Ali Mokdad, PhD, is Director of Middle Eastern Initiatives and Professor of Global Health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. In this role, he is building IHME's presence in the Middle East through new research projects, dissemination and uptake of IHME's methods and results, and consultation with regional leaders in population health. IHME was founded in 2007 at the University of Washington to provide better evidence to improve health globally by guiding health policy and funding. Dr. Mokdad has published more than 350 articles and numerous reports. He has received several awards, including the Global Health Achievement Award for his work in Banda Aceh after the tsunami, the Department of Health and Human Services Honor Award for his work on flu monitoring, and the Shepard Award for outstanding scientific contribution to public health for his work on BRFSS. He received his BS in Biostatistics from the American University of Beirut and his PhD in Quantitative Epidemiology from Emory University. -from washington.edu