In Memoriam: Marc Mitchell

Marc Mitchell
In Memoriam | Marc Mitchell

Marc Mitchell passed away suddenly on June 25 while hiking in Alaska. He was 70. Mitchell was a lecturer in global health at Harvard Chan School for 20 years, where he taught and mentored hundreds of students. At the time of his death, he was an adjunct lecturer at the School and a visiting professor at the Bixby Center at the University of California–Berkeley.

Mitchell was a pediatrician and management specialist who worked in more than 40 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on the design and delivery of health care services. He began his international career as a pediatrician at a hospital in rural Tanzania and went on to work at every level of the health system, including as assistant secretary of health in Papua New Guinea, adviser to the National Family Planning Program of Indonesia, and consultant to many international health organizations. In 2004, he founded D-tree International, a nonprofit that helps health care workers worldwide use technology to deliver high-quality care. Mitchell held degrees from Harvard University (BA), Boston University (MD), and MIT’s Sloan School of Management (MS).

“He was really dedicated to students,” his Harvard Chan School colleague Michael Reich, Taro Takemi Research Professor of International Health Policy, told The Boston Globe. “He was dedicated to teaching, and he was dedicated to creating innovations that would make a difference to some of the poorest people in the world.”

Amy Roeder