Dr Susan Mercado is an internationally recognized public health leader with extensive national and local health systems experience who is empowering and responsive. She is known for her ability to listen and work with different sectors to put health higher on the agenda and is highly skilled in building and enabling diplomatic engagement to link solutions to problems. She is known globally for her work on health promotion, tobacco control, climate and sustainability telehealth, strategic communications. She has worked with the Philippine Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the humanitarian response to the COVID19 pandemic.