Humanitarian Response: Navigating Global Crises

Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH, has transformed humanitarian crisis response through his roles as founding Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and Chair of Emergency Medicine at Mass General Brigham. After completing his medical training and MPH, he has built an extraordinary career spanning more than three decades of humanitarian work in over thirty conflict and disaster zones. As the J. Stephen Bohan Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, he has led complex humanitarian operations in regions including Somalia, Rwanda, Iraq, and Ukraine. His domestic crisis response includes coordinating medical teams during the Boston Marathon bombing, 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2012, he established the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard to advance professional development for humanitarian leaders globally. His expertise has influenced policy through congressional testimony, UN briefings, and service on the Inter-Agency Standing Committee Health Cluster. Author of "The World's Emergency Room" and "Emergent Field Medicine," he continues to shape humanitarian assistance while leading ten emergency departments serving over 500,000 patients annually through the Mass General Brigham health system.

Jennifer Leaning, MD, SMH, has transformed understanding of humanitarian crises and human rights through her pioneering work spanning four decades. After earning her BA magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, MSc from Harvard School of Public Health, and MD with honors from the University of Chicago, she has built an extraordinary career combining medical expertise with humanitarian advocacy. As former Director of the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights (2010-2018) and co-founder of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, she has shaped global responses to humanitarian crises through research and field work in conflict zones including Afghanistan, Somalia, Kosovo, and the African Great Lakes region. Her expertise spans emergency medicine, public health, human rights law, and forced migration, with particular focus on climate change impacts. Her influential work includes co-editing seminal texts on humanitarian crises and nuclear war, while serving on boards of major organizations including Physicians for Human Rights and the American Red Cross. Currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard FXB Center and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, she continues to influence global policy through her research on public health in war zones, mass atrocity prevention, and climate-induced displacement.