Kira Fortune

Kira is responsible for Healthy Cities, Health Promotion and Well-being in the Regional WHO Office of Europe.

Kira has spent the last 25 years specializing in public health, equity, community engagement and the social determinants of health in various international organizations across the globe. Prior to taking up the position in Copenhagen, she managed the Social Determinants of Health and Violence and Injury Prevention Unit at the Regional WHO Office of the Western Pacific, in Manila. Kira also spent ten years at the Pan American Health Organization/Regional Office of the World Health Organization in Washington D.C., coordinating the work on the social determinants of health, healthy cities, health-in-all policies and the sustainable development goals within the Americas.

Before joining the World Health Organization, she managed The International Health Research Network in Denmark and spent four years working in the Department of Global Advocacy at The International Planned Parenthood Federation in London. Kira also worked for three years with UNICEF in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where she was responsible for the Programme on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV. Kira has extensive experience working across the international stage from global NGOs, academia as well as with inter-governmental organisations.

She holds a Doctorate in Sociology from City University London; a Master’s Degree in Anthropology, Gender and Development, and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from the University of London; and a Master’s Degree in International Health from University of Copenhagen.