Peter Berman, PhD, MS
Professor of the Practice of Global Health Systems and Economics
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Biography
Prof. Peter Berman is a health economist with forty years of experience in research, policy analysis and development, and training and education in global health. He taught at HSPH from 1991-2004 at which time he joined the World Bank. He retired from the World Bank in mid-2011 and returned to HSPH since then.
Currently, Prof. Berman is Faculty Director of the new Harvard DrPH program as well as Coordinator of Harvard Chan’s India Health Partnership. His current research looks at primary health care development in low and middle income countries, collaborations between government and private sector in health care delivery, and strategic development health care financing and reforms. He leads research programs in Ethiopia, India, and Malaysia. He chaired the global Financing Working Group of the Countdown to 2015, which monitored progress in achieving MDGs 4 and 5.
At the World Bank, Prof. Berman was Lead Health Economist in the HNP anchor department and Practice Leader for the World Bank’s Health Systems Global Expert Team from 2008-2011. From 2004-2008 he was based in the World Bank’s New Delhi office as Lead Economist for Health, Nutrition, and Population in India. He is also Visiting Professor at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi and Advisor to the China National Health Development Research Center for health care financing and health accounts.
At HSPH from 1991-2004, Prof. Berman was Professor of the Practice of Population and International Health Economics, the founding director of the International Health Systems Program, and Principal Investigator for two global projects at Harvard. He led a multiyear study to develop National Health Accounts with the Government of Turkey and numerous other international research collaborations. Prof. Berman has been co-director of the HSPH-World Bank Institute Flagship Global Core Course on Health Sector Reform and Sustainable Financing and directed HSPH’s executive education programs in Public-Private Partnerships and National Health Accounts.
Prof. Berman lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his spouse Jenny Ruducha who is Research Scientist at Boston University’s Center for Global Health. They have three children and a spunky beagle.