Catherine Decouttere is research manager at the Access-To-Medicines Research Centre of the KU Leuven and director at the Leuven One Health Institute. She holds a Masters in Civil Engineering and a PhD in Business Economics on Sustainable Immunization System Design for the Developing World, both from KU Leuven. Central to her work is the development of conceptual and mathematical systems models to support policy makers and stakeholders in the transition towards more sustainable and resilient socio-economic systems related to human health and One health (human-animal-ecosystem). Her key application fields are pandemic preparedness, health systems for infectious and chronic disease prevention and control, system design for medicine innovations.
Outside of academia, Catherine gained experience in public services wastewater management practices and flood control strategies in Belgium. She held leading R&D and innovation positions at Alpro, a plant-based food innovator where she aligned innovation strategy with sustainability principles. Later on she coached a diversity of industries and service organizations in Human Centered Design and Design Thinking.
Her main fields of expertise are systems thinking and systems modeling for Global Health and One Health, sustainability and human-centered design.
