Mary T. Bassett, MD, MPH, is director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights and FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights in the department of Social and Behavioral Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With more than 30 years of experience devoted to promoting health equity and social justice, both in the United States and abroad, Dr. Bassett’s…
Natalia joined the Harvard FXB Center from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with a wealth of global health and development experience having worked in the UN system since 2007. Most recently, she led UNDP’s work on addressing complex challenges at the nexus of health and environment, looking especially at the vulnerability of poor and marginalized communities to climate change. Natalia developed the strategy for UNDP’s engagement in this new…
Jacqueline Bhabha, JD, MsC, is Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is director of research at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, the Jeremiah Smith Jr. Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School, and an adjunct lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She received a first class honors degree and an MSc from…
Veronica Lewin serves as the Harvard FXB Center’s Director of Communications, where she is responsible for implementing strategic internal and external communications plans and coordinating special events. Veronica has a wealth of experience in public health communications. Prior to joining the FXB Center, Veronica held increasingly responsible communications roles in New York City government, including six years at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. While in…
Hector Lucero is FXB’s Associate Director of Finance and Administration. Working closely with faculty, staff, and Center leadership, he provides oversight and leadership in the financial and administrative management of the Center’s diverse activities. Hector received bachelor of arts and bachelor of science degrees from Boston University in 2003 and has been with Harvard University since 2008.
Jennifer Leaning, MD, SMH, is a senior fellow at the Harvard FXB Center and Professor of the Practice at Harvard School of Public Health. As associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, she is a faculty member in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She served as the director of the Harvard FXB Center from January 1, 2010 until September 1, 2018. Prior to her…
Dr. Satchit Balsari is assistant professor in emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Since 2009, he has been a fellow at Harvard FXB, where his research has contributed to advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations affected by disasters and humanitarian crises. Until March 2017, he served as Director of the Global Emergency Medicine Program at Weill Cornell Medical College/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. His interdisciplinary interests in…
Abhishek Bhatia is a Visiting Scholar and Research Fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and the Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard. His primary focus is the use of information technology to improve healthcare delivery in low-resource settings. He works on Professor Leaning’s Burden of War team at the FXB Center, analyzing (big) clinical data to study the public health impact of the war in Syria,…
Vasileia Digidiki is a social and forensic psychologist and a Health and Human Rights Fellow at the FXB Center. She earned her PhD in social psychology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and holds two master’s degrees, one in forensic psychology and one in social psychology. Digidiki joined the FXB Center in 2014, where she completed her post-doc on child protection challenges in humanitarian crises. She leads the Center’s research…
Margareta (Magda) Matache is a justice activist and scholar from Romania, director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights’ Roma Program, and a Harvard instructor. From 2005 to 2012, Dr. Matache was the Executive Director of Romani CRISS, a leading Roma rights organization that defends the rights of Roma. In 2012, she was awarded a Hauser postdoctoral fellowship at the FXB Center, where she founded the University’s first and only Roma Program. In 2017, with Jacqueline Bhabha and Andrzej Mirga, she co-edited Realizing…
Susan Lloyd McGarry manages the Center’s social media. She also researchers and writes program reports, policy briefs, case studies, and various other documents for publication as part of advancing Harvard FXB Center’s work in the world. She has helped prepare several center faculty books for publication, including Realizing Roma Rights, Human Rights and Adolescence, and Child Migration and Human Rights in a Global Age. McGarry has also edited a policy…
Elizabeth D. Gibbons is currently a Senior Fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she participates in initiatives which leverage her expertise in advancing the human rights of children and adolescents. These have included the development of a cross-disciplinary child protection curriculum for graduate students, an online HarvardX and Executive Education courses for child protection professionals, which…
Rebecca Shin is the Strategy Officer at Harvard FXB where she contributes to program development and operations. After completing her MPA at the Harvard Kennedy School, Shin joined the Harvard FXB Center to directly pursue her passion for the human rights space. Her areas of focus include child protection programs as well as key strategic initiatives with the Executive Director. Prior to attending HKS, she worked for over 20 years…
Dr. Carmel Williams is the executive editor of Health and Human Rights, Harvard FXB Center’s flagship publication. She has held this position since 2011. Dr. Williams holds a PhD in community health. Her thesis, which arose from her work in development, was on operationalizing the right to health in aid-funded programs. She was the executive director of a New Zealand-based health NGO for eight years and holds research fellowships at…
Sam Peisch is a Project Manager at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University who supports the Center’s leadership in a research, administrative, and financial support capacity. Sam is currently completing his MPH degree at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health concentrating in Public Health Leadership (PHL). He also is the President of Zamfund, a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to supporting women’s education in…
Margaret (Maggie) Sullivan is a postdoctoral research fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. In 2019, she graduated with a Doctor of Public Health degree (DrPH program) from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is a board-certified family nurse practitioner with an interest in serving immigrant patients and their families. Her dissertation research focused on improving healthcare delivery to immigrant patients…
Matlin Gilman is a research associate at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. Matlin is working with Dr. Mary T. Bassett on research projects related to racism and health. The projects cover topics such as criminal justice reform, the racial wealth gap, reparations, and the racialized impact of Covid-19. Matlin began his public health career at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). As a research…
Justin Feldman is a social epidemiologist who researches racism and health, with emphases on economic inequality and police violence. He completed a ScD in social and behavioral sciences from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018, and worked as an assistant professor of epidemiology at the NYU School of Medicine.
Caleb Dresser is the 2019-2021 Climate and Human Health Fellow at Harvard FXB, The fellowship is part of the Living Closer Foundation Consortium on Climate Science and Health Policy through the Department of Emergency Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Caleb is studying the impact of extreme weather events on vulnerable communities in Boston, with a particular focus on those with electricity-dependent medical needs. Through the course of his…
Dr. Lombardi is a Visiting Scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Over the past 40 years, Joan has made significant contributions in the areas of child and family policy as an innovative leader and policy advisor to national and international organizations and foundations and as a public servant. She served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for…
Murphy Barney is a Masters in Public Health candidate at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the Department of Global Health and Population. Her previous work was centered around anti-human trafficking, community wellness, diversity, and inclusion. She currently works at the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights.
Originally from Romania, Ingi Iusmen is a lecturer at the University of Southampton (Department of Politics & International Relations), where she teaches and researches topics linked to EU politics, public policy and the protection of children’s rights and human rights more generally. As a Fulbright-Schuman scholar at Harvard University, she is working with Professor Jacqueline Bhabha to understand how “durable solutions” for unaccompanied migrant children are reached and what helps…
Siddharth Kara is an author, researcher, screenwriter, and activist on modern slavery. He is a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health, and an adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Kara has authored three books on modern slavery: Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery (2009); Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia (2012); and Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective (2017), each with Columbia University Press. Kara adapted his…
Mihir Bhatt directs the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, which he founded in 1989. AIDMI began as a three-person team and has grown to a staff of 83 working in 11 activity centers. He is a member of the managing committee for the mumbaiVOICES project, a grassroots effort to record and discuss the Mumbai train bombing of July 11, 2006, and the response to that emergency (http://www.mumbaivoices.com). Bhatt has pushed for…
Professor Emily Y. Y. Chan is director of the Collaborating Centre at Oxford University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong for Disaster and Medical Humanitarian Response, director of the Centre of Global Health, convener of the Climate Change and Health Study Group, and a member of the faculty of medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Apart from being a public health research expert, she is also an…
Dr. Gregg Greenough has worked extensively in applying epidemiologic methods to public health problems within conflict and disaster-affected populations. After graduating from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, he completed a residency and fellowship in emergency medicine at UCLA and earned an MPH at Johns Hopkins University. He held joint faculty positions in emergency medicine and international health at Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health…
Dr. Michael Lappi has extensive experience in the field of humanitarian relief and disaster medicine having served throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. In 2005, Lappi led the first ever American Red Cross Public Health Team during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita relief efforts and conducted a comprehensive assessment and analysis of over 200 shelters and nearly 25,000 evacuees. Most recently, he provided invaluable medical assistance to…
Dr. Sudhir Anand is Professor of Economics at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford University, and a world-recognized development economist. The author of many books and articles on health economics, human development, and the theory and measurement of economic inequality, he is the lead author of the Cost of Inaction. Anand is distinguished visiting scholar with Harvard FXB and for the past several years has been Visiting Professor of Global Health and…
Sergio Aguayo Is a Professor at the Centro de Estudios Internacionale, El Colegio de México, where he coordinates the Seminar on Violence and Peace and recently published a report investigating two mass killings in Mexico by gangs in the drug trade. The Wilson Quarterly recently published his analysis of the need for the United States and Mexico to join together to fight organized crime, and why it has not happened…
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…
Dr. Lara Jirmanus is primary care physician in the Family Medicine Department at the Cambridge Health Alliance. She has been involved in grassroots organizing, advocacy and research for many years, addressing worker and immigrant rights in the US, social movements and infectious diseases in Brazil and the impacts of conflict and displacement in the Middle East. Her current research focuses on the health of Syrian refugees and host populations in Lebanon, as well…
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. Lynne Jones is a child and adolescent psychiatrist, writer, researcher, and relief worker. Jones has been engaged in assessing mental health needs and establishing and running mental health services in disaster, conflict, and post-conflict settings since 1990 around the world. Outside the Asylum: A Memoir of War, Disaster and Humanitarian Psychiatry, her latest book, published in June 2018 in the US, explores her experience as a practicing psychiatrist in…
Kathleen Hamill, JD, MALD, is a human rights lawyer. She has taught courses on human rights and international law at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, since 2002. During this time she also worked as an independent researcher, advocate, and consultant in the Americas, Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Her recent scholarship and related policy work has focused on promoting and protecting the rights and wellbeing of children as…
Dr. Rose is a chronic disease epidemiologist with interests in psychosocial epidemiology, demography, environmental health, and sustainable development. She has spent over 20 years designing and analyzing data from the US National Health Interview Survey focusing on 1990 Health Objectives, Healthy People 2010, tobacco use, Hispanic health, and advising the Ministries of Health of Hungary, Mexico, and Taiwan on best practices for their health interview surveys. She also was the…
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. Elizabeth Newnham is an early career fellow at Harvard FXB Center. Her research examines mental health outcomes for children and adolescents living in chronic adversity, and the development and evaluation of evidence-based interventions in disaster and post-conflict settings. Newnham joined Harvard FXB Center in 2010 as the inaugural American Australian Association Morgan Stanley Pediatrics Fellow. She completed her master of psychology (Clinical) and PhD at The University of Western Australia,…
Roger-Claude Liwanga is a visiting scholar with Boston University’s African Studies Center and the co-founder of Promote Congo, a nonprofit dedicated to advocating for human rights and alleviating poverty in the Congo. In 2012 Mr. Liwanga worked as a continuing legal education expert for the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, where he designed training modules and trained ABA staff and law professors in North and South Kivu (DRC)…
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…
Orla Kelly is a doctoral candidate at Boston College. Her interests include the sociology of development, gender, girls’ education, and environmental sociology. Orla worked as a research research associate at the Harvard FXB Center between 2010 and 2015. In this position, Orla was responsible for the center’s gender and adolescence research portfolio in India. In this role she managed a number of research projects relating to gender discrimination, access to…
