Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights
FXB Center
Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
FXB Center
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Mary T. Bassett is the Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, as well as the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. With more than 30 years of experience in public health, Dr. Mary Travis Bassett has dedicated her career to advancing health equity. Prior to her directorship at the FXB Center, Dr. Bassett served for four years as commissioner of Health for New York City. As commissioner, she worked to ensure that every New York City neighborhood supported the health of its residents, with the goal of closing gaps in population health across the city.
Originally from New York City, Dr. Bassett lived in Zimbabwe for nearly 20 years. Previously, she was the Program Director for the African Health Initiative and the Child Well-being Program at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. She received her B.A. in History and Science from Harvard University and her M.D. from Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. She served her medical residency at Harlem Hospital Center, and has a master's degree in Public Health from the University of Washington, where she was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.
Woolhandler S, Himmelstein DU, Ahmed S, Bailey Z, Bassett MT, Bird M, Bor J, Bor D, Carrasquillo O, Chowkwanyun M, Dickman SL, Fisher S, Gaffney A, Galea S, Gottfried RN, Grumbach K, Guyatt G, Hansen H, Landrigan PJ, Lighty M, McKee M, McCormick D, McGregor A, Mirza R, Morris JE, Mukherjee JS, Nestle M, Prine L, Saadi A, Schiff D, Shapiro M, Tesema L, Venkataramani A.
Lancet. 2021 Feb 20. 397(10275):705-753. PMID: 33581802
Bassett MT, Chen JT, Krieger N.
PLoS Med. 2021 Feb. 18(2):e1003541. PMID: 33539382
Tangcharoensathien V, Bassett MT, Meng Q, Mills A.
BMJ. 2021 01 22. 372:n83. PMID: 33483336
Bailey ZD, Feldman JM, Bassett MT.
N Engl J Med. 2020 Dec 16. PMID: 33326717
Bassett MT, Chen JT, Krieger N.
PLoS Med. 2020 10. 17(10):e1003402. PMID: 33079941
Bassett MT, Galea S.
N Engl J Med. 2020 Nov 26. 383(22):2101-2103. PMID: 33031653
Bassett MT.
Nature. 2020 10. 586(7829):337. PMID: 33051602
Shiman LJ, Freeman K, Bedell J, Bassett MT.
J Public Health Manag Pract. 2020 Sep 09. PMID: 32956297
Bailey Z, Linos N, Bassett MT.
JAMA Netw Open. 2020 08 03. 3(8):e2012437. PMID: 32744627
Jiménez MC, Cowger TL, Simon LE, Behn M, Cassarino N, Bassett MT.
JAMA Netw Open. 2020 08 03. 3(8):e2018851. PMID: 32821919
Mary Bassett is being honored by the New York Academy of Medicine as part of its Black History Month celebration.
With COVID-19 highlighting the health disparities between Black and white Americans, a growing number of public health experts are calling for cash reparations to address the inequities. “Cash restitution would save lives,” said Mary Bassett, François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor…
A panel discussion focused on health disparities and the work of the Poor People’s Campaign, a nonpartisan social justice movement that mobilizes low-income people to be agents of social change.
Mary Bassett, Bizu Gelaye, and Xihong Lin are among 50 alumni of the University of Washington School of Public Health who have been recognized as “changemakers” in the field of public health.
Black reparations for slavery are a long-overdue approach to mitigating persistent disparities between Blacks and whites in the United States, according to a Perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine co-authored by Harvard Chan School’s Mary…