New W.H.O. director general

She is Dr. Margaret F. C. Chan, a graduate of the medical school of the University of Western Ontario in Canada and a former Hong Kong health chief. Dr. Chan was appointed director general in November 2006 and her term will end June 2012. Dr. Chan identified two major goals for her new role as W.H.O. director general -- "to improve the health of Africans and of women throughout the world." More from the New York Times article:

“Women do much more than have babies,” Dr. Chan said in a statement on the agency’s Web site. Speaking to reporters yesterday by telephone from the health organization’s headquarters in Geneva, she added that women were a rising influence in the work force and in their communities — particularly since so many teachers and health care workers were women.
...
Dr. Chan is the first person from China to head a United Nations agency. China has been criticized severely for not sharing information with the world about diseases like influenza and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. Asked whether she felt pressure to favor China, Dr. Chan pledged to be fair, transparent and accountable. “As an international civil servant, I commit to serve the interests of the member states of the organization,” she said.

“When the evidence is clear and health is at stake, the director general must be prepared to take a stand on difficult, and at times political, issues that affect health,” she said.

Click here to read the New York Times article.