Dr Susan Pineda Mercado is a public health physician with more than 30 years of experience across local, national, and international health systems. She retired from the World Health Organization (WHO) after over two decades of service, including as Director for Programme Management in the Western Pacific Region, the second highest technical leadership position in the regional office and the first Filipino to hold the post. She also served as Director for Noncommunicable Diseases and Health through the Life Course and Senior Technical Coordinator for Urban Health Equity at the WHO Centre for Health and Development in Kobe, Japan.
In the Philippines, Dr Mercado began as a community physician in an urban poor area under a UNICEF project and later served as Undersecretary and Chief of Staff of the Department of Health. She was appointed Special Envoy of the President for Global Health Initiatives in 2017. She has also served as Co-Chair of the National Panel of Technical Experts of the Philippine Climate Change Commission and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation.
Dr Mercado is also known for her humanitarian work as former Deputy Director General for Health In Humanitarian Action of the Philippine Red Cross
She continues to work in research, sustainable agriculture, and public health education, and hosts the “Health UPDates” webinar series under the University of the Philippines providing updated information on health and medicine for practitioners in medicine and public health.