Gender: Woman
Nationality: Filipino
Academy Affiliation: National Academy of Science and Technology, Philippines
Academy Country: Philippines
Field: Pediatrics, Genetics, Public Health, Policy Development

NOMINATED FOR: Co-Chair Low- and Middle-Income Country (LMIC);Advisory Committee;Policy Advice Committee;
TERM: First-time candidate

DESCRIPTION OF INVOLVEMENT IN THE ACADEMY'S ACTIVITIES OR IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS:

Dr. Padilla is a National Scientist of NAST. Her interests include pediatrics, genetics, public health and policy development. She is responsible for the preparation of 2 laws – Newborn Screening Act of 2004 and Rare Disease Act of 2016.
 
Some of her leadership positions include Chancellor, University of the Philippines Manila; Founding Director, Institute of Human Genetics and Newborn Screening Reference Center of the National Institutes of Health; Executive Director, Philippine Genome Center. In the Asia Pacific region, she was part of the group that established the Asia Pacific Society for Human Genetics and served as president in 2008-2010.  Currently, she is Co-Chair of WHO HQ Committee on establishing the framework for newborn screening and birth defects in LMICs.
With Young Physician’s Leaders (YPL)  as a model, NS Padilla organized the NAST Future Science Leaders Forum (FSLF), an annual workshop for young science leaders nominated by their universities. With similar objectives with YPL but not limited to physicians, it has engaged 200+ young leaders in the past 10 years.

Dr. Padilla is NAST’ focal person on matters related to genetics and genomics. Among her recent assignments are: Co- Chair,  Technical Working Group on ‘Alignment of the Philippine R&D System from a Domestic to a Global Network’; Chair, Resolutions committee of the 2024 AASSA-NAST International Symposium on Digital Transformation in Healthcare.

EVIDENCE OF PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES IN AN IAP, NATIONAL ACADEMY OR OTHER SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION'S GOVERNING BODY:

Since 2010, Dr. Padilla is focal person of the National Academy of Science and Technology to the InterAcademy Medical Panel (IAMP), the forerunner of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) for Health. As focal person to IAMP/IAP, she is responsible for the dissemination and agreements of the ‘Call to Action’ statements, identifying participants to the Young Physician Leaders Workshops, and participation in various IAP committees (i.e. Urban Health and WellBeing Review Panel). She organized international workshops in Manila (i.e. Planetary Health) bringing key science leaders for important discussions and resolutions.

From 2013-2019, she was a member of the Executive Committee (EC) of the IAMP/IAP for Health, the body responsible for the crafting the IAMP/ IAP Health strategic plans. As EC member, she participated in the discussions on the integration of IAP, IAC and IAMP into a new entity/umbrella organization, the current IAP. This led to the preparation of the IAP Statutes.