Harvard Chan Alumni Association Awards

Each fall, the Alumni Awards Committee selects recipients for four distinguished honors, celebrated during Alumni & Reunion Weekend.

The signature Alumni Award of Merit, established in 1992, has recognized dozens of outstanding graduates. In 2011, the Alumni Association introduced three additional awards to celebrate achievements across different public health domains and career stages. These honors reflect the School’s founding mission by recognizing alumni whose work advances public health’s highest ideals. Beliefs and mission. 

2025 Award Winners

Alumni Award of Merit

Established in 1992, the Alumni Award of Merit is the highest honor presented by the Alumni Association to alumni of Harvard Chan School.

Michael Fiore, MPH ’85 
Spearheading tobacco policies and treatment efforts for more than three decades, physician, emeritus professor, and tobacco researcher, Michael Fiore, has transformed how clinicians and health systems address tobacco use and helped millions of Americans quit smoking. Fiore founded the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention in 1992, where he served as director until 2024, and continues as lead scientist. He chaired the panels that produced the Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence guidelines; helped launch the national quitline, 1-800-QUIT-NOW; introduced the concept of adding tobacco use to vital signs; and informed the U.S. Justice Department’s approach to its landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry in 2005. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Fiore has authored more than 400 publications and contributed to multiple Surgeon General’s reports. 

Matthew Mimiaga, SD ’07 
Founding director of the UCLA Center for LGBTQ+ Advocacy, Research & Health, Matthew Mimiaga has dedicated his career to advancing the health and well-being of sexual and gender minorities and other marginalized populations. Mimiaga also holds a professor position and chairs the epidemiology department at UCLA, and prior to this, held faculty positions at Harvard and Brown. Guided by a commitment to social justice and translating scientific insights to shape policies and practices that foster healthier, more inclusive communities around the world, Mimiaga has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles and book chapters; led studies in over 30 countries; and is the principal investigator for one of the longest running cohort studies aimed at understanding and reducing the impact of chronic health conditions that affect people living with HIV. 

Emerging Public Health Professional Award

This award recognizes early-career public health achievements and contributions of graduates who received their degree within the past 10 years.

Morissa Henn, DrPH ’19
Morissa Henn serves as deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services , where she has been involved in some of the institution’s largest strategic transformations, including Mission Zero—an initiative to end psychiatric boarding in emergency departments—and an effort for New Hampshire to become the first state to fully end correctional approaches to juvenile justice. In 2021, Henn led the acquisition and transformation of a private pediatric psychiatric hospital into an accessible, public safety-net institution in partnership with Dartmouth Health. Previously, Henn directed community health at Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, where she pioneered data-driven suicide prevention strategies with a focus on engaging gun owners. In 2019, she was invited by the late civil rights advocate and congressman John Lewis to testify before Congress about the success of this approach.

Leadership Award in Public Health Practice

This award recognizes a graduate who has been an outstanding example of effective leadership in the practice of public health, in the public or private sphere.

Anthony L-T Chen, MPH ’06
Currently, Anthony L-T Chen serves as deputy chief medical officer at Western State Hospital Civil Center of Excellence. For nearly 15 years prior, he served as director of health for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, where he advanced innovative, collaborative strategies to improve population health. As the entity’s chief health strategist, he led system-wide transformations, including founding the Pierce County Accountable Community of Health and partnering across six health systems to reduce preventable hospitalizations. In this role, his policy achievements included establishing a partnership for universal purchase of childhood vaccines, securing medicine return, regulating electronic cigarettes, and creating smoke-free housing and parks. Dedicated to health equity, Chen championed Health in All Policies, an approach for decision makers to strongly consider social, economic and environmental conditions that contribute to health in policy-making. Chen has received numerous accolades for his work in the field, including the Washington State Public Health Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Public Health Innovator Award

This award recognizes a significant innovative contribution to public health made by a distinguished graduate.

Eugenio Fernandez, MPH ’16
University of Rhode Island’s first and only quadruple degree major, Eugenio Fernandez Jr. is the founder of Asthenis, a community-focused pharmacy. Operating in the area of Fernandez’s upbringing, the hub takes a non-traditional approach, providing education and support through community health workers and counselors; offering free immunization services; setting up public health workshops; and more to help individuals make informed decisions and increase health accessibility in Providence, Rhode Island. Fernandez serves on multiple boards in Rhode Island, prioritizing affordable housing and education for the community’s working residents and their children. In 2024, Fernandez received the Rhode Island Foundation’s inaugural Trailblazer Award, which honors someone who is “disrupting the status quo for the common good.” 

Award Details

Nomination Details