John R. Wilmoth was appointed Director of the Population Division effective 2 January 2013. With a distinguished academic background, Mr. Wilmoth has served as Professor of Demography at the University of California at Berkeley and has previously also worked for the Population Division as Chief of its Mortality Section from 2005 to 2007.

Mr. Wilmoth is the author or co-author of more than 50 scientific papers on various aspects of population dynamics, including trends in human longevity, the impact of population ageing on government transfer programmes, and the popular debate about world population growth.

Mr. Wilmoth was furthermore the lead consultant to the World Health Organization for the development of new maternal mortality estimates, used for the monitoring of MDG 5.

Read the interview with Mr. Wilmoth

Elia Yi Armstrong assumed the position as Chief of the Development Management Branch at DESA’s Division for Public Administration and Development Management  (DPADM) in January. Ms. Armstrong started her career in social services working with non-profit organizations and development NGOs before joining the Canadian public service in 1993. She served the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Privy Council Office of the Government of Canada and was also seconded briefly to the Public Management Service of the OECD.

Prior to joining DPADM in the late 1990s, she was a short-term consultant to the Consulate-General of Canada in New York. At DPADM, Ms. Armstrong worked in the  Public Administration Capacity Branch and the Office of the Director. She was seconded to the UN Ethics Office in 2006 and also served as the Director of the UNDP Ethics Office from July 2008 to April 2012.

Ms. Armstrong holds a B.S.W. (social work) from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and a MSc. from the  University of London, London School of Economics. She also received her second degree MSc. in Social Policy, Planning and Participation in Developing Countries.

The following staff members were also promoted in January:

Sharon Spiegel, Chief of Branch, Financing for Development office

Haoyi Chen, Statistician, Statistics Division

Vyatcheslav Cherkasov, Sr. Governance & Public Admin. Officer, Division for Public Administration and Development Management

Zin Lin, Statistics Assistant, Statistics Division

Eric Olson, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination

Goings

The following staff members retired in January:

Magaly Fernandez, Statistics Assistant, Statistics Division

Gerhard Heilig, Chief of Section, Population Division

Felice Llamas, Senior Social Affairs Officer, Division for Social Policy and Development

Armindo Miranda, Senior Population Affairs Officer, Population Division    

Dolores Vicente, Secretary, Division for Social Policy and Development