Author Glenn Laverack: Glenn Laverack is seen as a leader in health promotion and empowerment and has a distinguished career in public health for more than 25 years working in Europe, Africa, Asia, North America and the Pacific regions. He formerly worked as the TDR Coordinator (Empowerment) at the WHO in Geneva and as a senior research fellow at the Southgate Institute, Flinders University, Australia. Dr Laverack is currently an honorary professor at the University of Southern Denmark and has a wide range of publications including books in English, Portugese, Russian and German. His Ph.D. investigated the accommodation of community empowerment within top-down public health programming in the South Pacific. He has a significant range of professional experience in cross-cultural settings that facilitates a broad insight at both a theoretical and practice level.