Ana Bento, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostats at the IU School of Health-Bloomington, is helping to steer national strategies and policies on school’s decisions to close and reopen due to COVID-19 as a member of new advisory group through the World Health Organization.
Bento is one of 16 experts from throughout the world appointed to WHO's Technical Advisory Group of Experts on Educational Institutions and COVID-19. She is one of two experts from the United States.
Hosted by WHO’s Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, the global group of experts will provide strategic and technical advice to WHO, UNESCO and UNICEF on matters relating to the role of educational institutions in COVID-19 transmission and containment. Additionally, the group will advise those organizations on closing, reopening and potential reclosure of educational institutions related to the coronavirus. They will consider the latest available evidence and early experiences of school closings and reopenings and the related issues for which policy guidance and recommendations should be developed or updated.
