Join us on April 22 at 10 am ET
Date: April 22, 2026
Time: 10:00 AM ET | 3:00 PM BST | 4:00 PM CEST
Tobacco use remains one of the leading causes of preventable death globally. Although tobacco control measures have significantly contributed to progress, gender-sensitive approaches are not yet fully integrated into research and policy. Doing this effectively requires a better understanding of the social, cultural, and economic factors that shape why men, women and gender-diverse people smoke and how these factors also influence their access to cessation support.
Incorporating gender perspectives into tobacco control is essential to ensuring that policies and interventions reach those most affected, especially in low- and middle-income settings where social barriers are more pronounced.
Women leaders, researchers, and advocates have played a critical role in advancing gender-responsive tobacco control globally. This webinar will bring together speakers from youth engagement and community health promotion in Zambia, civil society leadership and tobacco industry monitoring in Jordan, evidence-informed taxation policy and illicit trade research in Latin America, and global legal and human rights strategies to advance tobacco accountability.
Co-led by the Global Strategy Lab (GSL) and the International Network for Women Against Tobacco (INWAT), the discussion will reflect on progress to date, identify persistent gaps, and explore concrete actions policymakers, researchers, and advocates can take to strengthen tobacco control efforts.
Moderator: Lathika Laguwaran, Director of Operation Global Strategy Lab
Lathika is a PhD student in the Global Health program at York University, specializing in gender and smokeless tobacco use in South Asia. Her research explores the sociocultural factors behind gender differences in smokeless tobacco consumption across 11 South Asian countries, utilizing a mixed methods approach.
Yvette Mbewe, Global Youth Voice, Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control
Yvette Mbewe is a Global Youth Voice at the Global Center for Good Governance in Tobacco Control, where she works to amplify youth voices in support of strong, ethical, and accountable tobacco control policies that protect public health and future generations.
She previously served as a pharmacist with the Ministry of Health in Zambia, contributing to national health service delivery. Yvette is also the Co-founder of the Healthing Hand Foundation, a non-governmental organization that delivers health promotion programs and supports girls’ education in rural Zambia through the provision of sanitary products.
Dr. Larissa Al-Uar, Board Member, Tobacco Free Jordan
Dr. Larissa Al-Uar is a public health advocate and founding member of Tobacco Free Jordan, with over 14 years of experience in tobacco control policy, research, and youth-focused advocacy. Her work spans national, regional, and international levels, including co-authoring Jordan’s Tobacco Industry Interference Index and leading research on tobacco marketing near schools.
Dr. Al-Uar holds a Global Tobacco Control Certificate from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She also represents civil society in national committees like the Tobacco Committee at the Jordan Standard and Metrology Organization, in WHO FCTC processes, including promoting child-focused and equity-driven approaches to tobacco control.
Blanca Llorente, Research Director, Fundación Anaas
Blanca Llorente is Research Director at Fundación Anáas, a think tank in Colombia. She has over a decade of experience in tobacco control advocacy, particularly advancing tobacco taxation policies in Colombia and across Latin America. Her work focuses on promoting evidence-informed public health, environmental, and human rights policies.
Blanca holds a BA in Economics from Universidad Javeriana and an MSc in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. She has previously served as researcher, Vice Dean, and Research Director at Universidad Sergio Arboleda. Her recent work includes studies on illicit cigarette trade, regional measurement initiatives, and the development of monitoring systems for tobacco tax policy.
Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy, Managing Attorney, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
Kelsey Romeo-Stuppy is Managing Attorney at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), where she leads global programs on tobacco industry liability and human rights advocacy. Since 2013, she has worked to advance accountability for tobacco-related harms through legal action, policy engagement, and advocacy within the United Nations system and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Kelsey is a recognized expert on using human rights mechanisms to strengthen tobacco control policies and accelerate progress toward ending the tobacco epidemic. She trains advocates to use legal and human rights arguments to advance their tobacco control efforts, and is sought after as a speaker on public health, tobacco control policy, human rights, liability, the environment, global mechanisms, and other intersecting topics for events around the world.
She is also the author of the 2024 book chapter “Tobacco Industry Corporate Malfeasance and Women’s Rights Violations: Are Human Rights Mechanisms the Antidote?” published in Women’s Health and Corporate Marketing (Routledge), which examines how transnational tobacco companies target women in low- and middle-income countries and explores human rights strategies to address these harms.
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