Dr. Katinka De Balogh is on the board of directors with Veterinarians Without Borders North America/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Amérique du Nord Canada.
Dr. Katinka de Balogh studied veterinary medicine in Berlin and Munich and obtained her doctorate in tropical parasitology from the Tropical Institute of the University of Munich in 1984. She specialized in tropical animal production and health in France and in Veterinary Public Health (VPH) in the Netherlands.
After a short career as a zoo veterinarian at the Rotterdam Zoo, she moved to Africa where she worked for a total of 9 years as a district veterinary officer (DVO) in rural Zambia and lecturer at the veterinary faculties of Lusaka (Zambia) and Maputo (Mozambique). In between, she worked for 2 years as an Associate Professional Officer at World Health Organization in Geneva.
In 1997, she started to work as a lecturer in VPH and international coordinator at the veterinary faculty in Utrecht, the Netherlands. From 2002 to 2016, she worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome, Italy where she held various positions from Pro-poor livestock policy to Crisis Management Centre-rapid response coordinator to leading the VPH activities of the organization.
She has always been a strong advocate for One Health and has established close linkages with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) especially during her position at the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific located in Bangkok, Thailand. Since January 2021, she is the Senior Animal health and Production Officer at the FAO Investment Centre in Rome where she is also the focal point for One Health. Katinka has travelled to over 120 countries and is fluent in 7 modern languages.
#VETSVolunteerVoices aims to bring you the stories of our passionate VETS program volunteers from the field. Meet Ian Parfitt, a GIS Mapping Advisor who spent three months in Cambodia (January–April 2025) supporting organic agriculture and digital transformation with our local partner, AVSF Cambodia.
Megan Sylka, Senior Program Officer at VWB, shares how her recent visit to Kenya revealed the powerful ripple effects of the VETS program—highlighting how Community One Health Champion Shelmith Mwai is transforming her dairy farm, her family dynamics, and her community through knowledge, leadership, and collaboration.
This article examines how a One Health approach can transform food safety systems by addressing the interconnected health of people, animals, and the environment—highlighting the importance of cross-sector collaboration, innovations like Canada’s CFSIN, and global strategies to mitigate risks such as antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and zoonotic disease.
