Oana Geambasu

Oana Geambașu is a Romanian public health professional who has dedicated her career to improving her country’s health system by translating evidence-based science into implementable solutions. She earned her MPH in Health Policy from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where she pursued post-graduate training in innovation and entrepreneurship through case writing.

Oana served as an advisor on health policy to the Romanian Minister of Health under several administrations and coordinated the development and implementation of national public health programs and policies. Her work covered areas such as the universal neonatal hearing screening program, the nationwide expansion of the ischemic stroke care program, which saw an increase in treatment rate from 0.7% to 3.4% in 9 months, the reorganization of the national blood transfusion system, or improving access to oncological drugs. She was part of the team that successfully fulfilled the ex-ante conditionalities imposed by the European Commission to access 150 million euros in structural funds for the construction of new hospitals. During the first two years of the pandemic, Oana coordinated the pan-European Covid-19 population-based study on behalf of the European Commission, aiming to understand the impact of the virus, issue real-time recommendations to Member States, and identify best practices for an EU-wide coordinated public health emergency response.

Oana is an honorary member of the Romanian Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care in 2019 and was granted the Excellence Award by the Romanian Society of Audiology and Speech Therapy, and the European Federation of Audiology Societies in 2020. She is the recipient of the Seiden-Denny Scholarship in 2020, a Prajna Fellow in 2023 at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Fulbright alumna. Currently, Oana is a member of the Honorary Council on Science, Innovation, and Technology of the Romanian government, where she supports the development of strategy and government health programs.

Following completion of the DrPH Program, Oana plans to pursue a leadership position where her newly gained skills will allow her to successfully promote and lead sustainable large-scale change in complex situations and overcome systemic high resistance. Oana enjoys early-morning bike rides and weekend road trips with her teenage daughter.