Tobacco still kills 8 million people a year globally, and it’s by far the biggest risk factor for preventable deaths in the Netherlands.

The mass addiction to cigarettes is the result of deliberate and concerted efforts by the tobacco industry – an industry with an annual turnover of almost 900 billion dollars and decades of experience dodging laws and regulations. Combating this industry will require our best lawyers, lobbyists and activists, because it will never stop trying to hook people on its own.

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Read: Tobacco is one of the deadliest industries of our time. Let’s take it down once and for all

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To this end, we have launched the Tobacco Control Fellowship, a seven-month program designed to transform your career alongside a group of talented, ambitious peers. The program consists of one month of intensive training on your theme, and six months of working in the field with an expert organization. 

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After that, we hope our fellows go on to pursue successful careers in the field they were trained in independently. And because many of you might wonder what those careers might look like, we have provided three examples of people already working in tobacco control.

Nicole Nguenha 

Policy and Advocacy Officer at the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC) 

Excerpt below is from Nicole's profile at the GATC

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Nicole Nguenha is the Policy and Advocacy Officer at the GATC. She works on policy development, research, and advocacy and analyzes issues related to WHO FCTC implementation. 

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Prior to joining the GATC, Nicole was a consultant and programme and policy officer at the United Nations World Food Programme for more than 4 years. She has also consulted on food security projects with gender components for the Hellen Keller International in Mozambique and worked with experts conducting tobacco control research in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 

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The focus of her work in Mozambique and Zimbabwe was Article 17 of the FCTC on economically sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing.

Lilia Olefir

EURO Regional Coordinator for the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC) 

Excerpt below is from Lilia’s profile at the GATC

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Lilia Olefir is the EURO Regional Coordinator for the GATC. She is also the Smoke Free Partnership's (SFP) Director. 

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She has more than 6 years of experience in tobacco control, advocacy, and communications, including consulting on tobacco control policy for a Member of Parliament in Ukraine from 2019- 2021. 

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Lilia holds a master degree in Management of Organizations (in public health) from the Kyiv Mohyla Academy at the Kyiv National University and holds a bachelor degree in History from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.

Wanda de Kanter

Lung doctor and founder at Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd

Read: Wanda de Kanter was the ‘lung doctor who smoked’ – until she decided to fight back against the tobacco industry

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Wanda de Kanter worked as a lung doctor in the RKZ regional hospital in Beverwijk (1993-2013) and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek oncology clinic in Amsterdam (2013-2021). She founded Stichting Rookpreventie Jeugd in 2009 and launched the TabakNee website in 2013. Then, she became a fulltime activist fighting the tobacco industry in 2021.

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“We’ll have been successful when people finally understand that they are being manipulated by the vast interests of the industry and we are on our way to a smoke-free generation.”

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