Dorit Short Bio 10 September 2022
Prof Dorit Nitzan is a physician, specialized in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, with training and experience in in public health and emergencies.
She served in various senior roles in the World Health Organization (WHO) for 17 years. From 2005 to 2012 she was the WHO Representative and Head of Country Office in Serbia and Montenegro and a Manager of Public Health Services for South-East Europe. From 2012 to 2016, Dorit served as the WHO Representative and Head of Country Office in Ukraine. She was subsequently appointed WHO Regional Emergencies Director in the WHO European Region and was based in Copenhagen, Denmark. She retired in February 2022. At the start of the war in Ukraine, Dorit joined NATAN Disaster Relief NGO and headed, together with a logistics and operations colleague, the first humanitarian medical aid team for the Ukrainian refugees on the Polish-Ukrainian border. A few weeks later she was recalled to WHO as the Emergencies’ Incident Manager of the WHO humanitarian response in Ukraine.
Before joining WHO, Dr Nitzan was the Director of the Food and Nutrition Administration in the Israeli Ministry of Health. She was active in global health work through the Israeli Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs, World Health Organization, World Food Program, JDC, Physicians for Human Rights and was a consultant and on relief operations to Thailand, Ethiopia, China, Moldova and the Russian Federation.
Dorit has a degree in clinical nutrition from the Hebrew University. She then pursued her medical degree Tel Aviv University Faculty of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency in Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey, USA, and her fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center/Babies Hospital, New York. At the same time she gained her MPH in epidemiology and biostatics, at the School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Prof Nitzan has joined Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, as the Director of the Department of Emergency and Disaster Management in the School of Public Health, and will head the new Ben Gurion University Food Systems, One Health and Resilience Initiative (BGU-FOR).
Dorit has received awards and recognitions from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UN, WHO and during her clinic work.