Dr. Hennis is Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization. This Department coordinates activities on non-communicable diseases and related risk factors, nutrition, violence and injuries, road safety, disabilities, and mental health and illicit substance use throughout the Americas. He graduated in Medicine from the University of the West Indies (UWI), and qualified in Internal Medicine in the UK. Dr. Hennis was Wellcome Trust Clinical Epidemiology Fellow to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of London, where he obtained an MSc. and PhD in Epidemiology. He has been Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of the West Indies, as well as Research Associate Professor in Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University, NY. Dr. Hennis has collaborated on several NIH grants which conducted research into eye disease, diabetes as well as diabetes in pregnancy; cardiovascular disease and stroke, population genetics, cancer and social disparities of health. He led the establishment of a national NCD surveillance system and the population-based cancer registry in Barbados and authored/co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Hennis has spent his career working to tackle NCDs through clinical practice, research and publication, teaching, working collaboratively with civil society, and through public health practice.