Vasoontara Sbirakos Yiengprugsawan is a Senior Universal Health Coverage Specialist (Service Delivery) with the ADB Health Sector Group. She is focusing on economic and health assessments as well as lessons learnt from COVID-19, supporting health promotion initiatives, and health systems strengthening related projects. Vas has extensive experience working on lifecourse risk factors for chronic non-communicable diseases, equity in health services, and strengthening primary health care in developing Asia.
Prior to ADB, she held a World Health Organization’s Fellowship with the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, senior research positions on ageing and health (Australian National University, ANU and University of New South Wales), an Endeavour Fellowship at University College London, and worked in policy research with a UN Migration Agency, Geneva. Vas was awarded a PhD in Epidemiology from ANU, MA in International Relations from Syracuse University USA, and BA in Economics from Thammasat University, Bangkok.