Prof dr Marleen Temmerman is a well-recognized global leader in women, child & adolescent health. She brings academic, research, technical, political, governance, management and leadership skills to the table as well as diplomacy, advocacy, fundraising, training and clinical expertise. She has a strong track record of working with governments, multilateral organisations, academia, professional bodies, development agencies, private sector, consultancy agencies, civil society, non-governmental and faith based organisations, in a global and changing world.

Currently, she is Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aga Khan University Hospital and Director of the Center of Excellence in Women and Child Health, Aga Khan University, Nairobi, Kenya. Prior she was Director, Department of Reproductive Health and Research (RHR), World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). RHR is the main instrument within the United Nations for research in Women's health, bringing together policy-makers and programmers, scientists, health care providers, consumers and civil society, advocates and women's groups, to identify and address priorities for research and action to improve women's health from a rights- based perspective.

Her interest is women’s health and rights, sexual en reproductive health, including cervical cancer prevention and treatment. She is the Founding Director of the International Centre of Reproductive Health (ICRH) at Ghent University, Belgium with sister research organizations in Kenya and Mozambique, and a large global collaborative academic network of 27 Universities globally.

She has a strong academic and scientific background with over 500 publications and books in the area of women’s health, Hirsch index 77. She has supervised many PhD students in Europe, Africa, Latin-America and China, received several awards and honours for her research and advocacy work. Honorary appointments: University of the Western Cape, South-Africa; Free University Brussels, Belgium; National Institute Family Planning Research, China; Concurrent Professor Fudan University, China.
In 2007, elected Senator in the Belgian Parliament where she was member of the Commission on Social Affairs, and Chair of the Commission on Foreign Affairs. In that capacity, she was member of the European Parliamentary Forum, and Chair of the HIV/AIDS Advisory Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

She served as a member of the iERG (independent expert review group), installed by UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, to raise accountability in the 'Every Woman, Every Child' platform to accelerate MDG 4 and 5. She is one of the penholders of the UN Global Strategy for Women's, Children and Adolescents' Health 2016-2030, launched by the UNSG and partners in September 2015, transitioning from the MDGs to the SDGs.

She is the AKU lead of several women and child health programmes in East-Africa such as the Canadian funded AQCESS (Access to Quality Care through Extending and Strengthening Health Systems) and IMPACT programmes, the PRECISE research platform (UK-MRC) and several smaller research and capacity building programmes. She is also chairing the regional AKDN maternal-child committee investing in streamlining MCH protocols and developing tools for the AKU and AKHS hospitals across the globe.
Current important affiliations/memberships include: Guttmacher-Lancet Commission on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights in the post-2015 world; Lancet Standing Commission on Adolescent Health, Scientific Advisory Committee of the EDCTP (European and Developing Countries Trial Partnership), Senior Fellow in the Institute for Global Health Diplomacy in Geneva; Maisha Maarifa HIV/SRH Research Hub of the Kenyan National AIDS Control Council (NACC), FIGO Committee on Human Rights, Refugees and Violence against Women.

She is the AKU- UNESCO Chair on Youth Leadership in Science, Health, Gender and Education at the Aga Khan University, Chair of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital Management Board, Nairobi County, Kenya, and Chair of the Local Reference Group of the ICPD+25 Nairobi Summit 2019.