Afsan Bhadelia
Afsan Bhadelia, PhD, MS is a Research Associate in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Bhadelia applies and translates systems theory to three core areas to promote health systems performance improvements and to advance value-based care: 1) health inequities faced by marginalized populations; 2) chronicity and its implications for health systems strengthening across the care continuum and life course; and 3) gender responsiveness of healthcare. Using mixed methods, each area incorporates a focus on developing innovative metrics for priority-setting and implementation, with an emphasis on integrating ethical considerations. She seeks to advance dynamic health systems modeling and effective policy analysis and translation to achieve better health outcomes for all. Dr. Bhadelia was a lead co-author of the report of the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief and co-Chaired the Commission’s Scientific Advisory Committee. She co-authored and co-edited the book, “Closing the Cancer Divide: An Equity Imperative.” She was previously named a ‘Young Cancer Leader’ by the Union for International Cancer Control and has served as a Minority International Research Trainee and an Albert Schweitzer Fellow. She is currently co-Chair of the Taskforce on Women and NCDs. Dr. Bhadelia received her PhD in International Health and Health Systems from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, an MS in Food Policy and Applied Nutrition and a BS in Biology and International Relations, both from Tufts University.
Peter Berman
Peter Berman M.Sc., Ph.D is a health economist with almost fifty years of experience in research, policy analysis and development, and training and education in global health. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia where he had previously been Professor and Director from 2019-21. He is also Adjunct Professor of Global Health at Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health where he was on faculty for several decades, lastly as Professor until 2019. He was the founding faculty director of Harvard Chan’s Doctor of Public Health degree and HSPH’s International Health Systems Program. He is also currently affiliated as Adjunct Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in New Delhi, India.
Recent research has focused on factors affecting government decision-making in response to public health crises examining the impact of Institutions, Politics, Organization of Public Health, and Governance (IPOG). Much of this work appears in Shaping a Pandemic Response: Evidence, Intervention, Politics, Organization, and Governance -- A World Scientific Publications Reference Set (3 Volumes), forthcoming 2024, and related journal publications. He is the editor in chief of World Scientific’s series on Global Health Economics and Public Policy (see https://www.worldscientific.com/series/wssghepp ), author or editor of six books on global health economics and policy, and a large number of academic publications, working papers and reports. He has also been closely engaged in health systems research in Ethiopia since 2012 (see www.fenotproject.com)
Examples include Getting Health Reform Right: A Guide to Improving Performance and Equity (Roberts, et al, Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 2018), Tracking Resources for Primary Health Care: A Framework and Practices in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Berman and Wang eds., World Scientific, 2020); co-editor of the Guide to the Production of National Health Accounts (World Bank, World Health Organization, and USAID, 2003), and co-editor of Berman and Khan, Paying for India’s Health Care (Sage, 1993).
Eduardo Saenz Rovner, PhD in History from Brandeis University, Professor at the Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. He has published The Cuban Connection. Drug Trafficking, Smuggling, and Gambling in Cuba from the 1920’s to the Revolution (Chapel Hill, 2008, Bogotá, 2005), Colombia Años 50. Industriales, política y diplomacia (Bogotá, 2002), and La ofensiva empresarial. Industriales, políticos y violencia en los años 40 en Colombia (Bogotá, 1992).
He has done extensive historical research and published on drug trafficking in Colombia, Colombian traffickers in Miami and New York, and the diplomacy of drug trafficking between the United States and Colombia. He is currently working on a book on the history of drug trafficking in Colombia between the 1930’s and the 1990’s.
Devi Sridhar
Devi Sridhar is a Professor and Chair at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, where she leads the Global Health Governance Program. She completed her Ph.D. and master’s at the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Miami Honors Medical Program. She has previously worked as an Associate Professor in Global Health Politics at the University of Oxford and a Postdoctoral Fellow at All Souls College. Devi has worked extensively in policy including as an advisor to the Scottish, UK and German governments, to the World Health Organization, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, and numerous NGOs. She has sat on the Board of Save the Children UK, on the World Economic Forum Health Advisory Group, and co-chaired the Harvard/LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola. Devi does extensive media work including appearances on the BBC, Channel 4, Radio 4 and CNN, as well as writing a regular column for the Guardian and contributing to other journals including Foreign Policy and the Washington Post. Her first popular book, Preventable, was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week and became a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller. She is working with Professor Felicia Knaul at the University of Miami on the Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems.
Jaime Zusman
Dr. Jaime Zusman was born and raised in Lima, Peru. He received his medical degree from the John Hopkins School of Medicine and did a residency in Pediatrics and a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at the University of Minnesota. Subsequently, he completed residency in Radiation Oncology at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. Zusman is board certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric-Hematology-Oncology and Radiation Oncology. He has served in the medical school faculties of Duke and Tulane universities.
Dr. Zusman received a master’s degree in Latin American Studies (MA) from the University of Miami in 2023. His thesis title was: Retracing José Carlos Mariátegui’s Path: A XXI Century Perspective.
At UMIA, Dr. Zusman will continue his research on Peruvian contemporary issues including Mariátegui’s views on Peru’s XXI century problems, his relationship with other contemporary scholars and politicians, the rise and fall of political parties in Peru, and the effects of corruption on governance and the future of democracy in Peru.
