PAHO Director Appoints New Chief, Caribbean Subregional Program

Bridgetown, Barbados, 13 May 2026, PAHO/WHO - Leah-Mari Richards has been appointed by the Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), as Chief, Caribbean Subregional Program, effective 7 May 2026.

Ms. Richards is a national of Trinidad and Tobago and has more than two decades of experience in public health, health systems strengthening, and digital health across the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, including extensive service within the United Nations System. She has broad expertise in policy development, program management, and resource mobilization in complex development and humanitarian contexts.

She began her career as Public Health Advisor for HIV/STI at the PAHO/WHO Country Office in Trinidad and Tobago providing technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and the National AIDS Coordinating Committee to strengthen health services, prevention and treatment coverage, and national capacity in surveillance and laboratory services.

In 2007, Ms. Richards transitioned to UNFPA to establish its first office in the country, continuing her leadership in public health and gender equality. She subsequently joined Population Services International (PSI), where she opened the first PSI office in Jamaica before advancing to serve as Senior Strategy Director and Head of Programs in Myanmar (2012-2017), managing a USD 20 million portfolio and pioneering innovations in strategic purchasing of health services including integrating gender-based violence screening in family planning services - the first initiative of its kind in the country.

Since re-joining PAHO in 2019, she has demonstrated distinguished leadership as Advisor, Health Systems and Services in Suriname, subsequently advancing to serve in the same capacity in Panama, a position she has held until this new appointment.

"I am not arriving as a stranger. The Caribbean is where I am from. This region - its people, its complexity, its resilience - is part of who I am. So, while this is a new role for me, it is also, in a very real sense, coming home," Ms. Richards emphasised.

Ms. Richards holds a master's degree in Population and International Health from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of the West Indies.