Dr. Natalia Linos is a social epidemiologist and Policy Specialist, Determinants of Health and UHC at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). She was the Executive Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard from September 2019 until April 2024. She has over 15 years of experience working at the global and local levels on some of the most pressing public health challenges of our time:…
Recognized global leader in improving health and social services, strengthening health systems, and producing results in resource constrained settings. Master at orchestrating complex, multinational activities, and virtual operations. Served as: Senior Vice President and Chief Program Officer, Americares Foundation; Chief Medical and Quality Officer, University Research Co., LLC.; Senior Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Inaugural Member of ISQua’s Quality and Safety Academy. Former Councilor and President of the Harvard…
Alecia J. McGregor, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Politics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the political determinants of health inequities, including the role of racism in health policy development, health system design, and health care outcomes (with a focus on maternal health). Dr. McGregor takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing politics and health policy, investigating how institutions shape…
Dr. David Mills is a pediatric emergency medicine physician and public health practitioner. He is a co-Director of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights and an Assistant Professor in pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He is a faculty affiliate in the Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative at the Harvard Divinity School and the co-Director of the Children in Crisis working group at…
A pediatrician, public health expert, and director of the Palestinian Happy Child Center, Dr. Jumana Odeh is an acknowledged health leader in the Palestinian Occupied Territory. Odeh began her medical service to the Palestinian people in 1981 as a hospital pediatrician at Augusta Victoria Hospital – Jerusalem and as a project manager volunteer for Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, followed by a stint as a team leader at Caritas…
Dr. Steiner is a Harvard FXB Center Senior Fellow and an associate of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative. She directs the Intercommunal Trust Building Project, which aims to contribute to an improvement in the relationship between Armenian and Turkish communities. More generally, the project seeks to add to understanding of the psychology that propels violence between communities as well as the psychology of healing and building productive relationships post-violence. The project’s…
Dr. Pedja Stojicic is an Executive Director of People Power Health a group of community organizers and trainers focused on bringing the social movement and community organizing skills to healthcare professionals, caregivers, and healers. In the past, he was a Project Director at Rippel Foundation working with the Hospital Systems, RWJF, CMS, QIOs, Center for Public Health Leadership, Primary Care Progress, Way to Wellville, Healthcare Anchor Network and many others.…
Dr. Osama Tanous is a pediatrician and public health scholar based in Haifa, Israel. Osama is a 2020-2021 Hubert H. Humphrey fellow of public health and health policy at the Rollin School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta and a visiting research professor at UC Davis, Department of Public Health Sciences. He is a board member of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel and B’tselem, The Israeli information center for…
Neringa is a Ph.D. candidate at SOAS University of London and a visiting Fulbright Schuman fellow with the Roma Program at the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights, Harvard University. Her research delves into the role of youth participation in advancing climate justice. In addition, Neringa is the director of Humanity Consulting and a co-founder of the Erasmus+ Global Partnerships collective, which engages in dialogues youth civic society in…
Dr. Bram Wispelwey is a co-founder of Health for Palestine, a community organizing initiative in Palestinian refugee camps that seeks to maximize wellness and address health barriers via social accompaniment and creative integration with existing facilities. He is an Associate Physician in the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and he also teaches at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of…
Clay Heaton is a Data Scientist at Imangi Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he develops software and uses advanced analytics and machine learning to provide data-driven insights in support of mobile software that has seen over one billion users. Clay has a background in international health with a focus on data management during the response to complex humanitarian emergencies. He has extensive experience producing focused and actionable analysis for…
Emily Wright (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral research fellow who leverages epidemiologic theory and descriptive, quasi-experimental, and longitudinal methods to investigate how policies and other societal determinants shape racialized, gendered, and occupational health inequities. Dr. Wright is primarily affiliated with the Social Policies for Health Equity Research (SPHERE) Center at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and also affiliated with the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at…
Dr. Josyann Abisaab is an attending physician in the Emergency Department at the New York Presbyterian Hospital and a faculty member of the Global Emergency Medicine Program at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her areas of interest include global health, complex humanitarian emergencies and refugee protection. She has conducted human rights research and advocacy in the Middle East and, in 2014, joined a team of Harvard FXB researchers on a rapid…
Dr. Jay Lemery is an assistant professor at the Weill Cornell Medical College and has an interest in the effects of environmental change on health and human rights. He is the director of Cornell Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, a university-wide collaboration promoting education, research, and training in unpredictable and austere environments. He serves as a member of the Global Health Steering Committee at Weill Cornell. Lemery is a consultant to…
Onisha Etkins is a 4th year PhD Candidate in Population Health Sciences/Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her dissertation work explores the impacts of racism on mental health in Black communities through the lens of Intersectionality Theory. She also combines her experience as a dancer with her research to explore how healing processes already existing within marginalized communities can be used to foster joy, pleasure, and positive mental health. Whether she is conducting…
Ta-wei Lin is a Doctor of Public Health Student in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Ta-wei is currently working as an epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in the Bureau of Community Health and Prevention. Ta-wei has managed the development, implementation, and evaluation of a number of state and local interventions addressing inequities related to health care access, substance use, oral health, rural health, gun violence,…
Sherine Andreine Powerful, MPH (ID: Sherine, Mx., she, they) is a Doctor of Public Health candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As a Black Caribbean Feminist, she is committed to celebrating and furthering pleasure, healing, and liberation for Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples and persons of diverse a/genders and a/sexualities, particularly those from the Caribbean. Her present interests include feminist global health and development; gender and sexual…
Ms. Amanda Taffy is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and remains committed to resolving the most pressing health challenges. She is currently a Fellow at the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights, where she is working on a doctoral thesis, The Role of the Arts During Covid-19, Gendered Expressions of Resilience & Empowerment. Before returning to school, Ms.…
Emily Unger is an MD/PhD student at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her doctoral work in social epidemiology focuses on gender, uncompensated caregiving, and the impact of social policy on caregivers’ health. Prior to beginning graduate studies, she worked as a paralegal at the New York Legal Assistance Group, where she advocated for low-income elderly and disabled people’s access to health benefits and…
Leah Anyanwu is a Masters in Education (Ed. M.) in Human Development & Psychology candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Leah Anyanwu: The biggest challenge with Child Protection is the absence of a shared international approach for child safeguarding. The United Nations passed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which…
Han Choi is a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) candidate in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Han Choi: In my opinion, one of the biggest overall challenges in child protection seems to be at a broader level of effective child protection systems and their relationships with governmental bodies. Agendas of…
Aya Hijazi is an Masters in Public Administration (MPA) candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Children are not voters and they don’t have a voice. It’s their care takers that have to advocate for them, and more often than not, their caretakers need help themselves, or the ones putting them at risk. Thus, they remain…
Adelaida (Adele) Jasperse, JD, is a Masters of Bioethics (MBE) candidate at the Harvard Medical School. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Adele Jasperse: In my view, the biggest overall challenge in Child Protection, nationally, is directing and aligning social services programs toward the primary goal of addressing the underlying conditions that give rise to child protections concerns, such as poverty,…
Janella Kang is a Master of Science in Global Health and Population candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Janella Kang: Awareness of the issue and acceptance that change is needed FXB: How do you think academic and scholarly work can inform child protection approaches? Have you seen any good examples of…
Doreen King is an Masters in Public Administration (MPA) candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days Doreen King: Awareness and acceptance that there is a widespread need for child protection are still very prevalent issues. Whether due to denial or nonchalance, the outcome remains the same. Without either factor, securing support remains particularly difficult, particularly as…
Aybahar Qarqeen is a Masters in Education (Ed.M) in Human Development and Psychology candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Aybahar Qarqeen: Currently, one of the biggest challenges in child protection is mitigating the devastating impact of COVID-19 on children’s safety and well-being. The disruption in child protection services left children exposed to harm…
Ginger Ramirez lives in the Philippines and is a Master of Medical Sciences in Global Health Delivery (MMSc-GHD) candidate at the Harvard Medical School. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Ginger Ramirez: Mechanisms for exploitation and trafficking of children are evolving and so approaches for prevention, early detection, rescue, and litigation ought to be adaptive to the changing context. Online sexual…
Francesca Reznik is a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) candidate at the Harvard Divinity School. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Francesca Reznik: The biggest challenge to child protection in the United States is the lack of widespread rights-based view, as well as legal obstacles. FXB: How do you think academic and scholarly work can inform child protection approaches? Have you…
Anshu Shroff, MS, is a Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Anshu Shroff: The field of Child Protection is inherently complex and interconnected with many sectors. In my opinion, the most significant challenge is to get people who are involved in other socio-political and development issues…
Gina Starfield is a Juris Doctor (JD) candidate at the Harvard Law School. FXB: What do you see as the biggest overall challenges in Child Protection these days? Gina Starfield: One of the biggest challenges in Child Protection is achieving universal respect for children’s rights in international and domestic legal systems. We have made several normative commitments that have yet to be reflected in our laws and practices. In the realm…
