Alaa Abdessaheb al-Alwan (b. 1949) was the current Iraqi Minister of Education, part of the cabinet appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council in September 2003. A Shia Muslim and native of Baghdad, al-Awan was dean of the College of Medicine at Mustansariyah University, Baghdad until 1992, when he joined the staff of the World Health Organization. At the World Health Organization (WHO) he served as Director of Health Services for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, WHO Representative in Oman and Jordan, and the Director of the Department of Noncommunicable Diseases at WHO headquarters in Geneva. In June 2004, Dr al-Alwan was apponited Minister of Health in the new soverign Iraqi government.