One Health for Cities Conference

SESSION 1 (09:00 - 13:00) : One Health from Policy to Action
 

This session will raise awareness among city makers about the importance and feasibility of the One Health approach in urban areas. It will showcase practical implementation strategies, from high-level planning to operational execution, supported by case studies from network cities, insights from the Essentials Guidebook for City Makers, and the Toolbox developed by network partners.
 

Venue : PianoFabriek, Rue du Fortstraat 35, 1060 St-Gillis, Brussels

SESSION 2 (15:00 - 18:00): One Health, a necessary evolution towards the future
 

This session will appeal to EU decision makers, highlighting the need to integrate the One Health approach into EU policies, regulations, funding mechanisms, and cooperation systems. It will feature scientific evidence and results from local implementations, alongside outputs from the One Health 4 Cities Network.
 

Venue: European Parliament, Rue Wiertz 60, B-1047, Brussels

Tilly Metz

Tilly Metz is a Luxembourgish Member of the European Parliament since 2018, and member of the Greens/EFA group. She studied psychology and pedagogy. She used to be a Deputy Director at the Lycée Technique pour Professions Éducatives et Sociales.

She is the first Vice-President of the Public Health Committee, and a member of ENVI, AGRI and TRAN. Her special interest in health policy includes access to healthcare services, as well as environmental impact on health. She is a a member of the Luxembourg Multiple Sclerosis League and a member of the National Council of Disabled People, as well as Vice-President of the Kräizbierg Workshops and Secretary of the Kräizbierg Foundation. 

In the European Parliament, she serves as: Vice-Chair of the Committee on Public Health (SANT); Member of the Committee on the Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI); Substitute member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN); Substitute member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI); Vice-Chair of the Delegation to South Africa (D-ZA).
 

Sirpa PIETIKÄINEN

Sirpa Pietikäinen is a former Member of the Finnish Parliament (1983-2003) and a former Minister of Environment of Finland (1991-1995). She has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2008 as a member of the European People’s Party (EPP). She is a member of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) and of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) and a substitute in the Committee on Public Health (SANT). In addition, she was a member or a substitute member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety since 2009, and is currently a substitute member of the Committee on Environment, Climate and Food Safety. She has been actively participating in the EU’s environment, health, equality and economic policymaking. In her work, she is a strong advocate of the One Health approach, and she is also a member of several interest groups and intergroups in the health and environment sector.

Roser Domenech-Amado

Roser Domenech Amado currently holds the position of Director for One Health within the European Commission’s Directorate General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). Her responsibilities encompass various areas, including Antimicrobial Resistance, Inter-institutional Relations and International Relations. Throughout her career, she has dedicated significant time to the Commission’s political communication, worked in the Humanitarian Aid area and served as a member of the Cabinets for Neil Kinnock, Vice-President for administrative reform, and Manuel Marin, Vice-President for external relations. Before her tenure at the Commission, she gained experience in both the public sector and academia in Spain. She possesses degrees in Political Science and in Contemporary History.

Ioannis Sagias

Ioannis Sagias is the deputy head of the unit responsible for the strategy, policy coordination and urban transitions in the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. The unit is also responsible for the implementation of the Mission on Climate Neutral and Smart Cities and contributes to Mission Innovation and to the New European Bauhaus Mission

He joined the European Commission 17 years ago and he worked in various posts as scientific and policy officer in the fields of information society, informatics, public sector modernisation, knowledge valorisation and research and innovation. 

He holds an MEng in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He also holds an MBA from the same university. Before joining the EC he worked for many years in the private sector as a project manager and project leader in the informatics domain. 

Grégory Doucet

Grégory Doucet is a humanitarian executive and politician, father of four. A graduate of Rouen Business School, he worked for different solidarity and humanitarian organisations: Genepi, ADIE, Inter Aide in the Philippines, Enfants & Développement in Nepal, and led West Africa programmes at Handicap International. A Green party member since 2007, he has been Mayor of Lyon since 2020 and chairs several major local public institutions.

Dr. Julia Schmitt-Thiel

Dr. Julia Schmitt-Thiel has been a member of the Munich City Council for the Social-Democratic Party of Germany since 2020. In the council, she is a member of various committees and the speaker of her faction in the committee for Climate and Environmental Protection. She also is the deputy speaker of her faction on women, equality, human rights and Europe.

Françoise Schaetzel 

Dr. Françoise Schaetzel is a Strasbourg city councilor and Eurométropole vice president in charge of urban planning, environmental health, air quality, and the low-emission zone. She chairs ADEUS and leads the Alliance of French Local Authorities for Air Quality. A public health professional, she was a professor at EHESP and a senior civil servant in interministerial social and health policy.
 

Adrian Cabrera Gonzalez

Adrian Cabrera Gonzalez is first Deputy Mayor and Councillor of the municipality of Benissa, overseeing sports, investments, festivals, new technologies, and European projects. Holds a BSc in Physical Activity and Sport. Coordinates municipal projects, programs sports and recreational activities, promotes healthy habits, teamwork, and well-being, and manages European-funded initiatives to enhance community development.

Pekka Komu

Pekka Komu (SDP) is the chairperson of Lahti city board. He is also a member of European Committee of the Regions, Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget (COTER), Regional council and county council of Päijät-Häme.  

He has worked with the electrification of mobility and business development. Previously Komu has played role in implementing the European Green Capital year and its’s legacy in Lahti, city development in local politics and European transport policies in CPMR.

Céline De Laurens

Celine de Laurens is an environmentalist elected official and Deputy Mayor of Lyon for Health, Prevention, and Environmental Health since 2020. She promotes a One Health approach to reducing social and environmental inequalities. With a background in social sciences, she worked in NGOs supporting vulnerable groups and spent 10 years advising staff in the health and social-care sectors. She is a mother of three.

Panagiota Filippou

Panagiota Filippou is a Policy Officer in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE). She is a member of the One Health team of DG SANTE contributing to the coordination and development of One Health related policies and activities internally and across the Commission services. She is an observer to the Cross-agency One Health Task Force and a member of the management group of the European Climate and Health Observatory. Her work focuses on climate change-induced health impacts.

Panagiota was previously working on food labelling in DG SANTE and has a background in Biology and Molecular and Cellular Life sciences with a research focus on food microbiology and food biotechnology.

Clémentine Gravier 

Clémentine Gravier is the Head of Unit, Networks & Capacity Building at the URBACT Joint Secretariat, where she has worked since 2015. In her role, she oversees the development of city networks and the programme’s capacity-building activities, including training and knowledge-sharing for urban practitioners across Europe. She has extensive experience in managing EU-funded projects, fostering transnational cooperation, and supporting innovation in urban policy. Clémentine holds a degree from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Strasbourg.

Dr. Guillaume Fauvel 

Dr. Guillaume Fauvel is the director of the Health Department for the City of Lyon 

Spiros Elefsiniotis

Spiros Elefsiniotis lives in Elefsina, Greece, and heads the Environment and Circular Economy Department at the Municipality of Elefsina. With 30+ years of public and private sector experience in Greece and the USA, he has expertise in environmental management, quality, safety, digital governance, and project management. He holds engineering and logistics degrees, has taught in New Jersey, and is active in professional groups. He is married with four children.

Kati Vähäsarja

Kati Vähäsarja, has worked as a manager of wellbeing promotion in the city of Kuopio in Finland since 2018. She has an experience of over 25 years in the field of wellbeing and health promotion. She has previously worked as a wellbeing and exercise researcher in the THL, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, in the LUKE, the National Resources Institute in Finland, and in the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. She has also worked several years as a specialist of health benefits of greenspaces and nature based solution in health promotion in Metsähallitus, the National Park and Forest services.

Tiago Guadalupe

Tiago Guadalupe is a coordinator and specialist in public sports policy at the Municipality of Loulé. He coordinates community physical activity programmes and represents the municipality in European initiatives linked to the One Health concept. He advocates for informal sport as a driver of health, sustainability and social cohesion.

Mihaela Teodosie 

Mihaela Teodosi is Senior Advisor in Suceava’s European Projects Department. She has over 10 years in local administration and 5 in European funds. Holding degrees in History, Geography, and Management, she specializes in EU funding, including Cohesion Policy, Recovery Plans, Urbact, and national programmes. She supports projects in education, urban regeneration, mobility, and administrative capacity, contributing to over ten externally funded initiatives.

Taraneh Shojaei 

Taraneh Shojaei is a senior Advisor for the One Health Initiative at WHO. As a medical doctor specialized in public health and epidemiology, she brings over twenty years of experience in global health and health policy. Her career spans international diplomacy, health cooperation in Africa and Southeast Asia, and the strengthening of health systems. She has worked across WHO, governments, and French institutions, developing innovative and integrated approaches to global health, including One Health.

Serge Morand

Serge Morand is a health ecologist with a background in evolutionary ecology and zoology. He leads projects on the impacts of planetary changes (climate, land use, urbanization) on the links between biodiversity, health and societies in Southeast Asia.

Researcher at the CNRS, he is based in Thailand at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Kasetsart and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Tropical Medicine of Mahidol.

He is a member of the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) of the One Health quadripartite (WHO, WOAH, FAO, UNEP).

Dr. Anne-Lise Chaber 

Dr. Anne-Lise Chaber is responsible for the One Health flagship at the WHO Academy, where she focuses on capacity building for One Health implementers. With over two decades of experience as both an academic and a practitioner in the One Health field, Dr. Chaber specializes in developing innovative training programmes that promote systems thinking and enhance collaboration among diverse stakeholders, equipping them to address interconnected health challenges at the human, animal, and environmental interfaces through targeted capacity-building initiatives.

Marie Macauley

Marie Macauley is a Learning Specialist with the Healthy Cities programme at the WHO Academy. An expert in lifelong learning and urban development, she works at the intersection of education policy and urban resilience, designing innovative learning modalities – including online and blended courses, peer-to-peer learning and immersive simulation-based training. Her experience includes managing the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities, developing tools to improve access to health education in urban settings, and contributing to education policy in Canada with the Council of Ministers of Education. She is currently developing training programmes to strengthen city preparedness and promote healthy, sustainable and more equitable communities.

Fabrice Vavre

Fabrice Vavre is a research director at the CNRS in evolutionary biology and director of the Laboratory of Biometry and Evolutionary Biology. His work focuses on species interactions in order to understand what drives these interactions towards conflict or cooperation. Through his role in structuring projects coordinated by the University Lyon 1, like InfectioTron and SHAPE-Med@Lyon, he fosters the development of the One Health approach, in close collaboration with the City of Lyon.

Emilia Rönkkö

Emilia Rönkkö, D.Sc.(tech), is a Senior Researcher (Adjunct Professor), who is specialized on healthy urban planning, urban resilience, social-ecological systems and related theoretical and methodological approaches. Educated as an architect, she also works as a consultant for public and private sector projects.

Marju Prass

Marju Prass is the project leader of One Health Gov project and an urban ecology researcher by background. 

From 2021, she has been co-coordinating planetary health work in Lahti region in Southern Finland together with Lahti City and the Wellbeing Services County of Päijät-Häme (regional healthcare and social services) via Nature Step to Health 2022-32. Besides research projects and practical implementation of planetary health with various stakeholders, she currently focuses on growing the movement and achieving a wider regional transformation for planetary health. Her work in Interreg Europe funded One Health Gov focuses on meaningful changemaking, governance and improved policies.

In addition, she is a steering committee member of Health KAN of Future Earth NGO, and continues as an early-career researcher in the Urban Ecosystems Research Group of the University of Helsinki.

Sofia Aivalioti

Sofia Aivalioti is the lead expert for the One Health 4 Cities (URBACT) Network supporting cities to integrate a holistic health vision in strategies and projects. She is a senior consultant at BAX Innovation (Barcelona) working on topics of one health, healthy urban planning, nature-based solutions and biodiversity and the Projects’ Director for the Forest Therapy Hub. Sofia is a certified forest bathing guide and forest therapy practitioner guiding forest bathing activities in Barcelona.

Marlène Dussauge

Marlène Dussauge is the Coordinator of the European One Health 4 Cities project led by the City of Lyon within URBACT programme. She connects nine cities to develop learnings and tools helping urban teams integrate the One Health approach. After 15 years in humanitarian work, mostly in emergency settings, she continued her commitment to public good by joining the City of Lyon’s Health Department. 

European Partners

City Partners