Atlantic Storm was
organized by:

The Center for Biosecurity of UPMC

The Center for Transatlantic Relations of Johns Hopkins University

The Transatlantic Biosecurity Network

Atlantic Storm was
sponsored by:

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

The German Marshall Fund of the United States

The Nuclear Threat Initiative

Scenario Players

Gro Harlem Brundtland
As the Director of the World Health Organization

Gro Harlem Brundtland spent 10 years as a physician and scientist in the Norwegian public health system and more than 20 years in public office. But her first choice of career was neither environmentalist nor politician—she wanted to become a doctor like her father. Dr. Brundtland inherited another passion from her father—political activism. At the age of seven, she was enrolled as a member of the Norwegian Labour Movement in its children’s section and has been a member ever since, leading the Labour Party to election victory three times. When she was 10 years old, the family moved to the United States.

As a young mother and newly qualified doctor, Dr. Brundtland won a scholarship to the Harvard School of Public Health, where she received her MPH. Here her vision of health extending beyond the confines of the medical world into issues of environment and human development began to take shape. She returned to Oslo and the Ministry of Health in 1965, and in 1974, Dr. Brundtland was offered the job as Minister of the Environment.

In 1981 she was appointed Prime Minister for the first time, the youngest person and the first woman to hold the office of Prime Minister in Norway. She also served as Prime Minister from 1986 to 1989 and from 1990 to 1996.

Throughout her political career, Dr. Brundtland has been concerned with issues of global significance. In 1983 the United Nations Secretary-General invited her to establish and chair the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission), which developed the broad political concept of sustainable development and published its report, Our Common Future, in 1987. The Commission’s recommendations led to the Earth Summit—the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Dr. Brundtland was nominated as Director-General of the World Health Organization by the Executive Board of WHO in January 1998. As Director-General, she was most recognized for her efforts in containing the SARS pandemic. She stepped down from her position in July 2003, but remains a leading voice behind promoting a healthier nation.