Alumni and Friends
Living Proof That Our Mission Changes Lives
You are the hope of this institution embodied—living proof that our mission changes not only the lives of individuals but also the trajectories of communities that you will join, serve, and lead.
President Alan Garber, Harvard University Commencement 2025
President Garber’s words at Commencement 2025 say it best: our mission changes not only individual lives, but the trajectories of communities around the world. The stories here are living proof—from alumni creating change across continents, to faculty shaping the next generation of leaders, to students already transforming the communities they serve. Together, they are the hope of this institution embodied.
Student Impact
Akshay Naryanan, MPH ’26
Akshay Narayanan is investigating how health and social welfare systems can better reach overlooked children and families—and how community organizations can expand access to care.
Through years in India’s shelter homes and orphanages, he saw which children thrived and which struggled, and learned that the future of work must rest on a care agenda that supports the health, stability, and confidence of young people as they step into adulthood.
At Harvard Chan School, Akshay is building data-driven, sustainable systems to provide this foundation for vulnerable children at scale.
Abby Charles, DrPH Candidate
Abby Charles understands why people with lived experiences must have a voice in designing the programs and policies that affect their lives, and has spent her career turning that understanding into action. Abby was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, living with lupus.
Now, Abby leads Community Health Worker Initiatives at the Institute for Public Health Innovation serving Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. She oversees networks of peer health workers and programs focused on health equity, women’s health, and HIV. At Harvard Chan School, she’s developing the leadership skills to drive even greater systems change.
Carisha Prantoyo, MPH ’26
Carisha Prantoyo has a bold mission: End child malnutrition. Millions of children worldwide lack adequate nutrition during the critical early years that shape their entire lives.
Her work in global nutrition advocacy taught her that solving malnutrition demands collaboration across agriculture, food systems, healthcare delivery, and policy.
At Harvard Chan School, Carisha is building that expertise—designing and implementing interventions that work in the real world—reaching the children and families who need them most.
Nour Hammad, PhD ’27, Population health Sciences
Nour Hammad wants to understand why the U.S. can’t prevent obesity the way other countries like France, Italy, and Japan do, and what we can do about it.
A Registered Dietician, Nour has seen how food insecurity and limited access to healthy food drives health disparities in structurally marginalized populations—especially immigrants and refugees.
At Harvard Chan School, Nour is investigating these associations while exploring which population-level obesity prevention strategies could help address America’s obesity epidemic.
Faculty Impact
As a pulmonary physician treating patients harmed by air pollution, Mary Rice bridges clinical care and policy. She investigates how environmental exposures affect the respiratory health of children and adults—from her NIH-funded clinical trial testing whether air purifiers in patients’ homes can improve chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to research on fossil fuel health impacts. She has testified before Congress on air pollution’s health effects, directly influencing regulations protecting millions.
Jorge E. Chavarro, MD, SM’03, SD’06
Dean for Academic Affairs
Jorge Chavarro came to Harvard Chan School in 2002 as a master’s student, planning to stay one year before returning to medical practice. Instead, he found his calling in public health. Over two decades, he’s built collaborative networks amplifying research impact worldwide. As the driving force behind Nurses’ Health Study 3—enrolling over 50,000 women—his work reveals how diet and behavior affect health, including breakthrough research preventing adverse reproductive outcomes. Now he trains Harvard Chan students to ask rigorous research questions and pursue answers that improve women’s health.
Christopher Golden has spent 25 years conducting groundbreaking research in Madagascar demonstrating the critical links between environmental health and human nutrition. As an Associate Professor in three departments, the Co-Director of the Concentration in Climate Change and Planetary Health, and the Director of our Program in Nutrition and Planetary Health, Chris’s research reveals how deforestation and coral reef degradation drives malnutrition.
Alumni Impact
Anita Zaidi, SM ’99
President, Gender Equality Division, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
From marginalized communities in Pakistan to global foundations, Anita Zaidi exemplifies how Harvard Chan graduates create waves of transformation. Her 200+ research papers on newborn health have influenced global guidelines and saved thousands of lives. As the Gates Foundation’s first-ever president of Gender Equality, she’s clearing the path for women and girls across South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to prioritize their health, earn their own money, and lead societies.
Eugenio Fernandez, MPH ’16
Founder and CEO, Asthenis
When Eugenio Fernandez returned to the Providence neighborhood where he grew up, he brought a new vision: combine public health services with pharmacy access directly where people live. As founder of Asthenis, a public health hub located within affordable housing in Providence’s West End, he’s proving that innovative approaches can reach communities traditional healthcare often misses.
Monica Bharel, MPH ’12
Clinical Lead, Public Sector Health, Google; Former Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health
Monica Bharel bridges the worlds of medicine and public health with an unwavering focus on equity. As Massachusetts’ public health commissioner from 2015-2021, she led a 3,000-person agency through the COVID-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic, helping Massachusetts rank among the nation’s healthiest states. Now at Google Health, she’s building data systems that quantify connections between housing, transportation, and health—making visible the challenges we need to solve to create equitable systems.
Michael Fiore, MPH ’85, 2025 Alumni Award of Merit Honoree
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.