Members of the Swedish Global Health Expert- and Reference Groups

Sara Österlund 

Senior Policy Adviser for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, RFSU 
Sara Österlund is the Senior Policy Adviser for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) at RFSU, the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education. She brings more than 25 years of experience in policy advocacy, policy development, and programming related to SRHR, human rights, children’s rights, and gender equality. 
In her role at RFSU, Sara leads the organisation’s efforts to influence Swedish foreign and development cooperation policy, ensuring that SRHR remains a central pillar of Sweden’s international engagement and securing ambitious levels of Swedish ODA for gender equality and SRHR. She has extensive expertise in monitoring and analysing Swedish and international ODA flows for SRHR. 

Sara has closely followed developments in U.S. foreign policy and the broader ideological direction of the “America First” agenda. Sara provided strategic guidance for two reports on this topic: Project 2025 and From Harm to Hope. She is the co-author of the recently published report on changes in the global health architecture, titled Safeguarding Rights in Transition. 

Sara holds a master’s degree in Political Science from Uppsala University. Sara is frequently invited to speak at conferences, contribute to policy briefings, and participate in expert networks on SRHR, gender equality, and implications of the recent trends in U.S. foreign policy. 

Mette Lybye 

Head of Secretariat for the Danish Alliance for Global Health 
Mette Lybye is Head of Secretariat for the Danish Alliance for Global Health, where she leads efforts to strengthen collaboration and policy engagement across the global health and development sectors in Denmark and across the Nordics. She has extensive experience in development policy and strategic advocacy, with a particular focus on building partnerships between governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector. Throughout her career, she has worked on issues specifically related to inclusive governance, protection of civic space, human rights and gender equality. Prior to her current role, she worked in the United Nations Secretariat and with the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mette has studied international relations and development in Roskilde, Copenhagen, Beirut and Lund and holds a MSc in Conflict, Rights and Justice from SOAS University of London. 

Swarup Sarkar 

Global health practicioner and senior UN staff 
Physician-epidemiologist and global health adviser with more than four decades of experience across WHO, UNAIDS, the Global Fund, UNITAID, the Asian Development Bank, CARE International and the Indian Council of Medical Research. His work has focused on communicable-disease elimination, HIV/AIDS, TB, Covid, pandemic preparedness, community-led responses, health diplomacy and translating evidence into policy. He has held senior leadership and advisory positions at global, regional and national levels and currently contributes to research, teaching and global health policy through academic institutions and international networks. Current interests include people-centred care, community participation, lived-experience leadership and the use of digital technologies and real time monitoring to improve public-health programmes. 

Mats Målqvist 

Professor of Global Health and Director of Centre for Health and Sustainability, Uppsala University 
Mats Målqvist is professor of global health and the director of Centre for Health and Sustainability at the medical faculty at Uppsala University. His research focuses on implementation science, equity and empowerment. He is currently coordinator of the reproductive and child health cluster in Sida’s bilateral research collaboration with Tanzania, and he leads projects on community engagement in Uganda in collaboration with Makerere University. Målqvist is also co-lead of the ARUA-The Guild Cluster of Research Excellence (CoRE) on Health, Gender and Sexualities. 

Mats Målqvist is a board member of the Swedish Red Cross University and a member of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission on Health and Healing. He is co-editor for Scandinavian Journal of Public Health and a member of the Swedish Medical Society’s committee for global health. 

Maria Bard 

Nordic Director at the ONE Campaign 
Maria Bard is Nordic Director at The ONE Campaign, where she leads policy and advocacy work across the Nordic countries. She has more than 20 years of experience in international development, with a particular focus on gender equality, human rights, democracy and health, including extensive experience living and working in Africa. 

Sara Kappelmark  

Co-CEO of Norrsken Foundation 
Sara Kappelmark is Co-CEO of Norrsken Foundation, a global non-profit ecosystem supporting entrepreneurs and investors developing scalable solutions to major societal and environmental challenges. Norrsken operates across Europe and Africa and combines entrepreneurship, technology, investment, and cross-sector collaboration to support companies addressing areas including health, climate, and sustainable development. Before joining Norrsken, Sara spent more than 12 years at McKinsey & Company, where she was a partner working with companies on strategy, growth, transformation, and sustainability. She holds a degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. 

Eirik Mofoss 

Special Advisor to Board Leadership, Norway 
Eirik Mofoss is Special Advisor to the incoming Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (but serves as a member of the expert group in his personal capacity). Previously, he was the Managing Director of Langsikt, a politically independent think tank in Norway, dedicated to protecting the interests of future generations and enhancing global welfare. In that role, he co-organized a Norwegian Expert Group on Global Health in 2024. Prior to this role, as Policy Director at Norad, the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, and had different roles in Parliament and private sector. He is also co-founder and chairman of Gi Effektivt, a platform that helps Norwegians support some of the world’s most effective organizations within global health. 

Bruno Sunguya 

Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor of Public Health Nutrition Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) Tanzania 
Bruno Sunguya is Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research and Consultancy and Professor of Public Health Nutrition at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania. A physician with MSc and PhD training in global health from the University of Tokyo, his research spans nutritional epidemiology, HIV and tuberculosis, reproductive and child health, noncommunicable diseases, and health system strengthening. He has held international academic appointments at Kumamoto University, the University of Oxford, and the University of Pennsylvania and previously worked at WHO headquarters in Geneva. His leadership at MUHAS has included substantial work in research capacity strengthening, international partnerships, and the development of national and international health guidance. 

Anders Tegnell 

Former State Epidemiologist 
Anders Tegnell is Senior Adviser at the Public Health Agency of Sweden and former State Epidemiologist, a position through which he became one of Sweden’s principal public health leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is a physician specializing in infectious diseases with postgraduate training in epidemiology and extensive experience in communicable disease control, preparedness, and vaccination. His international work has included supporting WHO vaccination programs in Lao PDR and participating in the response to the 1995 Ebola outbreak in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He has also held senior positions at the National Board of Health and Welfare and worked extensively with European and international public health cooperation. 

Rhoda Wanyenze 

Dean, Makerere University School of Public Health (MakSPH), Professor of Disease Control, Makerere University, Uganda 

Professor of public health with vast experience in infectious diseases research, capacity building and program management. She has also implemented several research projects in maternal and child health. 

Jessica Martinsson 

SwedenBIO 
Jessica Martinsson is CEO and Director General of SwedenBIO, the national industry organization for Sweden’s life science sector. She is an entrepreneur and pharmaceutical developer with more than 25 years of experience across biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Before joining SwedenBIO, she co-founded Sprint Bioscience, where she served as both CEO and Chief Operating Officer, following earlier roles at companies including Pharmacia & Upjohn and Biovitrum. She holds a master’s degree in chemistry from Uppsala University. In 2026, she was elected Vice Chair of the International Council of Biotechnology Associations, extending her role in international biotechnology collaboration and policy. 

Martina Björkman Nykvist 

Professor in Economics and Center Director of the house of Sustainable Society, Stockholm School of Economics 
Martina Björkman Nyqvist is the Carl Bennet and Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Professor in Economics and Center Director of the House of Sustainable Society at the Stockholm School of Economics. Her research focuses on development economics, particularly child health, public service delivery, and education in low-income settings. Much of her work uses randomized controlled trials in sub-Saharan Africa and India to evaluate interventions intended to improve health and social outcomes. She is affiliated with J-PAL, a CEPR Research Fellow, and a BREAD Affiliate. Her research on health service delivery and community accountability in Uganda has contributed directly to the evidence base on strengthening health systems and improving child health. 

Anna Sjöblom 

Director, ReAct Europe 
Anna Karin Sjöblom is the director of ReAct Europe, part of the global network ReAct -Action on anitibtiotic resistance . She is based in the department of medical sciences at Uppsala University, Sweden. Anna Karin s a registered nurse and holds a master in Public Health Master. Her clinical background includes work in infectious diseases, women’s health and pediatrics. Anna Karin has a long experience from working in humanitarian crises , in refugee and migrant health interventions, nutritional emergencies and outbreaks such as Ebola and measles. Before joining ReAct, Anna Karin worked with Médecins Sans Frontières, as a nurse and medical team leader and as a medical humanitarian advisor and part of management teams. She has a long experience in the policy and advocacy field including migration policy, access to medicines, and in the field of antibiotic resistance teams. 

The Secretariat

Contact the secretariat

Anna Mia Ekström

MD, MPH, PhD, professor
I am an infectious diseases physician, HIV clinician, and a clinical Professor of Global lnfectious Disease Epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet (KI), and Department of Infectious Diseases/Venhälsan, Södersjukhuset. (SöS) For more than 25 years, I have combined frontline HIV care with research, policy and advocacy. 

My work has focused on access to HIV prevention, treatment and care worldwide, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), particularly among adolescent girls and young women, key populations, and people living with HIV. I have led major international studies on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, gender-based violence, implementation science and health systems strengthening, while also contributing to global responses to emerging infectious diseases. 

I lead the Global & Sexual Health (GloSH) research group at KI and clinical research at SöS. I chair SweDev, Sweden’s network of development researchers, am faculty representative at the Committee for Research at KI, am part of TAG MVAC (the Technical Advisory Group on Market Access for Vaccines) at the WHO, Sweden representative of HERA’s Advisory group (EU ‘s Health and Emergency Response Authority) Advisory Forum, expert in EBA (the Expert Group for Aid Studies). I previously chaired Sida’s scientific council. I have published more than 250 peer reviewed scientific papers and remain committed to advancing global health equity. 

Tobias Alfvén 

MD, PhD, professor 
Professor Tobias Alfvén is Clinical Professor of Global Child Health at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, and Senior Consultant in Paediatrics at Sachs’ Children and Youth Hospital in Stockholm. Since July 2026, he serves as Deputy Dean for Doctoral Education and as a member of the Faculty Board at Karolinska Institutet. 

Over the past 25 years, Professor Alfvén has combined research and clinical paediatrics with work for the United Nations, both in the field and at headquarters level. He was President of the Swedish Society of Medicine from 2020 to 2024 and served as a member of the Danish Global Health Expert Group in 2024. He is also a former co-chair of the Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Health, a collaboration between Karolinska Institutet and Makerere University in Uganda. 

His research spans neonatal care in resource-limited settings, diagnostics for paediatric infectious diseases, climate change and child health, and the interactions between the Sustainable Development Goals and health. 

Ruby Killingsworth

MPH, Early Career Researcher 
Ruby Killingsworth is a global health researcher with an MSc in Public Health from Karolinska Institutet. She is a member of the Global and Sexual Health research group (GLoSH) at Karolinska Institutet, where her work has focused particularly on drug use, harm reduction, and access to health services in Myanmar. Her research has included quantitative and qualitative analysis of HIV and hepatitis C testing, gender-based violence support, and barriers to services among women who use or inject drugs and women who sell sex. She has also contributed to IMPROVE-it, a cluster-randomized trial evaluating a quality-improvement intervention to improve effective postpartum contraception in Sweden. Ruby is also a Youth Ambassador for the ONE Campaign, working on global health and development advocacy. She is part of the Swedish Global Health Expert Group secretariat, contributing to communication, meeting organization, and report writing. 

Alma Nordenstam

MD, PhD Cand., Early Career Researcher
Alma Nordenstam is a physician and global health researcher with a decade of experience from advocacy within the youth civil society. She is a doctoral student in the Global Child Health research group at Karolinska Institute, where her research focuses on prevalence of critical illness for children, provision of critical care, and mortality among children both within and outside of the health care system. Previously she was the vice president of the International Federation of Medical Students (IFMSA) Sweden, as well as board member of various councils, including the National Association for Youth Councils (Sveriges Ungdomsråd). She is part of the Swedish Global Health Expert Group secretariat, contributing to communication, meeting organization, and report writing.