War and the public’s health

Dr. Yara M. Asi is an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida in the School of Global Health Management and Informatics. Her research agenda focuses on global health, human rights, and development in fragile populations. She has presented at multiple national and international conferences on topics related to global health, food security, health informatics, and women in healthcare, and has published extensively on health and well-being in fragile and conflict-affected populations in journal articles and book chapters. Her work has also been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, +972 Magazine, BBC, The Conversation, Al Jazeera, The World, and other outlets. Her first book, How War Kills: The Overlooked Threats to our Health, was published in 2024 with Johns Hopkins University Press and it examines war as a public health crisis.

Barry S. Levy, M.D., M.P.H., is a physician and epidemiologist who has studied, written, and spoken about the health consequences of war for more than four decades. He wrote the book “From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War” and co-edited two editions of both “War and Public Health” and “Terrorism and Public Health.” Dr. Levy has also co-edited 20 other books on the adverse health consequences of environmental and occupational hazards, climate change, and social injustice. He has authored more than 250 journal articles and book chapters on a range of public health issues.
 
Dr. Levy received his M.D. degree from Cornell Medical College and his M.P.H. degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed residencies in internal medicine at Boston University Hospital and the Beth Israel Hospital, and in preventive medicine at the CDC. He has served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a tenured professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, director of international health programs and projects, and an adjunct professor of public health at Tufts University School of Medicine.
 
Dr. Levy has served as president of the American Public Health Association and received APHA’s Sedgwick Memorial Medal, its most prestigious award.