Dr Joe Thomas was the Secretary General of the 15-country Intergovernmental Global Commission on Ageing in Developing Countries.  (2013 to 2018). Hosted policy dialogue on ageing in 15 countries and edited a Book. Ageing: Learning from the Global South, based on the lessons from policy dialogue in 8 countries.

Dr Joe Thomas (MSc, PhD, FRSPH) is a global public health scholar and policy advocate whose recent work focuses on ageing, ageism, and the rights of older persons. He is the Global Public Health Chair at the Sustainable Policy Solutions Foundation and the Director of compliance and learning at the Australian Institute of Community and Health Management (AICHM). Professor Joe Thomas was the Associate Dean and Head of the School of Public Health at MITWPU.

Dr Thomas was the executive director of the Intergovernmental partnership of 27 governments, Partners in Population and Development. PPD is a Permanent observer at the UN General Assembly. In that capacity, Dr Thomas has spoken on issues related to migration, sustainable development, gender equity, AMR and SRHR at the UN General Assembly.

Dr Thomas was the technical consultant to WHO, lived and worked in the UK, Hong Kong, Nepal, East Timor and Australia. Carried out short-term consultations in more than 15 countries.

His writing on Kerala’s “ageing crisis” and on ageism in healthcare argues for a shift from welfare-style schemes to rights-based, locally governed systems of long-term care, home-based support, and age-friendly environments, with particular attention to gender, caste, and migration-related inequities in later life.

At the global level, he contributes to debates around the UN Open-ended Working Group on Ageing, advocating for international standards that guarantee older people’s right to health, social inclusion, and protection from age-based discrimination in health systems. Throughout this work, Dr Thomas emphasises that ageing populations are not passive dependants but rights-holders and contributors whose dignity, participation, and functional ability must be at the centre of policy and practice.

Dr Thomas is the Editor-in-Chief of “Critical Public Health, author of more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and four books. His public health teachings cover health diplomacy, structural determinants of health, public health theory and pedagogy, primary health vs primary health care, Gender, equity, and rights. He has authored the SMPH syllabus for three universities.