Child Refugee and Migrant Health

Dr Christian Harkensee, PhD, MSc, DLSHTM, DiMM, FRCPCHBorn in Hamburg, Germany, graduated in Medicine from Humboldt University Berlin in 1997. General paediatric training in Murnau (Germany), Scarborough, Chester, Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) from 1998-2006. Conducting full-time research at Tokai University (Kanagawa, Japan) and Newcastle University between 2006-2010 for a PhD in clinical medical sciences/immunogenetics (completed 2012). Sub-specialty training in paediatric immunology, infectious diseases and allergy in Newcastle upon Tyne and London, 2010-2012. Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at National University Hospital in Singapore (2012-2014), University Hospital North Tees in Stockton (2014-2018) and Queen Elizabeth Hospital Gateshead (since 2018), where I run a child refugee clinic. MSc in Infectious Diseases with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (2013), extensive volunteering experience in humanitarian emergencies and capacity building.
Karen Olness MD is board certified in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and Professor Emerita of Pediatrics, Global Health and Diseases at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Ohio. She has been a field worker, helping children in humanitarian emergencies in many countries. In 1996 she initiated programs at CWRU to train relief workers about the special needs of children in disasters. These workshops have been replicated in many resource poor settings. She is past chair of the Global Child Health Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Technical Advisory Group on Children in Humanitarian Emergencies of the IPA. She is past President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. She has more than 150 publications and has received many awards from universities and professional organizations.

Emily Esmaili DO MA FAAP, is a pediatrician with global health experience both locally and internationally. After residency at Wake Forest Medical Center, she worked in Laos for two years as country coordinator and pediatric faculty for the NGO Health Frontiers. She then moved to Rwanda to serve as visiting pediatric faculty through Yale University and the Human Resources for Health program. While there, she helped start a "farm-to-bedside" nutrition program for food-insecure hospitalized children, which she later established as a 501c3, Growing Health, Inc. She then returned to the US to earn her masters in Global Bioethics and Science Policy from Duke University, followed by a fellowship in refugee child health also from Duke. Dr. Esmaili now works for Lincoln Community Health Center in Durham, NC, which serves primarily low-income, immigrant and refugee children in the local community, where she also leads a grant-funded outreach program for refugee and immigrant families post-COVID. She has volunteered with humanitarian organizations in Greece, India, Nepal, Rwanda, and along the Thai-Burma border.