Launched in 2012, the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard is the first global center of its kind – dedicated to educating and training current and future generations of humanitarian leaders in the areas of human rights, disaster response, humanitarian service delivery, crisis leadership, and other dimensions of humanitarian studies. The Academy is a focal point for developing evidence-based strategies to effectively help individuals, families, and populations in times of war, conflict, and disaster, and to leverage the billions of dollars that flow to humanitarian causes to the greatest possible effect.
Components of the Academy currently include: a certificate program for graduate students at the Harvard School of Public Health (called the interdisciplinary concentration in Humanitarian Studies, Ethics and Human Rights) and short courses for humanitarian professionals, as well simulated and field-based experiential learning opportunities, mentoring, and community-building around humanitarian issues.
The Humanitarian Academy is affiliated with the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, a cross-University center whose mission is to relieve human suffering in war and disaster by advancing the science and practice of humanitarian response worldwide. HHI has 35 faculty collaborators as well as a network of fellows and students with an interest in research, policy development, education and training in the humanitarian arena.
