Director of the Program on International Health and Human Rights

Co-founder and Co-chair of the Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender and Health, Harvard School of Public Health

Chair of The Group on Reproductive Health and Rights, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
 

Sofia Gruskin, JD, MIA, is an Associate Professor on Health and Human Rights and the Director of the Program on International Health and Human Rights in the Department of Population and International Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her work emphasizes the conceptual, methodological, policy and practice implications of linking health to human rights, with particular attention to HIV/AIDS, women, children, gender issues, and vulnerable populations. She has extensive experience in research, training and programmatic work with nongovernmental, governmental and intergovernmental organizations working in the fields of health and human rights around the world. She has been particularly engaged in shaping the work of these organizations to fully reflect the integration of human rights into their work, as well as helping to conceptualize the ways in which human rights can impact the research agendas of academics and policy makers concerned with public health.

Professor Gruskin is the principal investigator for several UNAIDS, WHO and UNFPA sponsored projects intended to strengthen the health and human rights research and policy agenda – particularly in the areas of HIV/AIDS, sexual and reproductive health, child and adolescent health and gender-based violence. At a programmatic level, current efforts include clarifying the value of human rights for making public health work more effective through the design and testing of models and tools in a range of countries. 

Professor Gruskin serves on numerous boards and committees nationally and internationally, is a permanent member of the NIH Behavioral and Social Consequences of HIV/AIDS study section, and within the Harvard School of Public Health serves as co-director of the Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender and Health. She was the Chair of the UNAIDS Global Reference Group on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights from 2003-2006, and editor of the international journal Health and Human Rights from 1994-2006. Professor Gruskin is associate editor for The American Journal of Public Health and for Global Public Health, and lead editor of Perspectives on Health and Human Rights published by Taylor & Francis (Routledge) in May 2005. 

M.I.A., 1993, Columbia University
J.D., 1990, Cardozo School of Law