Upcoming Fellows

Marcia Fudge, until recently the U.S. secretary for Housing and Urban Development, and Ashwin Vasan, until recently the health commissioner for New York City, will be on campus this spring to teach classes and mentor students as Richard M. and Ronay A. Menschel Senior Leadership Fellows.

Spring 1 – Ashwin Vasan

Ashwin Vasan, SM, MD, PhD, served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from Jan. 2022 through Oct. 2024, where he launched initiatives to improve life expectancy, reform the mental health system, reduce medical debt, and increase access to reproductive health care, while strengthening data systems and workforce in the post-pandemic era. A Harvard Chan School alum, he has two decades of experience working to improve physical and mental health, social welfare, and public policy for marginalized populations locally and globally.

Vasan previously served as the president and CEO of Fountain House, a national nonprofit dedicated to ending social and economic isolation for people most impacted by mental illness. In 2016, he became the founding executive director of the Health Access Equity Unit in New York City—a first-of-its-kind government program focused on the intersection of clinical and social services for people involved in the justice system and other vulnerable populations. He began his career working on HIV/AIDS treatment with Partners In Health and later, the World Health Organization, and continues to work on global health issues including mental health, climate, biodefense, and pandemic preparedness.

Since 2014, Vasan has served on the faculty at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and continues to practice medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He was recently named the James McCune Smith Distinguished Fellow at Meharry School of Global Health, the nation’s oldest historically Black medical school.

Vasan will teach a Spring 1 course in the Department of Health Policy and Management tentatively called “Health Policy and Leadership.”

Spring 2 – Marcia Fudge, JD

Marcia Fudge, JD, served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Biden administration from March 2021 through March 2024. During her tenure, she led initiatives to increase housing supply, reduce homelessness, end discriminatory practices in the housing market, and ensure compliance with fair housing rules.

Before joining the Cabinet, Fudge served for 13 years as the U.S. representative for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District. She was known for working across political ideologies to address the needs of her district and for chairing the Congressional Black Caucus.

Fudge began her political career as the mayor of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, where she addressed issues including abandoned property, predatory lending, and the foreclosure crisis, and brought new residential development to the city.

She will teach a Spring 2 course in the Department of Health Policy and Management tentatively called “Health Policy and Leadership.”

Current fellow

Miro Weinberger

During his 12 years as mayor of Burlington, VT, which ended April 1, 2024, Miro Weinberger prioritized housing, racial equity, the opioid crisis, and climate action.

In his first term, Burlington achieved 100% renewable energy generation. Weinberger then launched a plan to achieve Net Zero by 2030 by steadily eliminating city’s use of fossil fuels for heating and ground transportation and “electrifying everything.” The city succeeded in reducing total community emissions by 18% between 2019 and 2023.

A former volunteer carpenter for Habitat for Humanity International, Weinberger implemented three housing action plans as mayor. His initiatives resulted in the removal of regulatory barriers to housing creation, an expansion of funding for affordable units—and a 400% increase in housing production.

Weinberger also worked with the Burlington Police Department to prioritize harm reduction and save lives amid the devastation of the opioid crisis. During the COVID pandemic, he led a city-wide vaccination effort and focused on deploying aid to local businesses, with a particular priority on facilitating a racially just recovery. Other highlights of the mayor’s tenure included expanding access to child care for babies and toddlers; upgrading parks and bike paths; and restoring Burlington’s financial stability, lifting the city from the edge of junk bond status to a AA rating.

Weinberger graduated from Yale College in 1993 and earned his master’s in public policy and urban planning from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 1998.

He is currently teaching a Fall 2 course in the Department of Health Policy and Management called “Leadership on the Front Lines of America’s Public Health Crisis.”

Recent fellows

Rochelle Walensky

Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH ’01, is a Harvard Chan School alum who served as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021-23), professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (2012-2021), and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital (2017-2021). Her research has focused on infectious diseases and HIV/AIDS policy, including cost-effective strategies for HIV screening, treatment, and prevention, both in the U.S. and around the globe. While at the CDC, Walensky led the nation through unprecedented times, navigating the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic and facing the largest density of infectious threats likely ever seen in this country.

She led a not-for-credit discussion series for students titled, “Public Health, Policy, and Politics: A Dialogue with Dr. Rochelle Walensky” in the spring of 2024.

Awa Marie Coll-Seck

Awa Coll Seck, MD, PhD, is a former senior minister to the president of the Republic of Senegal and has twice served as Senegal’s minister of health, from 2001-2003 and from 2012-2017. She was named “Best Minister in the World” in February 2017 at the World Government Summit.

A specialist in infectious diseases, she sits on the boards of Resolve to Save Lives; AFRIVAC; GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance; Grand Challenges Canada; Exemplars in Global Health; and UNU International Institute for Global Health. She is chair of AFRIVAC, chair of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in Senegal, and co-chair of the Lancet Commission on the Future of Health and Economic Resiliency in Africa. She also serves as president of the Scientific Committee of the Galien Forum Africa. Coll Seck previously served as executive director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (2004-2012) and as director of the Department of Policy, Strategy and Research of UNAIDS (1996-2001).

Coll Seck taught GHP 552, “Leadership Development in Global Health,” during Spring 2 2024.

Past Fellows

• Lori Lightfoot, former mayor of Chicago
• Andrew Dreyfus, former president and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
• Bill de Blasio, former mayor of New York City
• Kim Janey, former mayor of Boston
• Roman Macaya, former executive president of the Costa Rican Social Security Fund and former ambassador from Costa Rica to the United States
• Kelechi Ohiri, former special adviser to Nigeria’s minister of finance and two ministers of health and CEO of health care advisory firm HDSF
• Stephen Benjamin, former mayor of Columbia, SC
• Subramaniam Sathasivam, former minister of health of Malaysia

• Peter Shumlin, former governor of Vermont
• Jeffrey Sánchez, former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
• Jay Nixon, former governor of Missouri
• Joanne Kenen, executive healthcare editor, POLITICO
• Patricia García, former minister of health of Peru
• Jackie Jenkins-Scott, former president of Wheelock College and Dimock Community Health Center
• Ted Strickland, former governor of Ohio
• Steven Beshear, former governor of Kentucky
• Suraya Dalil, former minister of public health for Afghanistan
• Donna Shalala, former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services
• Somsak Chunharas, former deputy minister of health for Thailand
• Gina McCarthy, former administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Our team