Anna Coates Lowitja Institute International Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Conference 2016

Anna Coates

Anna Coates is the Chief of Gender and Cultural Diversity at the Pan American Health Organization, which operates as the regional office of the World Health Organization for the Americas. Of British nationality, Anna Coates holds a Masters degree in Modern International Studies from the University of Leeds and a PhD in Gender from the London School of Economics and Political Science (with a thesis focussed upon identity and policy issues related to indigenous women's reproductive health in Mexico). Subsequent to an earlier career as a university lecturer and researcher, and as Global Gender Advisor for Oxfam G.B.'s policy and programmes, Anna entered the UN system in 2007. She was firstly in ECLAC (the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) where she was Chief of the Social Development Unit at the subregional office based in Mexico City from 2007 to 2010 and since then has undertaken roles as the Acting Chief of the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Section at UN-ESCAP (the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) and the Deputy Regional Director of UN Women in the Americas and Caribbean. She joined the Pan American Health Organization in late 2014.