George Kronnisanyon Werner

George Kronnisanyon Werner is an experienced public-sector leader and innovator who has spearheaded successful national and government-wide reform programs across a range of areas including health and education workforce reforms. He served in the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf administration as Director General of the Civil Service and Minister of Education. Werner served as co-chair of Liberia's Health Workforce Development Taskforce alongside the minister of health, which had a mandate of addressing the shortage of skilled healthcare staff in Liberia. In recognition of his expertise in this area, he was later appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the UN High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, which crafted recommendations to ensure the equitable recruitment, training, and deployment of the estimated 40 million new health professionals needed globally by 2030. Since leaving public service in March 2018, he has used his first-hand knowledge to assist other African and Asian leaders to implement transformative reform agendas aimed at developing human capital and maximizing demographic dividends for long-term economic growth. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice, George is currently coordinating the work of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPR) as a member of the Panel’s secretariat assigned to the Co-chair, HE Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He mentors and advises students at the Harvard Ministerial Student Policy Research Program. George is a member of the Atlantis Group at Varkey Foundation, a member of the WBG Technical Advisory Board for the Global Education Policy Dashboard, a member of the Executive Committee of the Education Outcomes Fund, a member of the Board of Directors of the Ellen Johnson Presidential Center for Women and Development and a member of the Board of Directors of the Luminos Fund.

"Teaching is a compassionate profession. To be a teacher, therefore, is to be an agent of compassion in the classroom."