Gabriella Stern recently retired as Director of Communications at the World Health Organization. Based at WHO headquarters in Geneva for 6 ½ years, Gabby led the organization’s global communications strategy, managed a team of communications professionals, and served as spokesperson for the Director-General. Gabby joined WHO in March 2019 after more than three years at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Based in Seattle, she was the director of media & external relations. Before moving into communications in early 2016, Gabby was a journalist. She spent almost 25 years at The Wall Street Journal in various editing and reporting roles in the United States, Europe (during which she and her family became naturalized U.K. citizens), and Asia. Prior to joining the Journal, she worked for the Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald. Gabby was born in New Jersey and has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Yale University. Gabby is married, with two adult children. She and her husband relocated to Boston upon her retirement from WHO on Sept. 30, 2025.