Our Leadership

Professor Christoph Gutenbrunner, MD, PhD, FRCP, SFEBPRM

1. Life line and education

• 1954: born in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)
• 1982: Medical Doctor (Marburg University) and license to practice medicine (“Approbation”)
• 1990: PhD in applied physiology and appointment as assistant professor (Marburg University)
• 1995: Specialist for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine and appointment as University Professor at Hannover Medical School
• Since 2007: Chair, Head of Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Hannover Medical School including Coordination Centre of Rehabilitation Research of German Pension Insurance Brunswick-Hannover
• Visiting Professorships at University of Graz (Austria), University of Padjajaran, Medical Faculty Bandung (Indonesia) and Southern China University Guangzhou/Shenzhen (China)
• 2016: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London)

2. International leadership experience
   • President (2019-2020) and Vice President (2018-2019; 2020-2022) of the Global Rehabilitation Alliance (GRA)
   • President of the Baltic & North Sea Forum of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (2008-2013) and chairman of the advisory board (since 2013)
   • Vice-president for Europe of the International Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (2004-2008) and ISPRM-WHO-Liaison Officer/Chairman of the WHO Liaison Committee of the International Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (2010-2018)
   • Chairman of the Professional Practice Committee of the Section de la Médecine Physique et de Réadaptation de la Union Européenne des Médecins Spécialistes (2003-2010)
   • Board Member and Treasurer of the European Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (2008-2011) and chairman of the Public Health Committee (2010-2016)
   • Member of the European Academy for Rehabilitation Medicine (since 2011) and chairman of the Foresight Committee (2013-2018)
   • President of 9^th ISPRM World Congress 2015, Berlin, Germany

3. Scientific fields related to disability and rehabilitation

• Development, implementation and evaluation of innovative rehabilitation programs for return-to-work
• Studies on subjective and objective criteria for the need of rehabilitation in persons experiencing disability
• Conceptualizing rehabilitation in health systems and development and testing the International Classification of Service Organization in Rehabilitation (ICSO-R)
• Development of a methodology for National Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plans and application in Egypt, Ukraine, Albania, People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, Albania, and Shenzhen (China)
• International Community survey on Spinal Cord Injury (related to the lived experience and societal integration of persons with SCI)
• Innovative teaching concepts for Disability and Rehabilitation
• Rehabilitation in persons with COVID-19 ( Long-/Post-COVID)

4. Collaborations and projects with national and international organizations

• World Health Organization ( contribution to the World Report on Disability (2011), the Global Disability Action Plan 2024-2021, the recommendation Rehabilitation in Health Systems (2017) and the Rehabilitation 2030 – a call for action)
• The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the Community Based Rehabilitation Network (CGN), the Christoffel Blind Mission (CBM), the Dementia Alliance International, Humanity & Inclusion (HI), Light for the World, Liliane Foundation, Motivation (UK) and a number of professional organizations
• In collaboration with HI, advocacy towards a WHA resolution on rehabilitation in contact with 15 national permanent missions in Geneva as well as the WHO regions Africa, South-east Asia, Europe and Latin Amerika
• The German Pension Insurance
• The German Workers Compensation Fund
• The German Members of Rehabilitation International: BAR and DVfR
• The Lower Saxony Ombudsman of Persons with Disabilities

5. Publications

• Four scientific monographs and 81 book chapters
• 395 original scientific papers (200 of them listed in pubmed)
• Editor of 6 scientific books and one textbook for students
• Co-editor of two scientific journals and 8 consensus papers as well as three white books

Appendix: 10 recent publications

Gutenbrunner C, Nugraha B: Principles of Assessment of Rehabilitation Services in Health Systems: Learning from experiences. J Rehabil Med 2018; 50: 326-332

Gutenbrunner C, Nugraha B: Responding to the World Health Organization Global Disability Action Plan in Egypt: Developing a National Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plan. J Rehabil Med 2018; 50: 333-337

Gutenbrunner C, Tederko P, Grabljevec K, Nugraha B: Responding to the World Health Organization Global Disability Action Plan in Ukraine: Developing a Na-tional Disability, Health and Rehabilitation Plan. J Rehabil Med 2018; 50: 338-341

Sturm C; Bökel A; Korallus C; Geng V; Kalke YB; Abel R; Kurze I; Gutenbrunner, CM: Promoting factors and barriers to participation in working life for people with spinal cord injury. J Occup Med Toxicol 2020; 15: 37; PMID: 33334363

Bickenbach J, Batistella L, Gutenbrunner C, Middleton J, Post MW, Stucki G: The International Spinal Cord Injury Survey: The Way Forward. Arch Phys Med Rehabil, 2020; 101: 2227-2232.

Gutenbrunner C, Nugraha B, Gimigliano F, Meyer T, Kiekens C: International Classification of Service Organization in Rehabilitation: An updated set of categories (ICSO-R 2.0). J Rehabil Med 2020; 52: DOI 10.2340/16501977-2627

Gutenbrunner C, Kubat B, Kröhn S, Haller H, Schiller J, Korallus C, Sturm C: Teaching functioning, disability and rehabilitation to first year medical students. J Rehabil Med 2021; 53: PMID: 33594446

Gutenbrunner C, Briest J, Egen C, Sturm C, Schiller J, Kahl K, Tegtbur U, Fuhr H, Korallus C: Fit for work and life: an innovative concept to improve health and work ability of employees, integrating prevention, therapy and rehabilitation. J Rehabil Med 2021; PMID: 33829273

Gutenbrunner C, Nugraha B, Teixido I Martin L: Phase-adapted Rehabilitation for acute corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients and patient with long-term sequelae of COVID-19. Am J Phys Med Rehabil, 2021; 100: 533-538

Spir M, Lugo Agudelo LH, Posada A, Cruz K, Velasquez J, Dio RD, Gonzalez M, Ospina V, Patiño D, Mesa L, Gutenbrunner C: Countries response for people with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic- Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences 2021 (accepted Dec 8, 2021)

Susan Parker has more than 30 years of executive experience in the field of worldwide disabilities. The former Secretary-General of RI (1993-1998), Parker’s experiences as a New England ski racer and instructor pointed her toward a career in disability advocacy. Parker has served as the Disability Commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration, opening up disability benefits to 465,000 U.S. children. From 2002-2011, she joined in the U.S. Department of Labor as the Disability Policy Director and helped create the national Disability Unemployment Statistic. Prior to the federal level, Parker held top leadership posts in two state governments: the State of Maine, Commissioner, Department of Mental Health & Mental Retardation; and the State of New Hampshire, Executive Director of the Developmental Disabilities Council. From 1998 to 2001, Parker was the Senior Policy Officer, Disability at the International Labour Organization in Geneva. She holds the Master of Social Work and Master of Social Planning degrees from Boston College School of Social Work and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hashem Taqi is the General Manager of the Kuwait Society for the Handicapped and the first Kuwaiti to assume a key post in RI Global. Taqi, who has been working for the Kuwait Society for the Handicapped for nearly 35 years, previously served as RI Global’s Middle East Chair. Established in 1971, the Kuwait Society for the Handicapped offers various free services, such as medical care, rehabilitation and education to persons with disabilities. The Society started with the caring for 30 children with disabilities, and now it owns a modern purposed designed centre for 250 multiply disabled children, as well as day care centers in Hawally, Jahra and Ahmadi.

I have worked and been a leader and Director in different companies in the Welfare Sector for more than 35 years, both in Norway and in the Nordic countries. I am educated and have a Master degree from Copenhagen Business School. I also have a degree in psychology from the University in Oslo, Norway.

For the moment I am a Freelancer as Specialist consultant in the field of welfare, working as a manager for international projects and as a Board member in different institutions. These institutions work for and with persons with a disability.

During my period as a Chair of Education Commission some of the following topics has been on the agenda:

• Responsible for a Side event during COSP – 2018 with the theme “Inclusive education for people with a disability – From special schools to inclusive education”
• Presentation about inclusive education on II Congress on Mental Health in Moscow in 2018
• Responsible for a parallel event at the 62 nd Session of Commission on the Status of Women in New York in 2018. The theme was “Rural girls with disability – their access to education.
• Presentation about Inclusive Education on a Regional Conference in Africa in 2017
• Responsible for a side event during COSP 2019 meeting in New York. The topic for the side event was “Technology as a tool for inclusive education – Digital empowerment through inclusive education”
• Producing the paper: “Challenges to achieving equality between disabled persons and persons without a disability” 2019

Prof. Asha Hans is Executive Vice President of SMRC an OPD in India and Associate member RI. Academic Council Member Indian Association of Women’s Studies. Former Prof of Political Science and Founder Director School of Women’s Studies Utkal University. Member Board Women’s, Peace Humanitarian Fund, Editorial Board Member Journal of Peace Education and member Editorial Board Member Bloomsbury . Academic Publishers book series on Peace & Human Rights Education. Vice President Red Cross (Odisha) Founder Women with Disabilities India Network. An academic activist, she promotes girl child with disability education, security of girls in the education sector of climate change and school drop-out. The forthcoming book is disability inclusive climate change.

Professor Yueqin Huang has worked as the chair of Commission of Health and Function of Rehabilitation International since 2016 and committed herself mental health promotion and study on mental rehabilitation. She is psychiatric epidemiologist and director of the Division of Social Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine in Institute of Mental Health/Sixth Hospital of Peking University for teaching and research. Her concurrent posts include vice-president of China Disabled Persons’ Federation, and president of Society of Crisis Intervention of Chinese Association of Mental Health. She is principal investigator of a series of research projects and international collaborations including World Mental Health Survey and 10/66 Dementia Study. She have published 357 academic article in many journals and is editor-in-Chief of eight books.

Hiroshi Kawamura is a long-term board member of the DAISY Consortium, a global partnership of organizations committed to creating the best methods of publishing for people who are blind or print disabled. He has also served DAISY in several other positions, including as an ambassador for DAISY in the Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR) sector. Kawamura helped coordinate the Global Forum on Disability in the Information Society in Geneva and in Tunis, which has been followed by international conferences on DiDRR and on-site collaborative research. Under Kawamura, the forum focused on empowering all community residents by providing accessible and easy to understand in in order too inform scientific knowledge on DiDRR in DAISY multimedia format. Kawamura arranged the Asia-Pacific Meeting on DiDRR in Sendai, Japan in April 2014 in collaboration with UN ESCAP, Nippon Foundation and Rehabilitation International. He has worked as a professional librarian at the University of Tokyo Library since 1970.

I’ve always wanted to work for a greater good. At my current position as the director of Supporting Foundation of children and youth with disabilities I have had the opportunity to promote equal rights, inclusion and diversity in both working life and education. My expertise lies within the fields of employment, education and rehabilitation policies and services. I’ve worked in national and international expert groups implementing projects, research and training. Currently I am the president of RI Finland and the chair of Policies and Services commission of RI Global.

I have a master’s degree in sociology, and I’ve published several articles on the employment of young people with disabilities.

After having studied law at the universities of Bonn (Germany), Lausanne and Geneva (Switzerland) Dr. Gregor Kemper wrote his doctoral thesis in Public International Law. He accepted various legal assignments in post conflict countries followed by practising as a lawyer in Germany. Since 2002 Dr. Gregor Kemper held several managerial positions in the area of global mobility before being seconded by the German Government to the European Union’s External Action Service for state capacity building related projects.

In 2011 Dr. Gregor Kemper joined the DGUV as Head of International Relations. He chairs several international commissions and serves as Secretary of the ISSA Technical Commission on Insurance against Employment Accidents and Occupational Diseases. Dr. Kemper is President of the International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) and Member io the Executive Committee of Rehabilitation International (RI).

Khaled El Mohtar is a founding member and chair of the Rehabilitation International — Middle East/North Africa (MENA) Region organization. Under this office, he has organized and co-organized many conferences, seminars and workshops in the fields of disability, rehabilitation and development throughout the Middle East. El Mohtar started his career as teacher of Mathematics. In 1980 he founded and served as Chairman of the National Rehabilitation and Development Center, which works in the treatment, rehabilitation and inclusion of disabled persons in Lebanon, mainly children with special needs — a position he held until 2016. Before joining the Executive Committee, El Mohtar served on the board as the Rehabilitation International Deputy Vice President for the Middle East/North Africa Region from 2000 to 2013.