Professor Anita Villerusa (Latvia)

Professor Villerusa graduated in 1982 with a degree in medicine, followed by a doctorate in medical sciences in 1995 at the Medical Academy of Latvia. She started her career as paediatrician in medical practice, but in the late 80s came to the field of public health. Since 1991, she has worked for the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU). Professor Villerusa has served more than 15 years as the Dean of the Faculty of Public Health, and helped established bachelor and master level education in independent Latvia. Currently, she is also Director of the master’s programme in public health and Chair of the Scientific Council of the Institute of Public Health at RSU, and Chair of the Public Health Association of Latvia.

Professor Villerusa’s research interests include epidemiology, prevention of injuries, health-related behaviour, and the health of children and adolescents. Until recently, she was the group leader in a national research programme (2014–2018) conducting research on the competitiveness of health care, health-care resources utilization and the health services market. She was involved in the European Commission funded Horizon 2020 project Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) as the Country Representative for Latvia. She is a member of various working groups and councils of the Ministry of Health of Latvia, including: the State Immunization Council, the Coordination Council of the National Health Promotion Local Government Network, and the State Commission on Tobacco Control.