Ashish Jha

Ashish Jha is a Senior Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Emerging Technology, Scientific Advancement, and Global Policy (ETSAGP) program.

A global leader in public health research, policy, and practice, Dr. Ashish K. Jha served as Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health from 2020 to 2025. He is currently leading a national initiative to strengthen the country’s defenses against emerging pandemic and biological threats, building on work he advanced during his time in the White House.

An accomplished and practicing physician, Dr. Jha is widely recognized as a trusted voice on major public health issues and a catalyst for new approaches. A long-time leader in pandemic preparedness and response—from directing pioneering research on Ebola to serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis—he has led national and international efforts and advised policymakers around the world.

In March 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Dr. Jha as White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, calling him “one of the leading public health experts in America.” In that role, Dr. Jha expanded access to treatments and updated vaccines, strengthened testing and surveillance, rebuilt the national stockpile, and drove major investments in indoor air quality. He also helped establish durable infrastructure to confront future biological threats, earning bipartisan praise for his pragmatic leadership that, in the words of President Biden, translated “complex scientific challenges into concrete actions that helped save and improve the lives of millions of Americans.”

Dr. Jha is among the most highly cited health scholars in the United States, with more than 300 publications in leading journals including The Lancet, The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The BMJ. His research focuses on improving the quality and affordability of care through policy innovation in the U.S. and globally. Prior to Brown, he served as the K.T. Li Professor of Global Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.