Dr. Meredith del Pilar-Labarda is a Professor of Medicine and the former Chairperson of the Department of Medicine at the University of the Philippines Manila School of Health Sciences (UPM-SHS), an innovative school known for its community-oriented stepladder health professions education curriculum. Currently, she is the chairperson and coordinator of the school’s research unit. She is also the lead for Social Innovation in Health Initiative (SIHI) Global Network Secretariat, as well as lead for SIHI Philippines Research Hub, a program under the Institute of Clinical Epidemiology of the UP Manila National Institutes of Health. SIHI is a global network of passionate individuals, organizations and institutions advocating for social innovation in health and advancing research in social innovation launched by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). In partnership with the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), she has also led the national crowdsourcing open call for the Gelia Castillo Award for Research on Social Innovations in Health (GCARSIH), which is implemented in the country every two years. Further, she has also led several TDR-funded and supported research projects such as the Community Engagement Self-Monitoring Approach for Social Innovations and Gender Intersectionality study.
She has also actively participated in several World Health Organization initiatives such as serving as the Lead Technical Expert Evaluator in Human Resources, Risk Communication and Community Engagement for the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) of International Health Regulations (IHR) Core Capacities. In 2023 she also served as a Temporary Adviser for Member States Consultation to draft the Regional Innovation Strategy in the Western Pacific region. As a Doctor of Social Development and the school’s lead coordinator for health leadership and governance programs, she has also been active in establishing partnerships with government and non-government organizations in co-designing training modules, providing capacity strengthening trainings and coaching for local chief executives, municipal health officers, provincial health teams and other stakeholders in the local health ecosystem for the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law. Her advocacies, work engagements and research interests include health and social development, social innovations, transformative health leadership and governance, community engagement, local health systems strengthening, disaster and resilience, adolescent sexual reproductive health, intersectional gender research, youth capacity building, health and nutrition, community mental health and wellbeing and transformative health professions education.
