nigel Jones (Treasurer)

Nigel is currently the Finance Director at The Seafarers' Charity alongside being a Trustee at West Sussex Mind and Cochrane. He has extensive financial experience from a career that included being both Group Financial Controller and Head of Investment for one of the UK's leading insurance companies. He left full time employment in 2017 to focus on supporting charities, applying insights from his commercial experience to help them focus their precious financial resources on activity that delivers the best outcomes for the people they support. Nigel also enjoys spending time doing hands on charitable work for a couple of community charities that provide financial advice and advocacy to people in crisis.

Vanessa Jordan

Vanessa Jordan is an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, specializing in epidemiology, research methodology, and statistics. She is a member of the New Zealand National Ethics Advisory Committee (NEAC) and in this role, Vanessa provides expert advice on ethical issues and oversees health and disability ethics committees. Vanessa serves on Cochrane’s Future of Evidence Synthesis Oversight Committee, guiding the strategic redesign of Cochrane’s processes. She has been an elected member of the Cochrane Council, representing Cochrane authors in strategic decisions, and currently chairs the Cochrane Conflict of Interest panel. Additionally, she is the Associate Director of Cochrane New Zealand.

In academia, Vanessa is deeply committed to education. She has been a course director and core lecturer for several courses at the University of Auckland guest lectures both nationally and internationally. Vanessa holds a PhD in Epidemiology and Biochemistry from the University of Otago and has supervised numerous PhD and Masters students on projects that have contributed to systematic review methods.

Tamara Kredo

Tamara Kredo has worked in the field of evidence-based healthcare practice and training, rational therapeutics, and clinical practice guidelines for most of her career. Her research involves conducting stakeholder-engaged and priority-driven systematic reviews and explores the methods, quality and content of clinical practice guidelines in southern Africa.
She is a medical doctor and specialist in clinical pharmacology and holds the position of Deputy Director and Chief Specialist Scientist at Cochrane South Africa at the South African Medical Research Council. She is an Associate Professor Extraordinary at Stellenbosch University in both the Departments of Medicine (clinical pharmacology) and of Global Health (epidemiology and biostatistics), and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town’s, School of Public Health and Family Medicine.
She also holds several global leadership roles including founding and co-directing Cochrane Africa, the South African GRADE Network. She was Chair of the Organising Committee for the inaugural Global Evidence Summit in 2017 and has chaired several Cochrane Africa regional conferences. She has served on various strategic and advisory committees including to the World Health Organization HIV and TB guidelines as methodologist and contributing to the South African National Essential Medicines List Committee, and the Vaccines Ministerial Advisory Committee for Covid-19 as decision-maker, reviewer, trainer and methodologist. In 2020 she was elected as a Board member to Cochrane’s Governing Board and participates in several Board sub-committees, namely the Nominating Committee and Governance Committee.

Gillian Leng

Gillian is a clinician by background, with a passion for using evidence to improve care.  She joined NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, in 2001 and became its second CEO on 1 April 2020. In this role she led the development of a new 5 year strategy and set out updated methods and processes to put NICE at the forefront of evaluating new technologies and to deliver dynamic living guidelines for frontline staff.
Her career has covered a breadth of sectors including wider public health, healthcare, education and social care. It has entailed close working with the life science industries, patient organisations, professional societies, academia, plus local and national government across the United Kingdom. She has chaired national and international boards and committees, bringing comprehensive media experience across a range of complex topics.
She is now the President and trustee of the Royal Society of Medicine and is on the Board of Radar Healthcare. She is also a non-executive board member of the UK Government’s department of Science Innovation and Technology and an adviser to Brevia Health.

 Wendy Levinson

Dr. Wendy Levinson is a Professor of Medicine and Past Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. She is an expert in the field of physician-patient communication, studying topics including the disclosure of medical errors to patients and informed decision making. She is the Chair of Choosing Wisely Canada, a campaign to help physicians and patients engage in conversations about unnecessary tests, treatments, and procedures.  She also coordinates Choosing Wisely International, a collaborative of the Choosing Wisely campaigns in over 30 countries worldwide. She has provided leadership to multiple medical organizations in the US and Canada.  In 2014, Dr. Levinson was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada for her work.
 
 
 

Joerg Meerpohl

Joerg has been deeply committed to Cochrane’s mission, vision, and founding principles throughout his long tenure with the organization, which began in 2007. He has been a contributor to >25 Cochrane Reviews, he has been an active member of various Cochrane Methods Groups, and advisory boards, Fields and, more recently, the Nutrition and Physical Activity thematic group. He has contributed to Cochrane’s governance through service on the Cochrane Governing Board (2014-2018), and the Geo-Group Executive.
Since 2018 he is the Director of Cochrane Germany, and he has been recently involved in the Cochrane’s Scientific Strategy Advisory Group.
 

Giordano Perez-Gaxiola

Giordano Perez-Gaxiola is a researcher and a practicing pediatrician with an interest in children’s infectious diseases, vaccines, and health literacy. He leads the Cochrane Associated Centre at Sinaloa’s Pediatric Hospital, a public reference institution in the Northwestern region of Mexico. He’s been involved in Cochrane for more than 15 years in different roles: as an author, trainer, director of Cochrane Mexico, member of the communications group and subdirector of the Iberoamerican Network, and member of the Geographic Groups Executive. He has participated in projects closely related to Cochrane such as Testing Treatments interactive and Informed Health Choices. He’s a professor in pediatrics and evidence-based medicine at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa where he continuously promotes the importance of systematic reviews and the Cochrane Collaboration.

Emma Persad

Emma (MD, PhD[c]) has been conducting research within evidence-based medicine and epidemiology for most of her career. She is passionate about maternal, neonatal, and child health and is currently completing a PhD at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden with a focus on neonatal physiology and epidemiology, giving her experience within the implementation of evidence-based healthcare into clinical practice. She started working for Cochrane Austria in 2017 and has since been engaged as a lead and co-author on many Cochrane and externally-commissioned systematic reviews across various themes. She was named one of Cochrane’s Top 30 under 30 and was elected to the board in November 2021.
Emma is based in Sweden; however she originally hails from Canada and has lived, worked, and studied in France, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and Rwanda. As such, she strongly supports international collaboration within the Cochrane community and believes it should be harnessed for the development of Cochrane’s global strategy going forward.