Winter 2024
Grappling with Japan’s super-aging society
Inspired by her grandparents’ care challenges, Hana Hayashi, SM ’12, SD ’16, is launching a home care clinic for the elderly in Japan—a model she hopes can be used worldwide.
Every day, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alumni are taking bold action to achieve a shared mission to improve health and advance equity so people in communities around the world can thrive.
Meet our Alumni Champions and share your story.
1967
Myron Allukian Jr., MPH, PhD ’69, was inducted as an Outstanding American by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame’s Massachusetts Chapter in October. Allukian began wrestling during his freshman year at Tufts in 1956 and later became captain—and the inventor of the pirouette or spin leg take down. He has said that the discipline and perseverance he learned as a young wrestler helped equip him to tackle challenges he faced during his long career as a dentist and public health practitioner. Allukian served as dental director for the City of Boston and on the faculties of various schools of dental medicine and public health, including at Harvard.
2001
Vincent Calamia, SM, was named to City & State’s 2023 Staten Island Power 100 list in November. Calamia, a physician specializing in internal medicine, endocrinology, and geriatric medicine, is medical director for the United HealthCare Community and associate medical director of endocrinology at Northwell Health Staten Island University Hospital. He has served on the board of NYC Health + Hospitals for more than a decade as the city council designee representing Staten Island.
2008
Jocelyn Kelly, SM, received a Health Innovators to Watch Award from the Boston Congress of Public Health last spring. She is the director for Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s Gender, Rights and Resilience program, where she designs and implements projects to examine issues relating to gender, peace, and security in conflict-affected and climate-fragile environments. She recently collaborated with a Congolese activist in conflict-affected eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to create an innovative women-led program to reduce violence against women. This year, she was invited to be a part of an expert working group looking at climate change’s impact on violence against women, hosted by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls and by UN Women. In addition, her work on implications of the climate crisis on forced migration globally was cited as part of the UN Secretary General High Level Panel’s report on internal displacement.
Rui Wang, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics at Harvard Chan School and associate professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School, is the recipient of the 2023 Lagakos Distinguished Alumni Award. Wang presented her lecture at the School on October 19. The award’s namesake, the late Harvard Chan School professor and renowned HIV/AIDS researcher Stephen Lagakos, was Wang’s thesis advisor and she worked with him after graduation on a study related to HIV/AIDS trials. Wang also has contributed her expertise in theoretical statistics to other fields, including sleep disorders. Throughout her career, Wang has worked on projects ranging from monitoring of ongoing cluster randomized trials to the analysis of cluster randomized trials subject to missing data. She is known as a highly successful collaborative biostatistician and an outstanding methodologist and for advancing knowledge in statistical theory that has an immediate impact on statistical practice.
2010
Loni Tabb, PhD, was elected as a member of the International Biometric Society’s regional committee for Eastern North America. She began her three-year term in January. She is an associate professor of biostatistics and associate dean for faculty affairs at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health.
2011
Jaime Madrigano, ScD, was appointed in August as Bloomberg Associate Professor of American Health in the area of environmental challenges at Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. Madrigano is an environmental epidemiologist whose research focuses on how environmental pollution and extreme weather—alone and in combination with neighborhood and socioeconomic factors—impact population health.
2011
Sebastian Tong, MPH, was selected as a James C. Puffer M.D./American Board of Family Medicine Fellow from the National Academy of Medicine in August. Tong is an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and practices primary care, including pregnancy care and addiction medicine, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. His research interests include integrated behavioral health, chronic pain, substance-use disorder and loneliness. During his two-year fellowship, Tong will participate in initiatives to provide nonpartisan, scientific- and evidence-based policy guidance.
2020
Adrian Jacques Ambrose, MPH, was named to Insider’s “30 under 40 in Healthcare” list in August. He is a senior medical director in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Ambrose, who emigrated from Vietnam to Hawaii as a child, said in an Insider interview that his roots inform the way he seeks to improve care for vulnerable populations.
2022
Brandon Alexander Anthony, MPH, has launched Aequus HQ, an AI-driven health intelligence platform that aims to improve patient experience and health outcomes. The company is currently focusing on Medicaid and Medicare members from underrepresented groups who have one or more chronic conditions.
Alumni receive Nigerian government appointments
Olumuyiwa “Muyi” Aina, MPH ’02, and Kelechi Ohiri, MPH, SM ’03, had government appointments approved by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu in October. Aina was named executive secretary/CEO of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and Ohiri as director-general/CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority. Aina has a background in health care and management consulting and most recently served as principal at Solina Group in Maryland. His work in Nigeria has included overseeing projects focused on immunization and on delivery of HIV/AIDS medical services funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Ohiri previously was managing partner at Flint Atlantic Capital Partners. His prior experience includes serving in Nigeria as a primary care physician and as a senior adviser to Nigeria’s ministers of health and finance. He was the 2013 recipient of the School’s Emerging Public Health Professional award.
In memoriam
Sherri Stuver, SD ’91, died September 13 at age 61 from multiple sclerosis. She was a clinical professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health, where she is remembered as an astute scholar and enthusiastic booster of the department who was very generous with her time. Her research focused mainly on virus-associated diseases and malignancies, especially those related to hepatitis C virus and human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 infections.
John D. F. Tarr, MPH ’61, died June 12 at 94 following a brief bout of streptococcal pneumonia. He was a psychiatrist and a professor at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. Born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Tarr enjoyed traveling the world with his wife Beverly. He was a lifelong patron of the arts and befriended artists and artisans from around the world.