Ms Gabrielle Jacob

Special Adviser on Transformation and Organizational Development

Biography

Ms Gabrielle Jacob has more than 15 years of senior experience in the health sector at national and international levels, and has worked in areas including human resources for health, ageing and older people’s services, disability services, health system reform, organizational development, change management and programme/project management. She joined WHO/Europe as Programme Manager of Human Resources for Health (HRH) in 2018, prior to which she was a senior official in the Irish Ministry of Health.

As Health Attaché at the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations and Specialized Agencies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 2012 to 2013, Ms Jacob led for the Irish European Union Presidency on matters relating to WHO. She was then assigned to the Irish Ministry of Health’s Health Workforce Planning Unit in 2013. At the national level, she actively advocated for and supported the human resources for health agenda, delivering Ireland’s first intersectoral National Strategic Framework for Health and Social Care Workforce Planning, which was subsequently launched in 2017.

In 2015, she served as a WHO European Region representative to the Expert Advisory Group on the Review of the Relevance and Effectiveness of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, and co-chaired the Review process together with Thailand.

From 2015 to 2018, Ms Jacob was Head of Organisation Development at the Irish Ministry of Health, where she was responsible for the Ministry’s internal renewal and change programmes, including in the areas of staff development and learning, internal communications, and knowledge management.

She holds master’s degrees in publishing and in public administration and management. Her research interests include organizational development, public policy, public sector network theory and collaborative public management.