About us

Armando Peruga, MD, Dr, PH

Armando Peruga obtained his medical degree in his home country of Spain. As a Fulbright scholar he achieved a master’s degree and doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Peruga was director of the Research Institute on Health and Welfare in Madrid and later became the dean of Spain’s National School of Public Health. When Dr. Peruga came to the US in the early 1980s he worked for the D.C. Commission of Public Health as a behavioral change epidemiologist in chronic diseases and HIV/AIDS. He began to work with the Pan American Health Organization in 1990 and is the team leader for PAHO’s tobacco control and consumers’ health program.
perugaar@paho.org

Ana Luiza Hallal, MD, MPH

Ana Luiza Curi Hallal is an epidemiologist with a master's degree in public heath from the Universidade de São Paulo and a medical doctorate degree from the Universidade Federal de Pelotas in Brazil, her home country. Dr..Curi Hallal is a consultant in tobacco control information and surveillance systems in PAHO's tobacco control and consumers' health program. Prior to joining PAHO, Dr.Curi Hallal worked in the public and private health sectors in Santa Catarina, Brazil monitoring health information systems.She has been a professor in epidemiology at the Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina (UNISUL) and has done research in time trends in cancer mortality and infant mortality, among other topics.
curihala@paho.org

Melania Flores

Melania Flores, a national of Costa Rica, has been the program manager for PAHO's tobacco control and consumers' health program since 2003. In 1997, Ms. Flores won a Government of Japan-Inter American Development Bank scholarship that allowed her to pursue a master's degree in economics at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). Previously, she earned her degrees in Economics at the Universidad de Costa Rica, concentrating on environmental economics. As an economist at the Central Bank of Costa Rica, Ms. Flores did research on monetary policy, econometrics and risk indicators for the financial system. She also worked at the Central Bank's National Accounts Department forecasting and analyzing cost-benefits for the agricultural sector. Prior to joining PAHO, she was program manager at the National Hispanic Press Foundation, a non-profit organization that works with most U.S.-based Hispanic publications and provides information on financial resources for Hispanic students.
floresme@paho.org

Gayle Gollop

Gayle Gollop, a native of Barbados, is a lawyer by training. Ms Gollop completed her Bachelor of Laws degree in Barbados at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, before she went on to attain her Legal Education Certificate at the Norman Manley Law School in Kingston, Jamaica. In 2003 Ms Gollop was awarded an Organization of American States' Fellowship which allowed her to pursue a Master of Arts in International Development at The American University in Washington, DC which she completed in May 2005. Prior to this return to school Ms Gollop was the Associate General Counsel at Sagicor Financial Corporation in Barbados. Ms Gollop is currently working at the Pan American Health Organisation as a Consultant for the Tobacco Control and Consumer's Health Team.
gollopga@paho.org