Dr Iman Shankiti was appointed as acting WHO Representative to Syria in May 2022. She was formerly WHO Representative in Lebanon. She holds a BSc in pharmacy from Jordan University and a Master’s Degree in health system management from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
She began her career with the organization as a technical officer in the Iraq country office, focusing on strengthening the country’s Primary Health Care system and fostering partnerships in health. This was followed by her appointment as the Emergency Coordinator for Sudan for a period of five years. In 2014, she was reassigned as the Emergency Coordinator to Kabul. In both Sudan and Afghanistan, Dr Shankiti focused on building national preparedness capacity and organizational readiness for emergencies, in addition to ensuring an effective response to natural disasters and conflict related emergencies.
In April 2017, Dr Iman Shankiti was appointed as emergency operations manager in the new WHO Health Emergencies Programme, based in the Regional Office in Cairo.
From April 2017 to May 2018, Dr Shankiti supported the regional response to 10 graded emergencies, including 4 Grade 3 emergencies, and managed the establishing of the Regional Emergency Operations Centre that promotes leadership and coordination between departments to respond to ongoing emergencies in the Region. Dr Shankiti also oversaw the roll-out of the regional Emergency Medical Team initiative in the Region that aims to develop a cadre of professional health staff for immediate deployment to countries in conflict. She also was a strong advocate for cross-departmental initiatives, including maternal and child health in emergencies, nutrition in emergencies, and the humanitarian development peace nexus.
Prior to joining WHO, Dr Shankiti was a technical officer at the Jordanian Ministry of Health for 10 years.