Natalia Kanem of Panama named head of UN population agency

NEW YORK - 4 October 2017: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed on Tuesday Dr. Natalia Kanem of Panama to head the UN population agency, Miami Herald reported.

Kanem has been serving as acting executive director of the UN Population Fund since the sudden death in June of UNFPA chief Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin of Nigeria. She had been deputy executive director since July 2016.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday that Kanem "brings to the position more than three decades of strategic leadership and management in the fields of medicine, public health, international peace and development, human rights and social justice."

A graduate of Harvard, she received her medical degree from Colombia University and a master's degree in public health from the University of Washington.