Why we need to walk and chew gum at the same time - Tackling Health Inequities in Norway

Bernadette Nirmal Kumar, a medical graduate from St. Johns Medical College, India, has a doctorate in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Oslo, Norway and post-doctoral research fellowship at the Institute for Psychiatry, University of Oslo. Kumar has several years' international experience working for UNICEF, WHO, WFP, World Bank and NORAD in Southern Sudan, Somalia, North West Kenya, West Bank and Gaza, North Korea, China and Bhutan (1989-2000). Migration and Health has been the focus of her research since 1999 and she is the co-editor and author of Text Book on Immigrant Health in Norway: Flerkulturelt folkehelsearbeid (Fagbokforlaget 2009) and Migrant Health ¨C A Primary Care Perspective( Taylor and Francis, 2019). In 2010, she was appointed Director of NAKMI -Norwegian Center for Migration and Minority Health ( part of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 2018) and Associate Professor, Global Health at the Institute for Health and Society, University of Oslo (2013). She is Professor at the Empower School of Health, India and Affiliated Professor at Kathmandu University, Nepal. She is President of the EUPHA Section of Migration and Ethnic Minority Health (2018-) and leads the Migration Health work package of the EU Joint Action on Health Inequalities. Kumar was the Lancet Commission on Migration and Health (2018) and is Co-chair of Lancet Migration. She is also the Chair of the Global Society on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health. Bernadette¡¯s extensive bio includes having been member of the ISS Board 2011-17 (incl Chair 2014-17), in addition to having taught at our ¡°International Community Health¡± course for several years.