Dr. Gwendolyn Pang has over 25 years of leadership experience in humanitarian works. Dr. Pang is currently the Secretary General of the Philippine Red Cross. (PRC) Prior to her present role, she has held various leadership positions in the following offices:
Dr. Pang developed her passion and expertise toward the areas of public health, organizational development, partnership and resource development, humanitarian diplomacy, disaster management and resilience building. She is highly regarded for her execution of simple, scalable and sustainable models of organizational transformation, which was evident in PRC’s transformation into an organization that is ‘always first, always ready and always there’ in practice.
Her work with the government authorities, United Nations agencies, international institutions, private sector and academia fostered new and strengthened existing partnerships in the Philippines and Asia Pacific.Dr. Pang has managed large, complex initiatives, which was evident during the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement-wide Typhoon
Haiyan response and recovery and other major disaster and crisis operations to include the recent COVID-19 pandemic response. During the pandemic response, she supported development of COVID-19 guidance document to Red Cross Red Crescent national societies and in developing new services such as COVID-19 Molecular Laboratory Testing facilities, isolation centers, contact tracing, vaccination centers, addressing socio-economic impact, etc.
Considering her great contributions to humanity in the field of health, disaster management and social welfare, in April 14, 2013, she was conferred with an Honorary Degree of ‘Doctor of Humanities’ by the Lyceum of Northwestern University in the Philippines. In May 12, 2015, she received the Florence Nightingale Award, which is the highest international distinction for a professional nurse to recognize great courage and devotion to victims of armed conflict or natural disasters. In December 15, 2021, she was awarded by the Philippine Red Cross with the Doña Aurora Aragon Award for her dedicated and exemplary service to humanity.
Recently, she was awarded as Global Most Influential Filipina Women 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal by Filipina Women Network on November 2022 and was honored as an Asian Hero 2022 by Seagull Philippines Inc.