Jessica L Cohen

Biography

Jessica L. Cohen is Professor of Health Economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research combines health and behavioral economics, health policy, and rigorous evaluation to understand how policies, incentives, health systems, and information shape health care and health outcomes. She also serves as Co-Director of the Harvard LEAD Fellowship Program for Women Leaders in Global Health and Co-Chair of the Evidence for AI in Health Initiative at MIT.

Dr. Cohen's research is primarily on women’s health, with particular attention to maternal, postpartum, reproductive, and primary care in the United States. She studies how to improve maternal and newborn care access, quality, and outcomes through behavioral interventions, policy changes, and health system and payment redesign. Dr. Cohen's expertise includes randomized controlled trials and other causal inference methods for evaluating impact. Her emerging work examines how people encounter, interpret, and act on health information in an era of social media, misinformation, and AI.

Cohen is an award winning teacher and mentor, with a focus on pedagogical innovation. She teaches students how scientific evidence is generated, evaluated, interpreted, and communicated, using active-learning approaches and incorporating AI in structured ways to support student learning. She teaches courses on causal inference and impact evaluation to doctoral students at Harvard University and on maternal and reproductive health and health policy at Harvard College.

Cohen has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals in economics, public health, and medicine. Her scholarship has been recognized with the Alice Hamilton Award from Harvard and the National Academy of Medicine Healthy Longevity Catalyst Innovator Award. She received her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wesleyan University and her PhD in Economics from MIT.

Education and Training

• BA, Economics
  Wesleyan University
• PhD, Economics
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Research Fellowship, Global Health and Development
  Brookings Institution

Publications

• Evaluating the Impact of a Family Planning Supply Chain Intervention on Postpartum Contraceptive Use in Senegal Using Difference in Differences.

  Oviedo D, McConnell MA, Cohen JL. Stud Fam Plann 2026 Jul 15

  PMID: 42454674

• Provision of Primary Care Under Reduced Visit Time Pressures.

  Zhang L, Morgan KM, Cohen J, McConnell M, Ganguli I. JAMA Intern Med 2026 07 01

  PMID: 42113503

• Hospital-Level Variation in Antenatal Corticosteroids for Late Preterm Births.

  Clapp MA, Lee D, Li S, James KE, Lorch S, Cohen JL, Wright JD, Gyamfi-Bannerman C, Kaimal AJ, Melamed A. medRxiv 2026 Jun 18

  PMID: 42369508

• Antenatal Steroid Exposure among Late Preterm Births Following Updated Clinical Guidance.

  Clapp MA, Lee D, Li S, James KE, Lorch SA, Cohen JL, Wright JD, Gyamfi-Bannerman C, Kaimal AJ, Melamed A. medRxiv 2026 May 05

  PMID: 42145609

• Postpartum Primary Care Engagement and Acute Care Use: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

  Gangaram A, Ganguli I, Ray A, Liang P, Bald C, Clapp MA, Cohen JL. JAMA Netw Open 2026 05 01

  PMID: 42090155