Erin Driver-Linn
Dean for Education
Erin Driver-Linn, PhD ’01, is dean for education and lecturer in the Department of Social and Behavioral Studies. She oversees all aspects of education at the School, including the Office of Education, Office for Student Services, and Center for Executive and Continuing Professional Education. Driver-Linn previously served as founding director of the Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching, a 10-year, $40 million initiative to catalyze innovation and excellence in teaching and learning across the University, and as Harvard’s associate provost for institutional research, providing analytic guidance and statistical reporting for the president and provost. Earlier, she served as associate director for research at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning and taught in the Harvard Department of Psychology, where she received her PhD in experimental social psychology. Her work has involved applying social psychological methods to education, the inaccuracies of emotional forecasting, and the history of psychology. She has received a number of Distinction in Teaching awards and is the author of publications in Psychological Science and American Psychologist, among other journals.
John Quackenbush
Chair, Department of Biostatistics
John Quackenbush, PhD, is Henry Pickering Walcott Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics and chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, professor in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His PhD was in theoretical physics, but in 1992 he received a fellowship to work on the Human Genome Project. This led him through the Salk Institute, Stanford, the Institute for Genomic Research, and ultimately to the Harvard Chan School in 2005. Quackenbush uses massive data to probe how many small effects combine to influence human health and disease. He has more than 300 scientific papers and over 73,000 citations. Among his honors is recognition in 2013 as a White House Open Science Champion of Change.
Russ Hauser
Chair, Department of Environmental Health
Russ Hauser MD, MPH ’90, SD ’94, is chair of the Department of Environmental Health, Frederick Lee Hisaw Professor of Reproductive Physiology, and professor of environmental and occupational epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He also holds an appointment at Harvard Medical School, where he is professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology. Hauser’s research focuses on the effects of environmental chemicals on reproductive health, perinatal outcomes, and children’s health. He is conducting an ongoing cohort study on maternal and paternal environmental exposures and their relation to children’s health. Hauser has served on several National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, including the Committee to Review EPA’s State of the Science Paper on Nonmonotonic Dose Response, Committee on the Health Risks of Phthalates, and Committee on Endocrine-Related Low-Dose Toxicity. He was a member of two Science Advisory Boards of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and served on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Chronic Hazard Advisory Panel examining the effects of phthalates on children’s health. Hauser received his MD degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his MPH and SD degrees from the Harvard Chan School, where he also completed a residency in occupational medicine. He is board certified in occupational medicine.
Albert Hofman
Chair, Department of Epidemiology
Albert Hofman, MD, PhD, is chair of the Department of Epidemiology and the Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Public Health and Clinical Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He was chair of the Department of Epidemiology of the Erasmus Medical Center/Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands, from 1988 until 2016. Hofman is the initiator of two population-based cohort studies in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands: the Rotterdam Study (1990) and the Generation R study (2002). These studies have as shared features that they target multiple common diseases, have a very extensive and state-of-the-art assessment of the putative determinants of these diseases, and employ as much as possible new technologies to be applied in the setting of epidemiologic population studies. Hofman is also the initiator of the recently established Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium. His current research focuses on the intersection of public health and clinical medicine.
Marcia Castro
Chair, Department of Global Health and Population
Marcia Castro is Andelot Professor of Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, associate faculty of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, and faculty member of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. She is co-director of the Brazil Studies Program of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and a member of its Steering Group. Her research focuses on the identification of social, biological, and environmental risks associated with vector-borne diseases in the tropics; modeling determinants of malaria transmission, with particular emphasis on generating evidence for better control strategies; expansion of the Brazilian Amazon frontier and the social and environmental impacts of large-scale development projects implemented in the region; urbanization and health; spatial analysis; and population dynamics and mortality models. She is currently assessing the role of extreme weather events on malaria in the Brazilian Amazon, and has projects on dengue, Zika virus, chikungunya, tuberculosis, congenital syphilis, and infant/child mortality and development. Castro earned her PhD in demography from Princeton University.
Arnold Epstein
Chair, Department of Health Policy and Management
Arnold Epstein, MD, MA, is the John H. Foster Professor and chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research interests focus on quality of care and access to care. During 1993–1994, Epstein served in the Clinton administration working in the White House on health reform. From 2014 to 2016, he served as deputy assistant secretary and head of the Office of Health Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the Department of Health and Human Services. Epstein was vice chair of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Developing a National Report on Health Care Quality. He also served as chair of the board of AcademyHealth. He was co-chair of the Performance Measurement Coordinating Council of the Joint Commission, the National Committee on Quality Assurance, and the American Medical Association. He served on the board of governors of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and on the board of the Center for Health Care Strategies. Epstein is a recipient of the Distinguished Investigator award from AcademyHealth. He is associate editor for health policy at the New England Journal of Medicine and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, Association of American Physicians, and American Society for Clinical Investigation.
Sarah Fortune
Chair, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases
Sarah Fortune, MD, is the John LaPorte Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; director of the Tuberculosis Research Program at the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard, and MIT; and chair of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard Chan School. Fortune received a bachelor of science degree in biology from Yale University and a medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed her residency in internal medicine and clinical fellowship in infectious diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and her postdoctoral work under the joint mentorship of Barry Bloom and Eric Rubin at the Harvard Chan School, before joining the School’s faculty in 2007. Fortune is supported by awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Aeras.
Robert V. Farese Jr.
Chair, Department of Molecular Metabolism
Robert Farese Jr., MD, is professor of molecular metabolism and chair of the Department of Molecular Metabolism at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School, where he has run a laboratory jointly with Tobias Walther since 2014. Farese earned a BS in chemistry at the University of Florida and an MD at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He trained in medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and completed a research fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at the University of California–San Francisco and the Gladstone Institutes. The Farese & Walther laboratory studies cellular lipid and energy metabolism, in particular the mechanisms and physiology of energy storage in lipid droplets. More broadly, the lab investigates the mechanisms of cellular lipid metabolism, including lipid metabolism and neurodegeneration. Farese is a founder of the Bluefield Project to Cure Frontotemporal Dementia. He has received numerous honors, including election to the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, the Bristol-Myers Squibb “Freedom to Discover Award,” the Avanti Award in Lipids, and the Roy Greep Award in Research of the Endocrine Society.
Frank Hu
Chair, Department of Nutrition
Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD, is the Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research has focused on diet/lifestyle, metabolic, and genetic determinants of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). His major research interests include epidemiology and prevention of cardiometabolic diseases through diet and lifestyle; gene-environment interactions and risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes; nutritional metabolomics in type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease; and obesity, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries. Hu’s group has conducted detailed analyses of many dietary and lifestyle factors and risk of diabetes and CVD, including sugar-sweetened beverages, coffee, red meat, saturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, iron, and dietary patterns. These findings have contributed to current public health recommendations and policies for prevention of chronic diseases. Hu’s group has also identified novel biomarkers and gene-environment interactions in relation to risk of obesity and diabetes by integrating cutting-edge omics technologies into epidemiological studies. In addition, Hu has conducted research on nutrition transition, metabolic phenotypes, and cardiovascular disease in low- and middle-income countries. Hu served on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, USDA/HHS. He has served on the editorial/advisory board of The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Diabetes Care, and Clinical Chemistry. He was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2015.
David R. Williams
Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
David R. Williams, PhD, is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is also a professor of African and African American studies and sociology at Harvard University. Previously, he served six years on the faculty of Yale University and 14 at the University of Michigan. Williams is an internationally recognized social scientist focused on social influences on health. He has been invited to keynote scientific conferences in Europe, Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and South America and across the United States. His research has enhanced our understanding of the complex ways in which socioeconomic status, race, stress, racism, health behavior, and religious involvement can affect health. He is the author of more than 475 scientific papers, and he has served on the editorial board of 12 scientific journals and as a reviewer for over 75 others. The Everyday Discrimination Scale that he developed is the most widely used measure of discrimination in health studies. Williams has received numerous honors and awards, including election to the National Academy of Medicine (formerly Institute of Medicine) in 2001, American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007, and National Academy of Sciences in 2019. Williams holds an MPH from Loma Linda University and a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan.
Richard Siegrist
Faculty Director, DrPH Program
Richard Siegrist, MBA ’82, is senior lecturer on health care management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he teaches physician, graduate, and executive education courses on financial management, cost accounting, management control, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is also the faculty director of the DrPH program, director of the master in health care management program for physicians, and director of innovation and entrepreneurship. He was previously CEO of Press Ganey Associates, senior vice president at WebMD, and co-founder and CEO of several health care startup companies. Siegrist is chair of the board of trustees and chair of the Governance Committee for UMass Memorial Health Care and a board member and chair of the Finance Committee for Massachusetts Health Quality Partners.
Murray Mittleman
Faculty Director and Chair, MPH Program
Murray A. Mittleman, MD, MPH ’90, DrPH ’04, is a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and faculty director and chair of the MPH program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, where he teaches intermediate and advanced epidemiologic methods at the graduate level. He is also director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit based jointly at the Harvard Chan School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has expertise in the design of observational etiologic studies, and his research focuses on epidemiologic methods development and their application. One of his most significant accomplishments was as co-developer of the case-crossover design. He has an exceptional track record of excellence in mentoring and has been recognized with awards for mentorship from the Harvard Chan School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Approximately half of his 450 publications have been coauthored by mentees.
Heather J. Baer
Director, MPH in Clinical Effectiveness, MPH in Epidemiology, and Summer-Only SM in Epidemiology Programs
Heather J. Baer, ScD, is an associate epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is actively involved in teaching and educational activities at the Harvard Chan School. She directs the MPH in clinical effectiveness, MPH in epidemiology, and summer-only SM in epidemiology programs and teaches several courses in these programs, including Introduction to Clinical Epidemiology and Analytic Methods for Epidemiology. In recognition of her contributions, she received a teaching citation in 2013 and the Roger L. Nichols Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017 from the Harvard Chan School. Baer’s research focuses on the role of lifestyle factors in the etiology and prevention of chronic disease. She has conducted studies to examine how factors such as obesity, diet, and physical activity affect risk of breast and ovarian cancer and overall mortality in women. Her most recent work also examines strategies for improving management of overweight and obesity in clinical settings.
Brendan D. Manning
Director, PhD Program in Biological Sciences in Public Health
Brendan D. Manning, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Molecular Metabolism and director of the PhD program in biological sciences in public health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He received his BS from the University of Massachusetts–Amherst and his PhD from Yale University, and he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. In 2004, Manning became the first faculty member hired in the newly established Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases at the Harvard Chan School (now the Department of Molecular Metabolism). His lab’s research is focused on signal transduction, nutrient sensing, and the control of metabolism as it relates to cancer, metabolic diseases, and aging. In 2015, Manning was named an inaugural recipient of the National Cancer Institute’s Outstanding Investigator Award.
Lisa Berkman
Director, PhD Program in Population Health Sciences
Lisa Berkman, PhD, is director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and the Thomas D. Cabot Professor of Public Policy and of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In May 2017, she was appointed faculty director of the PhD program in population health sciences at the Harvard Chan School. Berkman is an internationally recognized social epidemiologist whose work focuses extensively on social and policy influences on health outcomes. Her research orients toward understanding inequalities in health related to socioeconomic status, different racial and ethnic groups, and social networks, support, and isolation. Berkman is principal investigator of the Health and Aging Study in Africa: A Longitudinal Study of an INDEPTH Community in South Africa (HAALSI), a program project funded by the National Institute on Aging that aims to study the drivers and consequences of HIV and noncommunicable diseases in an aging population in Agincourt, South Africa. Berkman is a member of the Conseil Scientifique de l’Institut de Recherche en Santé Publique in France. She has been actively involved since 1994 on the GAZEL study, a cohort of 20,000 French employees of EDF-GDF, the large natural gas–electricity company. She is author or co-author of several books and 300 publications/chapters. In 2003, she co-edited (with Ichiro Kawachi) Social Epidemiology, a groundbreaking textbook on this burgeoning field. A second edition was published in 2014 with co-authors Kawachi and Maria Glymour.