Dr. Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH
Global Leader in Public Health, Research, Policy, and Practice; Co-founder, BioRadar and Senior Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH
Global Leader in Public Health, Research, Policy, and Practice; Co-founder, BioRadar and Senior Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Biography
Dr. Ashish K. Jha is a global leader whose career spans government, academia, global health institutions and medical practice. During his tenure as Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, he brought deep expertise in health-system performance, crisis management and evidence-driven policy to improve and strengthen preparedness, enhance operational agility and implement forward-looking initiatives to advance health and promote a stronger, healthier nation and world.
He is currently leading a national initiative to strengthen the country’s defenses against emerging pandemic and biological threats, building on work he advanced during his time in the White House. To further this effort, he recently co-founded BioRadar, a company focused on building the bio-intelligence infrastructure our nation needs to enable earlier detection of threats before they can become crises.
An accomplished and practicing physician, Dr. Jha is widely recognized as a trusted voice on major public health issues and a catalyst for new approaches. A long-time leader in pandemic preparedness and response—from directing pioneering research on Ebola to serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis—he has led national and international efforts and advised policymakers around the world. He has advised numerous domestic and global institutions including the OECD, Pontifical Academies and the National Academy of Medicine.
He is currently Senior Fellow in Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement, and Global Policy at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
In March 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Dr. Jha as White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, calling him “one of the leading public health experts in America.” In that role, Dr. Jha expanded access to treatments and updated vaccines, strengthened testing and surveillance, rebuilt the national stockpile, and drove major investments in indoor air quality. He also helped establish durable infrastructure to confront future biological threats, earning bipartisan praise for his pragmatic leadership.
Dr. Jha is among the most highly cited health scholars in the United States, with more than 300 publications in leading journals including The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The BMJ. He has consistently been named as one of the most cited researchers globally. His research focuses on improving the quality and affordability of care through policy innovation in the U.S. and globally.
Dr. Jha appears regularly at public forums and is sought out by the news media to provide timely, well-informed commentary on a range of health topics. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and many state legislatures.
Prior to Brown, he served as the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
Speaker Videos
RI Biotech Speech
COVID & The American Workforce | CNBC Work Summit
2024 Interdisciplinary Symposium - Keynote Lecture
SPH Dean Ashish Jha at the OECD High-Level Policy Forum
What to Know About 'Breakthrough Infections' After Being Vaccinated | GMA
COVID-19 Grand Rounds | UCSF School of Medicine
The Power of Evidence in Reforming US Healthcare
Speech Topics
Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: How AI Is Transforming Medicine — and What We Need to Get Right
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how we diagnose disease, develop drugs, and deliver care — but realizing its full potential requires getting the hard things right: data quality, algorithmic bias, and patient trust. Dr. Jha draws on his experience at the intersection of technology, clinical medicine, and health policy to offer a clear-eyed assessment of where AI is delivering results — and a practical roadmap for health systems, policymakers, and patients to harness it safely and effectively.
Health System Costs & Reform: How to Stop Health Care Costs From Sinking Our Economy
The United States is on track to spend more than $70 trillion on health care over the next decade — a trajectory that will balloon federal deficits, bust state budgets, and crowd out every other national priority. Dr. Jha cuts through the noise to explain what is actually driving this crisis and what a realistic path to reform looks like.
Biosecurity & Biological Threats: The Next Pandemic Will Be Engineered — and We Are Not Ready to Detect It
Advances in AI and synthetic biology have made it possible for small teams to engineer pathogens that our current surveillance systems were never designed to detect. Dr. Jha — former White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator and co-founder of BioRadar, America's first AI-powered biological early warning system — makes the case that closing that gap through smarter surveillance, better intelligence infrastructure, and sustained political will is both urgent and achievable.
Climate & Health: Climate Change Is the Most Urgent, Overlooked Threat to Public Health — and We Can Fight It
Climate change dominates conversations about the environment — but its consequences for human health remain badly underappreciated, from extreme heat and worsening air quality to the spread of infectious disease. Dr. Jha makes the case that there is a great deal we can and should be doing to help communities and nations adapt to a changing climate to protect people's health — and that the tools and knowledge to do so are within reach.
Trust in Science & Medicine: Restoring Public Trust in Science and Medicine — Before the Next Crisis Hits
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a dangerous erosion of public trust in science and medicine — an erosion that did not begin with the pandemic and has not ended with it. Dr. Jha offers a concrete agenda for rebuilding that trust — one grounded in transparency, accountability, and a renewed commitment to communicating science honestly, even when the answers are uncertain.
Testimonials
Related Speakers
)
New York Times Bestselling Author, Regents Professor & Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota
)
Associate Professor in the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University and Founding Member for TIME’S UP Healthcare
)
Dean of Yale School of Public Health and C.-E. A. Winslow Professor of Public Health (Health Policy) & Professor of Emergency Medicine
)