R. Bruce Aylward

Professor Bruce Aylward, MD MPH, is a Canadian physician and epidemiologist with more than three decades of global health leadership within the World Health Organization. He trained in medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland (MD), holds a diploma in tropical medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a Master of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health .
Dr. Aylward joined the WHO in 1992, where he has held a succession of senior leadership roles spanning immunization, communicable disease control, eradication programs, emergencies, and health systems. His early work included directing global efforts toward polio eradication and leading WHO emergency responses in outbreaks such as Zika and West African Ebola. He also served as Special Representative of the WHO Director-General for the United Nations Emergency Ebola Response (UNMEER) and held senior operational roles in the WHO Emergencies Programme.
In recent years, Dr. Aylward has been at the forefront of global pandemic response efforts. Since 2017 he has served as Senior Advisor to the WHO Director-General and, in subsequent leadership capacities, has overseen strategic engagement on universal health coverage, immunization, reproductive and maternal–child health, and global emergency platforms including the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) and WHO’s role in the COVAX Facility. Under his guidance, WHO’s Transformation Agenda has sought to strengthen country-level readiness for health emergencies and equitable access to essential health services.
Dr. Aylward’s work reflects a career bridging epidemiological science and health policy implementation at the highest levels of global health governance. His expertise spans technical disease control strategies and the operational complexities of multilateral health system engagement across low-, middle-, and high-income settings.