Bilgé Ögün Bassani is the Vice Chair of Advisory committee of FXB Health of Human Rights Center at the T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health. The focus of her work has been managing development, humanitarian and climate change solutions in Africa, Asia, Europe, United States and the Middle East, with the hope of contributing to change the world to be a better place for all. She served as Senior Advisor to the President of New York Academy of Medicine for Global Partnerships and its International society for Urban Health, as well as a Fellow. She was also a Visiting Scientist and Senior Fellow with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University. She served as the CEO of Francois-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) International whose mission is to fight poverty and through investments, transform the lives of the world’s orphans and vulnerable children, their families and communities. Later she was the President and Chair of FXB USA for three years.
As the Representative of the UN Foundation, she supported their activities in Europe. She worked over 20 years at the United Nations, as Director of Programs for the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships (UNFIP). She served at 1984-85 Ethiopia Famine emergency, was a UNICEF Representative in Rwanda, Senior Staff for Child Rights at Florence Innocenti Child Policy Center, and Deputy Regional Director in Europe responsible for several advocacy campaigns on child rights and childhood policy development. Earlier she worked with Save the Children USA as Regional Director for Africa and the Middle East. Ms. Bassani studied Business Administration at the Robert College (presently Bogazici University) in Istanbul and obtained her BA in Business Administration in 1965. Ms. Bassani was born in Ankara, Turkey.