Dr. Palitha Abeykoon currently serves as an Advisor to the World Health Organization and the Ministry of Health in Sri Lanka. He is a member of the WHO- World Bank Global Pandemic Preparedness Monitoring Board, and the WHO Global PHC Taskforce and until recently he was WHO Director-General’s Special Envoy for COVID-19.
Dr. Abeykoon is a medical graduate from Sri Lanka, with postgraduate education from the Universities Southern California, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He had a long career in the WHO and was the Regional Director of Health Systems. He also served concurrently as the WHO Representative to India.
He is the recipient of the Dr Fred Katz Award of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Medical Education (ANZAME), the McLaren Leadership Award of the Asia Pacific Academic Consortium for Public Health and the Lifetime Achievement Award from his alma mater.
He holds Fellowships from Colleges of Community Physicians, Medical Administrators, General Practitioners and the Medical Educationists of Sri Lanka. He is a Former President of the Sri Lanka Medical Association and the Sri Lanka Medical Council.
Dr Abeykoon has published widely, recently edited “Sri Lanka Health in Transition” and “History of Medicine in Sri Lanka.