Dr. John E. Varallo

MD, MPH, FACOG

Dr. John Varallo is Team Lead for Women’s Health at the Global Surgery Foundation. He is a board-certified Ob/Gyn, based in Washington, DC, with over 25 years of clinical and surgical experience working in diverse settings across 20+ countries on five continents.

Dr. Varallo serves as a commissioner on the newly established Lancet Commission for Maternal and Newborn Health and also as  a member of the  Guideline Development Group for  WHO recommendations on surgical and medical interventions to improve caesarean section outcomes.

Prior to joining the GSF in 2023, Dr. Varallo served for more than a decade at Jhpiego, an affiliate of Johns Hopkins University, focusing on cervical cancer prevention, maternal and newborn health, and most recently as the Jhpiego Global Director Safe Surgery. Leveraging the success of these programs, Dr. Varallo has been effective in replicating projects globally in diverse settings, while also co-designing sustainable programs with partners and governments, and generating important lessons learned to inform future programs. A priority is placed on optimising interdisciplinary surgical team performance, including both technical and non-technical skills, leadership, teamwork and communication, incorporating evidence-based technical skills updates and bundles of care, use of data to inform action, and building a culture of patient and provider safety.

Throughout his clinical and programmatic field experience, Dr. Varallo champions working in solidarity with local stakeholders to develop and test innovative, practical solutions to accelerate change and improve the quality and safety of surgical care.