Dr. VanRooyen was a panelist for the Forum’s discussions on the Response to the Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crises in Japan, Ebola, The Ebola Disaster and The Humanitarian Crisis in Syria.
Michael VanRooyen is the co-founder and Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) at Harvard University and an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. VanRooyen is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. VanRooyen has worked as both a physician and a policy advisor with numerous relief organizations. He has personally worked as a relief expert with several non-governmental organizations, including the IRC, Oxfam, CARE, Save the Children, and Physicians for Human Rights. He has worked in over thirty countries affected by war and disaster, including Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Iraq, North Korea, Darfur-Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He has served as a special advisor for the World Health Organization and the United States Peace Corps, and as a member of the UN Inter-Agency Standing Committee Health Cluster. He has served as a reviewer for the National Academies/US Government Accountability Office (GAO) and is on the Board of Directors for the International Rescue Committee. He has testified before Congress, and provided briefings to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the members of the United Nations Security Council on policy related to Iraq, Darfur and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Dr. VanRooyen directs the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, a Harvard University-wide, multidisciplinary program that leverages academic resources of Harvard schools and programs to address major humanitarian challenges in war and disaster.
