Martha Saboyá, DrPH, MSc is currently the Senior Advisor for the communicable diseases elimination initiative (EI) at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington D.C., USA, a position occupied since October 2023. Previously, Dr. Saboyá worked as the Neglected Infectious Diseases (NID) Advisor and Specialist at PAHO in Washington, D.C., USA from 2010 to September 2023. Dr. Saboyá holds a bachelor’s degree in Bacteriology and Clinical Laboratory from the University Colegio Mayor de Cundinamarca of Colombia, a Master of Science in Public Health from the National University of Colombia, and a Doctorate of Public Health from the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico.

As a Senior Advisor for the communicable diseases elimination initiative (EI) at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), she provides critical technical, policy, strategic, and programmatic guidance to ensure the successful implementation of EI, which aims to eliminate a wide range of communicable diseases and related conditions in the Americas by 2030. Her role involves facilitating multisectoral and multidisciplinary coordination and promoting collaborations to address vulnerabilities and health inequities. She advises countries in the Region of the Americas on implementing synergetic efforts to accelerate the elimination achievements, supports the development of tailored national integrated strategies, and leads evidence-based advocacy efforts to maintain EI’s visibility. Additionally, she fosters partnerships, mobilizes resources, coordinates monitoring and evaluation, and contributes to operational research and knowledge dissemination.

She is a senior public health professional with over 25 years of experience at national and international levels. She brings extensive expertise in eliminating communicable diseases, having spent 14 years working on eliminating neglected tropical diseases at the regional program of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), and five years in the PAHO office in Colombia providing technical cooperation on disease control and elimination. Before her tenure at PAHO, she worked with Colombia’s Ministry of Health and the National Institute of Health, focusing on communicable diseases surveillance, control, and elimination. Additionally, she dedicated five years to local health services on the Colombia-Venezuela border, implementing public health programs to reduce the burden of communicable diseases in indigenous communities in rural and remote areas. Her career has been marked by a strong focus on addressing health inequities and improving health outcomes for vulnerable populations.