Percival Ethan C. Lao, MD

WORK EXPERIENCE: Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health - Center for Research and Innovation Co-Investigator, Enhancement and Updating of the Department of Health National Emerging and Re-Emerging (EREID) Program Manual (Funded by the World Health Organization)

July 2025 - Present - Provides technical oversight in the enhancement of the 2019 EREID Manual of Operations and Procedures integrating new evidence, field insights, and best practices - Develops a comprehensive health risk profile for EREID in the Philippines integrating epidemiological, demographic, ecological, and legal data and frameworks Co-Investigator & Work Package Lead, Strengthening Evidence-based One Health Policymaking and Implementation in the Philippines (Funded by the British Academy)

May 2025 - Present - Leading knowledge mobilisation, coordinating the translation and dissemination of research findings to local, regional, and national One Health policy networks in the Philippines. - Coordinating with provincial (Romblon) and regional (MIMAROPA) stakeholders to ensure policy uptake and scalability of findings Contributes to the co-design of research activities and tools for evidence-informed policymaking in local government settings, particularly within a devolved health system. Project Manager, Advancing Vaccine Uptake to Mitigate Antimicrobial Resistance in the Philippines (Funded by the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions)

March 2025 - Present - Lead coordinator for a multidisciplinary research initiative examining how vaccines can mitigate AMR - Directs the development of core outputs including a AMR-Vaccine Governance Framework, a national research agenda, and a strategic action plan for AMR-informed vaccine deployment - Oversees a multi-stakeholder research process including literature reviews, policy landscape analysis, stakeholder consultations, and the organizing of a national level advocacy event Research Associate, Climate Change and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Livestock and Aquaculture Sectors: A Scoping Review (Funded by the International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions)

January 2025 - Present - Conducts a scoping review and policy analysis on intersections of climate change and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in livestock and aquaculture systems, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). - Facilitates community dialogues with aquaculture and poultry farms to identify implementation challenges, policy gaps, and local knowledge for climate-smart AMR strategies using a One Health lens. Contributes to the development of a research agenda and policy recommendations for integrated AMR mitigation, synthesizing findings across human, animal, and environmental health sectors. Research Associate, Philippine Roadmap on Health & Climate Change (Funded by the World Health Organization)

September 2024 - January 2025 - Provided technical assistance to the Philippines’ Department of Health Health and Climate Change Unit to develop its Strategic Roadmap 2025-2050 and Operational Plan 2025-2030 • Facilitated the conduct of consultative meetings to gather feedback, recommendations, and to build consensus among key stakeholders • Played a lead role in drafting the strategic outcomes on Climate-Aware Filipino Communities, and Responsive Climate-Transformative Leadership and Governance of the Roadmap Senior Research Associate, Weathering HIV Project (Funded by the US National Institutes of Health)

August 2024 - Present - Collaborated with City University of New York, University of California San Francisco & the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in a qualitative study to investigate the influence of extreme weather events on HIV outcomes • Involved in conducting interviews and focus group discussions using the phenomenological approach, and in data analysis for manuscript development Project Manager, Sanitation Code Project Phase 2 (Funded by the World Health Organization)

August 2024 - January 2025 - Provided technical assistance to the Philippines’ Department of Health on amendments to the country’s 50-year old Sanitation Code and in the creation of the New Environmental Health Law • Provide technical and managerial oversight on project implementation and coordinate with numerous relevant stakeholders in gathering insight and feedback on policies Asst. Head, Environmental Health & Global Health Security Program June 2024 - Present - Provides support in internal monitoring of flagship program progress, and in capacity-building interventions - Represented the institution in national policy development workshops where I learned to utilize the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluation Tool for the creation of the National Action Plan on Health Security - Assisted in proposal development in bidding as technical assistance partners for environmental health projects - Collaborated with Ecological Waste Coalition in organizing education campaigns aimed to raise awareness on the effects of exposure to toxic chemicals on the health of vulnerable populations and the environment and in the development of the educator’s guide on chemical hazard identification in the classroom Project Manager, Health Security Policy Mapping (Funded by the US Agency for International Development)

May 2024 - September 2024 - Collaborated with RTI International to provide technical assistance to the Department of Health Epidemiology Bureau in mapping the country’s health security policies • Created a compendium of health security policy documentation, consisting of a comprehensive list of all existing health security policies mapped to their relevant thematic areas, including the objectives, and

enforcement mechanisms for each policy documented • Provided a sensing report of the health security policy landscape, presenting relationships, gaps, conflicts, and dependencies between health security policies across sectors with a high level gender analysis Policy Research & Planning Associate, National Action Plan on AMR (Funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization)

November 2023 - January 2025 - Provided technical assistance to the Philippine Interagency Committee on Antimicrobial Resistance (ICAMR) in developing the Philippines’ medium-term action plan against AMR for 2024-2028 • Performed an implementation review through a situational analysis and focus group discussions of the previous action plan through the One Health Approach, collecting insights on its challenges, best practices, and priority areas of action to guide recommendations • Led the design of a monitoring and evaluation framework composed of measurable indicators and means of verification for the national action plan to combat AMR Research Assistant, Heat Health Project January 2024 - Present - Engaged in data analysis, and manuscript development determining spatio-temporal associations of ambient heat with mortality rates of the Philippines’ priority health diseases, its historical, and future disease burden - Engaged in the development of heat-health risk maps for the country and policy briefs to be communicated to the relevant government agencies Research Assistant, Burden of Dengue Project February 2024 - April 2024 - Engaged in data analysis, and manuscript development for a research project estimating the present and future temperature-mediated dengue-related health burden in the Philippines and its relation to socioeconomic variables such as healthcare spending, population density and proportion of urban population Policy Research Associate, Sanitation Code Project Phase 1 (Funded by the World Health Organization)

September 2023 - December 2023 - Provided technical assistance to the Philippines’ Department of Health Disease Prevention and Control Bureau on amendments to the country’s 50-year old Sanitation Code • Reviewed exhaustively 100+ related policies to the code, and conducted 10+ key informant interviews, and 2 major stakeholder workshops convening local and national officials from the government and academe, translating inputs into the new Philippine Sanitation Act of 2024 • Created preliminary Omnibus Guidelines for the Sanitation Code, ensuring consistency and validity of sanitation policies, and resolving contradictions with updated environmental laws and regulations

EDUCATION: University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center Doctor of Medicine

Quezon City, Philippines August 2018 - June 2022

- Licensed physician in the Philippines - Graduated in the top 20% of the class (400 students); recipient of the University Entrance scholarship - Served as Vice President for Academics in a class of 150 students, tasked to coordinate an organized system for the creation of review materials based on the given lectures, and textbooks - Research: Wrote a cross-sectional study on the effects of the cigarette price hike brought about by the Tax Reform for Acceleration & Inclusion (TRAIN) Law of 2017 on smoking behavior of Filipinos University of the Philippines - Diliman Bachelor of Science, Major in Psychology

Quezon City, Philippines August 2014 - June 2018

- Graduated cum laude (GPA: 1.48/1.00); consistent college & university scholar - Took up courses on basic statistics, experimental and field research, and had adequate exposure and training in conducting and employing various methods in both qualitative and quantitative research - Research: Conducted a narrative analysis on the concept of “working abroad” for children of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), which includes seafarers and household service workers, and their life aspirations PUBLICATIONS Seposo X, Valenzuela S, Apostol GL, Wangkay KA, Lao PE, Enriquez AB. Projecting temperature-related dengue burden in the Philippines under various socioeconomic pathway scenarios. Frontiers in Public Health. 12:1420457. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1420457 ORGANIZATIONS: ASIAN MEDICAL STUDENTS’ ASSOCIATION, UERM COLLEGE OF MEDICINE Project Manager, Standing Committee on Public Health 2019 - 2022 - Co-managed and co-lead a team tasked to conduct regular health seminars in the far-flung barangays of rural Norzagaray, Bulacan on topics related to waterborne diseases, health sanitation and hygiene, and basic life saving; with this respect, I was engaged from the conceptualization of the project, to the formulation of the study guides, and lectures, and coordination with the local government officials, and resource speakers