Why would you like to be on the NCDA Board of Directors?

With NCDA’s leadership, our community has an unprecedented opportunity over the next years to permanently alter the global trajectory of NCDs. This opportunity is partly based on positive trends, such as the potential for new commitments and accountability — including through the United Nations High-level meeting on the prevention and control of NCDs and the promotion of mental health and well-being. The opportunity is also due to challenges that can no longer be ignored, such as disruptions in global health financing and governance. NCDA’s role is crucial, both because of its enormous policy and technical leadership and because of the strength of its members who positioned the organization as a taught leader in the NCD agenda, globally. And last, but not least, my organization and I personally, share the values of the NCDA, where the protection of health as a human right, the equity lens incorporated into all policies, the promotion of evidence-based interventions, and the understanding that the determinants of health are not only social determinants, but also commercial determinants, are fundamental philosophical pillars that are invaluable and encourage me to be part of and contribute to the agenda and success of the NCDA. As a leader in an NCDA member organization working with NCDA to mobilize civil society and strengthen its ability to improve health outcomes around the world, I am eager to serve NCDA and its members directly so that we can take advantage of this opportunity together.

What makes you a good candidate for the NCDA Board of Directors?

I have dedicated my career to improving health and preventing deaths from NCDs. As a public health professional in the Global South as well as a leader in an NCDA member organization, I have firsthand experience of how important NCDA’s work is to transforming country health systems and how vital members are to its success. I engage actively with NCDA, including as a member of the NCDA’s Advisory Group for the development of a policy report on fiscal policies across noncommunicable disease (NCD) risk factors. I have contributed to initiatives across the NCDA’s scope of work, including the Peer Learning Advocacy Network, Accelerator trainings, the mapping of unhealthy commodity industries and NCDA’s input to the Codex Alimentarius. I have extensive experience and a lifelong commitment to making NCD prevention, treatment and care more accessible, both from within government — including as the National Director of Health Promotion and NCD Control at the Ministry of Health of Argentina — and through civil society, at national and global level. In my current role leading the Food and Nutrition Policy Program for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ Global Health Advocacy Incubator I provide strategic leadership to promote de adoption and implementation of food policies, that in 2025 includes advocacy efforts in 30 low- and middle-income countries across the world. Drawing on this experience, I am committed to advancing the NCDA’s policy and technical leadership so that we can improve NCD prevention and control worldwide.

Biography

Dr. Verónica Schoj is Vice President of Food and Nutrition Policy Program at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids’ Global Health Advocacy Incubator. She has 25 years of experience working on NCD issues, in both civil society and public administration. Most recently, she was the National Director of Health Promotion and NCD Control at the Ministry of Health of Argentina, where she oversaw more than ten national programs, including nutrition and obesity prevention, tobacco control, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. From 2007 to 2017, Dr. Schoj co-founded and served as Executive Director of the Interamerican Heart Foundation-Argentina (FIC Argentina), an NGO working on advocacy and research in non-communicable diseases. Previously, she was at the Family Medicine Department of the Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, where she coordinated the Smoking Cessation Clinic and integrated the Obesity Program. She is author +40 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and she is the recipient of multiple awards.