Dr. Bernadette Nirmal Kumar

Bernadette Nirmal Kumar, a medical graduate from St. Johns Medical College, India, has a doctorate in Epidemiology and Public Health from the University of Oslo, Norway and post-doctoral research fellowship at the Institute for Psychiatry, University of Oslo. Kumar has several years’ international experience in Global Health working for UNICEF, WHO, WFP, World Bank and NORAD in Southern Sudan, Somalia, Northwest Kenya, West Bank and Gaza, North Korea, China and Bhutan (1989-2000). She has been Special Advisor for the Prime Ministers Norway India Partnership Initiative to reduce Maternal and Child Mortality in India (2006-2009).

Migration and Health has been the focus of her research since 1999 and she is the co-editor and author of Textbook on Immigrant Health in Norway: Flerkulturelt folkehelsearbeid (Fagbokforlaget 2009) and Migrant Health – A Primary Care Perspective (Taylor and Francis, 2019). In 2010, she was appointed Director of NAKMI -Norwegian Centre for Migration and Minority Health (part of the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, 2018) and Professor, Global Health at the Institute for Health and Society, University of Oslo (2013). She is Professor at the Empower School of Health, India and Affiliated Professor at Kathmandu University, Nepal.

She has served on over 20 International and Norwegian boards, councils and committees. She is the President of the Global Society on Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health (2018-) and Chair of the 2^nd World Conference MERH Lisbon 2025. Kumar was the Lancet Commission on Migration and Health (2018) and is Co-chair of Lancet Migration and Co-chair of the Lancet Migration Regional HUB Europe. She was President of the EUPHA Section of Migration and Ethnic Minority Health (2018-2024) She led the Migration Health work package of the EU Joint Action on Health Inequalities. She is Vice President of Women in Global Health, Norway Chapter.