Özge Tunçalp - Biography#

Dr Özge Tunçalp is a physician and epidemiologist. In January 2025 she took up the position as Executive Director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM).

Until end of 2024, she was based in Geneva working as a medical officer at the Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, World Health Organization. At WHO, she lead a portfolio of large-scale implementation and innovations research, as well as development of evidence-based guidelines and knowledge translation focusing on antenatal care and experience of care/quality of care. In collaboration with country, regional and global partners, she used quantitative and qualitative methodologies as well as innovative approaches to improve quality of care for maternal and perinatal health, including safe abortion in low- and middle-income countries.

Dr Tunçalp is the recipient of Maternal Health Visionary Award from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in recognition of her leadership in advancing maternal health globally. She completed her MD at Istanbul School of Medicine, MPH and PhD at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and postdoctoral fellowship at Yale School of Medicine. She has an honorary professor appointment at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She co-authored more than 175 publications.