Leni Siagian, MPH ’26, wants to ensure care for those who face challenges getting it

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Growing up in North Sumatra, a mostly rural province in western Indonesia, Leni Siagian saw the limitations of local health care when her father suffered two serious health crises—first a stroke that debilitated him, and then, years later, a heart attack that killed him.

The first crisis spurred her to become a doctor and to work in a rural hospital near where she grew up. Over time, she saw that treating people at the hospital was important, but not enough; health care—including preventive health—needed to improve both at the hospital and beyond. The second crisis only deepened her resolve.

Now Siagian is on track to earn a master of public health in health management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—and she’s hoping that skills learned at the School will help her improve health care in her own community and in other rural and underserved settings.

“Working with underserved communities is powerful and important,” she said. “This is why I’m here.”

A crisis and a calling

Siagian was 13 when her father had a stroke. To minimize harm from stroke, treatment needs to happen quickly. One of the first steps in treatment is to do brain imaging—but the local hospital didn’t have a CT scanner.

The hospital in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, had one. But it was six hours away.

“My mom had to drive six hours to the city as my father was gradually losing consciousness in the car,” Siagian recalled. Her father survived that crisis, but the limbs on one side of his body were significantly weakened. He’d been a businessman before the stroke but was unable to continue working afterwards.

“After my father’s experience, I understood how difficult it was to access health care in my community,” Siagian recalled. “It made me think that maybe I could help.”

She went to medical school, then went on to work at HKBP Hospital in Balige, North Sumatra, working in various roles over the course of a decade.

Four years ago, Siagian’s father had a heart attack. The hospital was 30 minutes from where Siagian lived with her parents—but by the time her father arrived there, he’d passed away. Said Siagian, “That’s the moment when I asked myself again what I should do with my life, because I’d thought that becoming a doctor and moving back to my hometown would help people—but I still hadn’t been able to help my father. I tried to think about what more I could do.”

Learning while doing

In 2020, Siagian became head of medical and health service at HKPB Hospital. But she didn’t have any formal management training; she simply learned by doing. “It was difficult for me,” she said. “Many colleagues were older than me. And, in Indonesia, it’s not common to have women as leaders, especially in a health care setting. In our hospital, I’m the only woman in a leadership role. It’s hard.”

Siagian wanted to boost her skills so that she’d be a better leader. Also—with her father’s experience in mind—she wanted skills that would enable her to improve health care access and quality in the hospital as well as in the surrounding communities. “That’s what led me to apply to Harvard,” she said.

Her experience at Harvard Chan School has been incredible, she said. She’s learning, for instance, about organizational and financial management, negotiation, and public speaking. “I’m also learning that change can happen,” she said. “Indonesia faces many gaps compared to countries with more developed health systems. But seeing what has been achieved elsewhere helps me believe that similar progress is possible in Indonesia as well.”

Supporting a stigmatized population

In January, Siaigian got the chance to design and implement a community-based mental health initiative for young adults living with HIV in Indonesia, thanks to a Rose Service Learning Fellowship. Rose Fellowships support community-engaged projects with partner organizations around the world, helping students deepen their skills and foster professional growth.

Siagian worked with Balige-based HKBP AIDS Ministry—a faith-based institution for HIV/AIDS education, sex education, advocacy, support, and empowerment of people living with HIV—on a project including peer support and expressive writing activities for young people living with HIV.

“This is a population that is often stigmatized,” Siagian said. “Indonesia is a very religious country, and sometimes people feel judged by others. Often people with HIV live in isolation. They also may live in remote areas where they can’t easily find people who have the same experience as them. They may struggle with mental health issues because of their diagnosis.”

Initially, it was hard to convince young people to join the project. They were reluctant to share their stories. “We tried to convince them that it’s really important for them, when they feel low or depressed, to have someone with a similar experience that they can talk to,” Siagian said. Eventually the group of about 20 coalesced and began to talk about their feelings and to encourage each other, discussing topics such as how to tell parents about their status and how to live life while confronting a serious diagnosis. “It was powerful when they started to share with each other,” Siagian said.

Closing rural-urban health care gaps

Siagian has been thinking about what she wants to do when she returns to Indonesia. Closing the rural-urban gap in health care access and quality is a top priority. In addition, she said, it’s not enough to treat people in the hospital and simply send them home. “We need to start thinking about their care even after they leave,” she said. Providing more holistic care could benefit patients as well as the hospital, she added. “If we can provide this sort of care, it will help improve hospital quality in terms of patient outcomes, and it could also reduce readmissions, length of stay in the hospital, and costs.”

Siagian has already been making progress. For instance, around seven years ago she led a project aimed at making the HKPB Hospital more inclusive for people with disabilities, trying to ensure that those who come for treatment feel that they are accepted and that they receive good care. Prior to that, she’d been part of a team that periodically visited people living in remote communities in the Lake Toba region, some of which are several hours from the hospital across mountainous terrain and winding roads. “We came to their towns every three months to offer free health services,” she said. “I loved it. When I had conversations with the people there, I could see hope in their eyes.”

Siagian isn’t yet sure where she’ll be working when she returns home. But she does plan to implement what she’s learning at Harvard Chan School in a rural setting, somewhere in the country, improving care for people on the margins. “That’s what I’m passionate about,” she said.

Photos of HKBP Ministry and Lake Toba: Courtesy Leni Siagian

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This year, researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health will begin new U.S. and India-based investigations into the health impacts of air pollution, heat, and climate change mitigation strategies. The projects, described below, are made possible by multi-million-dollar grants awarded by Wellcome, a London-based charitable foundation focused on enabling health research.

How air pollution drives disease

With a $4 million award, Mary Berlik Rice, Mark and Catherine Winkler Associate Professor of Environmental Respiratory Health and director of the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (Harvard Chan C‑CHANGE), will lead a new line of research investigating how air pollutants that are emitted by fossil fuel combustion affect health and what measures can best limit these impacts.

“We’re grateful to Wellcome for supporting this innovative research that will help us understand the body’s responses to specific pollutants at different levels of exposure,” Rice said. “Starting at the cellular level—pinpointing how pollutants drive diseases like asthma, cancer, and heart attacks—we’ll map out how communities across the U.S. are affected and develop evidence-based tools to inform climate mitigation strategies that can result in cleaner air and better health. “

Rice and the research team, which includes co-investigators Jin‑Ah Park, Joel Schwartz, Antonella Zanobetti, and Amruta Nori-Sarma, and collaborators Petros Koutrakis and Francesca Dominici, will conduct two projects. In the first, the researchers will collect source-specific fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from urban hotspots, recreate the polluted air in the lab, and expose it to 3D models that look and behave much like actual airways in the lung. The team will assess how the pollution may cause or worsen asthma, COPD, cancer, immune system disruption, and cardiovascular disease. In the second, the researchers will create detailed maps that estimate how much pollution people are breathing across the U.S. and calculate how different levels of exposure to these pollutants are linked to respiratory, cardiovascular, neuropsychiatric issues, and cancer risk. These estimates will inform a publicly available interactive tool guiding local and national U.S. policymakers on the effectiveness of climate mitigation measures.

“Ultimately, our goal is to provide clear mechanistic and population-level evidence that helps decisionmakers identify the best actions that can be taken today to improve air quality and health, and to reduce the risk of pollution-attributable disease in the years ahead,” Rice said.

How fighting climate change can improve health in India

Gaurab Basu, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Health and a core faculty member at Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, will collaborate with researchers from C40 Cities and Ashoka University to study the health and socioeconomic co-benefits of climate change mitigation strategies in India, the world’s third-largest carbon dioxide emitter.

Powered by a $2.5 million grant from Wellcome, the researchers will conduct three projects that will support India’s goal of achieving net-zero decarbonization by 2070. First, they will collaborate with the National Institution for Transforming India, the government of India’s collaborating think tank, to develop the country’s first national-level climate health model. The aim is to forecast how various climate policies will impact health, energy security, and economic growth through 2070. Next, the researchers will analyze the effectiveness and health impacts of electricity-reduction interventions in the cities of Chennai and Delhi, and of clean cooking techniques in coal mining communities in the state of Jharkhand.

The researchers will provide the findings from these studies to lawmakers, equipping them with the evidence they need to guide electricity policies, discourage hazardous coal-based cooking, and take actions against climate change.

“Energy transition is among the most critical issues facing public health in India and around the world,” Basu said. “I’m thrilled to work with my research colleagues, and with community and policy stakeholders, to produce knowledge and resources that can inform policies that will improve and save lives. And I’m thrilled that we have Wellcome’s support to do so.”

How extreme heat impacts India’s informal women workers

With a $3 million grant from Wellcome, Satchit Balsari, associate professor in the Department of Global Health and Population, and Caroline Buckee, professor of epidemiology, will continue to lead ongoing research in India on how heat exposure affects the health, wellbeing, and livelihoods of women working in the informal economy. The study—called Community HATS (Heat Adaptation and Treatment Strategies in South Asia)—is poised to become the largest ever longitudinal evaluation of worker heat stress.

Balsari, Buckee, and researchers from across Harvard—including Harvard Chan School’s Gary Adamkiewicz, Robert Meade, and Tess Wiskel—conduct the study in collaboration with the Self Employed Women’s Association, a network of cooperatives and trade unions representing nearly four million of India’s informal women workers. These women commonly work for small daily wages in marketplaces, workshops, farms, or streets, and live in homes that are often poorly ventilated.

Women enrolled in the study receive wearable devices that track their heart rate and sleep for one year. The researchers also measure temperature and humidity in the women’s homes and workplaces and collect data on their wages and reproductive and mental health.

“We’re quantifying the impact of heat on the lived experiences of the poor, in stark contrast to prior work done in labs on athletes or the armed forces, or in work settings for short periods of time,” Balsari said. “What we’re most proud of is how the women workers themselves co-designed the study in direct response to their needs, and how they drive data collection, quality control, and information dissemination.”

Community HATS is set to run for over two years, at which point it will have collected roughly 9.5 million distinct observations among more than 800 women. The researchers aim to compile all of these observations into a first-of-its-kind, open access database and accompanying toolkit, which will allow communities anywhere in the world to measure the efficacy of heat adaptation interventions, like cooling roofs or new building materials, before deploying them at scale.

“Wellcome is enabling us to substantively expand our work,” Balsari said. “The study will inform local and global thresholds for triggering worker protections, heat action plans, and even innovative financial instruments like parametric heat insurance products, which trigger hazard pay on extremely hot days.”

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When Marcia Castro arrived at Harvard in 2006, few researchers at the University were working on Brazil-related issues. Now, their numbers can fill an auditorium, she said. Castro, Andelot Professor of Demography and chair of the Department of Global Health and Population, credits the uptick to opportunities opened up by a transformative grant from the Lemann Foundation.

Over the past 10 years, the Lemann Brazil Research Fund (LBRF)—which is administered by Harvard’s Office of the Provost for Research and the Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs, in collaboration with the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and the Brazil Studies Program—has supported Harvard faculty in fields including public health, education, and environmental science. The funding has enabled collaborations between Harvard faculty and Brazilian scholars, created opportunities for students and early-career researchers, and advanced research on pressing needs.

Harvard Chan School faculty have received 13 of the 63 LBRF grants awarded through 2025. Below are three examples.

Understanding and controlling tuberculosis

Brazil has a high tuberculosis (TB) burden according to the World Health Organization and has seen newly reported cases rise in recent years. Nicolas Menzies, associate professor of global health, and Castro lead a team of Harvard Chan School and Brazilian researchers working to understand trends in TB epidemiology in the country and to identify approaches for improving care.

Since first receiving funding from the LBRF in 2017, the researchers have completed 12 studies that have contributed to knowledge around TB prevention, transmission, care, and survival in Brazil. They have also provided insights into the disease that are valuable for research and policy beyond the country, Menzies said. Study focuses have included trends in TB drug resistance, the impact of COVID-19 on TB, and differences in how areas across the country are experiencing the epidemic.

“This funding has been catalytic and provided resources for aspects of this collaboration that could not have been funded in other ways,” Menzies said. In particular, he noted that it enabled 10 students and early career researchers to participate in the studies.

The LBRF also has fostered a working relationship between the researchers and Brazil’s Ministry of Health (MOH). Menzies’ team meets monthly with MOH technical staff involved with infectious disease surveillance and program monitoring to share information.

“Personally, I have found this collaboration incredibly valuable,” Menzies said, “It has enabled some great research which I believe is valuable for both the MOH and wider TB community, and also it has been great to work with such capable individuals.”

Fostering mental health in marginalized communities

COVID-19 hit low-income communities in Brazil particularly hard, triggering a mental health crisis. David Williams, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, has been leading a pilot study that’s merging big data and behavioral science to look at how people in São Paulo’s marginalized neighborhoods are faring post-pandemic and to understand what mental health supports may be needed.

Although formal data analyses are not complete, Todd Reid, research associate in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, said that the study is already yielding important, if unexpected, lessons. From 2024 to 2026, participants used a custom smartphone app that passively collected sensor-derived data on physical activity, sleep patterns, and behavioral rhythms, and prompted brief assessments about mood and other aspects of daily life. While the app performed its functions well, it was trust—not technology—that drove participation and engagement, Reid said.

Many residents were reluctant to install an app due in part to concerns over digital fraud, which has been rising in Brazil, but they were more interested in participating if asked by someone from the community whom they trusted. Researchers also found that while the daily emotional check-ins prompted by the app encouraged self-reflection in some participants, others disengaged after noting negative emotional states over multiple days. This may have been due to mental health stigma, emotional fatigue, or lack of access to care, the researchers said, underscoring the need to pair mental health monitoring with support systems.

The study is doing what pilot work is designed to do, Reid said—surface unexpected constraints, contextual realities, and challenges—and it’s already reshaping how he and his colleagues think about future work.

Funding from LBRF has been foundational for their efforts to understand and support mental health in Brazil’s marginalized urban communities, he said, adding that their collaboration with Brazilian researchers is generating new funding opportunities and project ideas. It also fostered the training of a doctoral student at the University of São Paulo Medical School.

Evaluating a new screening strategy for cervical cancer

Cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers among women in Brazil, particularly in remote areas. While Pap tests are free in Brazil’s publicly funded health care system, there are inequities in access to the infrastructure required for Pap testing, follow-up diagnosis, and treatment. Jane Kim, K.T. Li Professor of Health Economics, and Nicole Campos, senior research scientist with the Center for Health Decision Science, are leading an effort looking at whether a new and more efficient cervical cancer screening method may be cost-effective.

In two remote sites in the Amazon region, the researchers’ Brazilian colleagues piloted one-week screening campaigns last year in which large numbers of women collected their own cervical samples to test for human papillomavirus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer. Samples were processed on-site in a portable laboratory, and women who tested positive for high-risk HPV types had the option to receive immediate treatment.

Since receiving funding from the LBRF last April, Kim and Campos and their colleagues have been evaluating the cost-effectiveness and affordability of this “same-day screen-triage-treat strategy.” Working with colleagues from Brazil and from the U.S. National Cancer Institute-led PAVE Study Consortium, they have collected data on the cost of the screening campaigns and developed a health decision model that reflects the trajectory of HPV infections and cervical cancer in the Brazilian Amazon.

Campos said that she hopes their work will inform Brazil’s screening guidelines for under-screened women, which are currently under development. The evidence base generated by these screening campaigns for high-risk women in remote areas can also inform the delivery of new screening technologies in other resource-limited settings, she said.

Campos said that the team currently is in the process of sharing preliminary findings with stakeholders in Brazil. The findings suggest that the strategy is “likely to provide very good value for public health dollars,” she said.

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Steve Shama MPH ’74, MD, honors the profound impact of public health education in his life by endowing a scholarship fund.

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For Steve Shama, Harvard Chan School was a profound awakening. He didn’t plan to study public health. Shama was a young occupational health physician when a mentor suggested that an MPH would help further his career.

“Medicine, to me, was how do you take care of thyroid disease, or heart disease. You treat a specific thing,” he recalls. “In public health, everything is a story. You do this because people are dying in far off lands, or because communities are suffering in the United States. The classes, the conversations, being with people from every corner of the world—everything was amazing.”

Discovering universal empathy

Shama grew up in Brooklyn, the son of a Yemeni Jewish father who never finished grade school and a mother from Hungary who finished high school but not beyond. He was raised with “a feeling of giving back to the world, even if it was never spoken outright.” At the School of Public Health, that spirit blossomed: “All the experiences you get bring out who you are. Meeting people from Africa, the Middle East, from places I’d never encountered, I realized; they’re just like me. It was humbling.”

The lessons went far beyond epidemiology or statistics. “I learned the importance of empathy, the kind that stretches beyond your own borders and community. To really make a difference, you need humility and universal empathy,” says Shama. This awakening changed his professional life, steering him not just to treat individual patients, but to think about how to improve health on a population level. “The MPH degree is not just facts; it’s an awakening in you of how you can make the world better because you have lived.” 

I decided to give because I realized that there were some people who have this beautiful dream to make this world a better and healthier place. They’re passionate about it, but they don’t have the funds. I wanted to make sure that Harvard Chan School had enough funds to do the best they could to attract these people.

A legacy of opening doors

Shama’s medical practice shifted to dermatology, and he began giving talks on empathy. Shama strives to live, as he puts it, “One moment short of a tear.” That means, to focus on topics of impact, that bring out strong feelings in himself and others. And one thing Shama feels very deeply is gratitude for the way that studying public health broadened his worldview.  

This gratitude, and the hope to open the world for others as it was opened for him, inspired Shama’s decades-long commitment to financial aid. “I decided to give because I realized that there were some people who have this beautiful dream, to make the world a better and healthier place. They’re passionate about it, but they don’t have the funds. I wanted to make sure that Harvard Chan School had enough funds to do the best they could to attract these people.”

Shama’s latest gift establishes the endowed Steven K. Shama, MPH ’74 and Jeannie Lindheim Shama Financial Aid Fund. “I give for memories. I give for feelings. If there’s someone out there who can’t attend because they can’t afford the last $5,000, I want to help. No matter how much you give, you do it because you feel that your efforts can make a difference. And the School leaves you with that feeling.”

As for his decision to include Harvard Chan School in his will, Shama says it’s as much about legacy and humility as about philanthropy. “You reach a point where you realize, we’ve left enough for our children—and then, what? We give to organizations that made a difference in our lives. For me and my wife, it’s about ensuring that opportunity continues for others. I hope students see my name and my story, and realize the path is open to them too.”

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Brenda Onguti, DrPH ’23, began her career as a pharmacist in her home country of Kenya. Working with HIV-positive patients from poor backgrounds, she noticed that they were particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases, and wondered how she could address the issue from a broader policy and systems perspective. Inspired to transition to the field of public health, she completed an MPH degree—and then found herself considering her next step.

“Once I graduated, I knew that I needed to go back [to school] and do a doctorate. But I didn’t want just to learn more research, to do more studies. What I wanted was to know, how do I bridge the evidence-practice gap?” Onguti said. “We currently have such great high-impact interventions within public health that can elevate people’s health and well-being, but often it’s not really being practiced.”

Her research led her to the Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) program at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which is designed to prepare mid-career public health professionals for high-level leadership positions in a wide range of organizations, from hospitals to nonprofits to government agencies. Over 3-4 years, students hone their skills by taking courses, participating in field immersion experiences, and completing a doctoral project and thesis.

The program, which marked its 10th anniversary in 2024, combines the research emphasis of a PhD degree with the practical application involved in an MPH degree, according to Richard Siegrist, program faculty director and senior lecturer on health care management. “The DrPH program blends the best of both worlds,” he said. “It’s a place where people can come get a really good education and then go out there and be much more impactful than before.”

He said the program, which has accepted only 10 students per year in the past, accepted 15 for the 2024-25 academic year. “Expanding the cohort size has enabled us to admit more highly qualified students and will improve the learning experience in our DrPH-specific courses,” said Siegrist. “The larger group will enhance classroom dynamics and deepen peer learning.”

Along with passing the 10-year mark and growing in size, the DrPH program is also celebrating several significant donations (see sidebar) that will help provide support in the years to come.

Classroom work, field work

Coursework in the DrPH program covers a variety of subjects, including leadership, innovation, financial management, and communication. At the core of the curriculum is a sequence of courses that focuses on developing leadership skills on three different levels—individual, organization, and system.

“By the time students complete our DrPH courses, they have a clearer sense of how they show up as leaders—what’s working for them and what may need to evolve,” said Siegrist. He added, “These are accomplished mid-career professionals who’ve made the bold and reflective decision to step back from their current roles, deepen their leadership capabilities, and return to their work with greater impact. It’s a vulnerable and deliberate act—pausing a well-established identity in order to reshape it with intention and purpose.”

Siegrist noted that the in-person experience is an important aspect of the program. “Many DrPH programs are offered primarily online,” he said. “At Harvard Chan School, you get to know people in your cohort much better. You get to know the faculty much better. You are more immersed in the School, and you have the ability to take on leadership roles,” he said.

Field immersions are another major component of the DrPH program, highlighted by an 8- to 10-week summer immersion and an eight-month doctoral project in which students work with a host organization to address a critical public health issue. Both opportunities give students the chance to apply concepts learned in their coursework to real-world settings.

The student experience

Prior to starting the DrPH program in July 2021, Kevin Linn, DrPH ’25, worked in strategic health policy, with a focus on improving access to cancer care for Indigenous communities in Canada. For him, participating in the program meant having a chance to apply what he’d learned in his work in an academic setting, as well as delve into other complex health policy challenges at a global level.

For his doctoral project, he did a research fellowship at Gates Ventures—the private office of philanthropist Bill Gates—where he explored the health effects of climate change, the role of philanthropy in addressing the issue, and methods for sparking innovation. To conduct his research, he connected with more than a dozen philanthropic and global health organizations around the world to learn about their work. “We found that philanthropies lacked organizational strategy and were struggling to define and evaluate their climate change and health work,” he said.

In his thesis, Linn developed a taxonomy of climate change and health solutions pathways to support organizations. Each pathway is defined by a description of climate change drivers, the impact of drivers on individual pathophysiology or social systems, health outcomes, relevant adaptation and mitigation solutions, and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets. As a framework, the taxonomy aids strategic decision-making, and supports coordination and collaboration within and between organizations.

A desire for impact

Another student in the 2025 DrPH graduating cohort, Erika Willacy, came to the program after a dozen years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she worked in global health. She had begun to question whether certain global health efforts were having enough impact. For instance, during the COVID pandemic, she recalled being at a meeting where colleagues were discussing the importance of equitable vaccine distribution. At the time, distribution in the U.S. was climbing rapidly, while in Africa and some parts of Asia it was moving much more slowly, “almost to the point of barely being perceptible,” she said. As weeks passed and the situation remained basically the same, she found herself becoming increasingly frustrated.

“I really started to think about how much impact we were really having if these things were being discussed and maybe even being put in reports, but at the end of the day were not actually being translated into action,” she said. “That is a big part of what generated my interest in applying to the DrPH program.”

She said that the program has helped her think about how to accelerate change when it comes to complicated public health problems, “from how to set up the culture of a team that I would lead, to how to take a complex problem apart and think about it systemically, to how to address that complexity in order to overcome a particular challenge.”

For her doctoral project, she created a framework to help public health institutes around the world—entities similar to the CDC—achieve greater impact. To develop the framework, she interviewed public health experts around the world and conducted several case studies. One of the case studies included details on Bangladesh’s response to a rise in deaths due to dengue fever, a disease spread via mosquitoes. Willacy found that even though there are strong surveillance systems across Bangladesh to detect dengue, gaps in systemic functioning and collaboration meant that preventive measures were not taken. National governments and community governments did not necessarily have good working relationships with one another—which meant, for example, that one community might take steps to reduce standing water where mosquitoes breed, but another might not, making overall efforts to reduce the spread of dengue less effective.

In her doctoral thesis, Willacy also outlined several “strategic accelerators” to overcome such roadblocks, such as focusing on creating systems that understand when to pivot and evolve to new and changing contexts. She also encouraged government public health systems to utilize the expertise of populations and invest in true collaboration with them to optimize progress.

Alumni perspectives

During Onguti’s time at Harvard Chan School, she became particularly interested in implementation science—learning how to take a public health intervention that has been tested in a research setting and bringing it into practice. For her doctoral project, which was funded by the Tessa Jowell Research Fellowship through the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program, she focused on preconception care in Zambia, identifying gaps and opportunities in the health system in order to make recommendations for integration.

Since graduating, Onguti has been making good on her goal to bridge the evidence-practice gap. For example, she has worked as a consultant for the nonprofit organization Jhpiego, developing a strategy to scale group antenatal care across low- and middle-income countries globally. To address the shortage of maternal health care providers, pregnant women of similar gestational age receive care in a group setting where they can discuss common challenges with each other, while also having access to clinicians. “It’s an empowering [experience], being able to get solutions from other women and support from your health provider,” she explained.

Reflecting on her overall experience in the DrPH program, Onguti said that a highlight was the mentoring she received. “There’s such a great support system by the professors,” she said. “Having an open-door policy so that you could talk to your professors—and them being able to advise you not only in terms of the course or program itself, but on other aspects of life—really stood out to me.”

Stephanie Kang, DrPH ’21, grew up wanting to become a leader in the health care field, but she felt that meant going to medical school to become a doctor. While working toward that goal, she came across information about the DrPH degree and immediately shifted gears.

“As my understanding of healing evolved—from focusing solely on medical services to recognizing the conditions that make and keep people sick—I began searching for a program that could equip me with the tools and skills to address those deeper systemic issues. That’s when I learned about the DrPH program and immediately recognized it as a unique space for intentional, practice-based learning that I couldn’t find anywhere else,” she said. “So, I made the decision to continue working in two different community-based non-profits full-time and enrolled in a part-time master’s program to better position myself for the DrPH. I knew this was the kind of training I needed to lead change in a more meaningful way.”

She decided to apply to the DrPH program at Harvard Chan School because of its unique approach to leadership training—providing not just courses, but also other resources such as executive coaching. Each student is paired with a professional coach outside the School who has experience working with C-suite executives and helps them pursue their career goals.

During Kang’s second year, she received a job opportunity to work in the office of U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) as a health policy fellow, focusing on universal health care. With the encouragement of her program advisor, she moved to Washington, D.C. for the position while finishing up her coursework remotely, and ended up writing her doctoral thesis on the same topic. She currently serves as the inaugural deputy assistant commissioner of health equity in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

“When you’re in leadership roles, especially in fast-paced environments, it’s incredibly hard to pause and reflect on your purpose—on why you do the work,” Kang said. “The DrPH program gave me a rare space to step back, connect deeply with others who had been through similar challenges, and ground myself in the kind of leader I wanted to be—especially in moments of difficulty and doubt.”

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Public health surrounds us in ways we rarely notice—from the lead-free water we drink to the nutritious food we eat and the clean air we breathe. These everyday protections stem directly from groundbreaking research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health that safeguards millions of lives simultaneously.  

While doctors treat one patient at a time, Harvard Chan researchers transform entire systems—revolutionizing HIV treatment, preventing cancer, reducing gun violence, and preparing for future pandemics. The School’s faculty have demonstrated the dangers of air pollution leading to tighter clean air standards, pioneered the field of cancer genetics, illuminated the impacts of racism on health, and played crucial roles in global health initiatives from polio eradication to humanitarian disaster response.  

For over a century, Harvard Chan School has worked toward a world where everyone can thrive. This vital work depends on support to continue its impact—because public health isn’t just a discipline, it’s a goal.  

To support life-saving research and public health solutions, visit hsph.me/whygive.

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IID is thrilled to announce the appointment of endowed professorships to faculty members Dr. Flaminia Catteruccia and Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire, courtesy of generous philanthropic contributions.

Dr. Catteruccia received the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. Her laboratory, the Catteruccia Lab, strives to help the creation of new, effective tools for mosquito and malaria control by examining the molecular and behavioral parameters that are key to the ability of Anopheles mosquitoes to transmit malaria, with special emphasis on reproductive biology and vector-Plasmodium interactions. Their work expands beyond Harvard’s walls with a key component of their research conducted through fieldwork and collaboration with partners in Africa.

Dr. Corbett-Helaire received the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. In order to increase global pandemic preparedness, the Corbett Lab focuses on vaccine development and therapeutic antibody discovery for coronaviruses and other emerging and re-emerging viruses. The highly collaborative team studies the immune landscape of viral surface proteins and deciphers the influence of immune responses on the clinical outcome following natural viral infection to design and assess novel vaccine concepts.

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A gift from the Spiegel Family Fund is enabling researchers across multiple institutions—including Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health—to investigate the effects of wildfires on human health

In January 2025, the city of Los Angeles was devastated by the Palisades and Eaton wildfires. Spreading rapidly across neighborhoods, the fires killed 29 people, destroyed more than 16,000 homes and buildings, and exposed millions of people to toxic smoke—even those living hundreds of miles away. In the aftermath of the fires, residents and first responders face concerns about the health hazards of their changed environment.

Thanks to a gift from the Spiegel Family Fund, a consortium of researchers from six universities are collaborating to investigate and better understand the short- and long-term effects of wildfires and help reduce the risk of harmful exposures. The Spiegel Family Fund’s gift is also inspiring other donors to support the study.

The Los Angeles Fire Human Exposure and Long-Term Health Study (L.A. Fire HEALTH Study)—led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California; Stanford University; the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health; the University of California, Davis; and the University of Texas at Austin—aims to examine what types of pollutants are present in the environment, where they are located, and the quantity that persists over time. Bringing together scientists with expertise in data science, health outcomes, wildfire risk assessment, and environmental exposure assessment, the study is measuring the respiratory, neurological, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune system effects of wildfires over 10 years.

The L.A. Fire HEALTH Study is unique for many reasons, including its urgency and scope. Because so little is known about wildfire health effects over time—such as the risk of developing chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease, and stroke—the findings will provide much-needed data to help inform decisions about public health and safety.

Evan Spiegel, who established the Spiegel Family Fund in 2017, grew up in Pacific Palisades and currently lives in Los Angeles with his family. His strong connection to California spurred him to support the project.

Spiegel decided to fund the study in the hopes that it could propel local recovery efforts and reveal valuable knowledge that will help people around the world affected by wildfires.

“We are not the first community to face a megafire. We will not be the last,” Spiegel wrote in a letter to the City of Los Angeles after the wildfires. “But we will use our strength, our ingenuity, and our love to create again and anew.”

A Living Laboratory

Moving quickly once the fires were under control, researchers outfitted a van into a mobile collection lab where they could quickly gather and test samples from affected neighborhoods. The team retained samples of ash and other contaminants from the interiors of 50 homes, along with data gathered from air pollution sensors. In addition to showing the effects of the pollutants, the samples will also help researchers examine how building design and air filtration systems handle these contaminants.

“This rapid mobilization of scientists across so many universities, all with a common goal of helping the people of Los Angeles through this crisis, simply would not have been possible without the support from the Spiegel Family Fund,” says Joe Allen, professor of exposure assessment science in the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School and director of the Harvard Healthy Buildings Program, who is co-leading the consortium’s efforts at measuring contaminants in air, water, soil, dust, and ash.

On its own, wildfire smoke is dangerous due to its chemical makeup and particulate matter. Its composition varies depending on the source of the fire, its intensity, and how it interacts with conditions in the atmosphere. In urban areas like Los Angeles, additional contaminants (such as asbestos and microplastics) from burning cars, buildings, and furniture become suspended in the air and water.

Preliminary findings from the L.A. Fire HEALTH Study are already leading to interventions. Initial results indicated that firefighters involved in the Palisades and Eaton fires exhibited higher concentrations of lead and mercury in their blood cells compared to those who had battled earlier forest fires in less densely populated regions. Prior to this study, scientists only looked for the presence of harmful chemicals in the air, not inside human cells. With this new information, doctors from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center were able to treat the firefighters for this exposure sooner—and it could help medical professionals in Los Angeles and elsewhere diagnose and treat more people earlier following future fires.

In addition, the study has been able to rapidly disseminate test results from air and water and provide actionable steps people can take to stay safe—including releasing data briefs and guides, such as how to reduce risk of wildfire smoke at home, and leading town halls across Los Angeles.

By monitoring health outcomes over time, researchers hope to equip everyone affected by wildfires—residents, first responders, fellow scientists, and nonprofits providing disaster relief—with the tools they need. “One of our biggest priorities is to provide communities with information based on sound scientific evidence so that they can make the best decisions possible,” says Nadeau.

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In an unprecedented collective scientific effort to understand the short- and long-term health impacts of wildfires, researchers from four universities have launched a 10-year study of the Los Angeles fires. The wildfires that began in early January 2025 killed 29 people, destroyed more than 16,000 structures, and exposed millions to toxic smoke.

The research aims to evaluate which pollutants are present, at what levels, and where, and to assess the respiratory, neurological, cardiovascular, reproductive, and immune system impacts of the wildfires.

The Los Angeles Fire Human Exposure and Long-Term Health Study (L.A. Fire HEALTH Study) is being launched with the support of a visionary gift from the Spiegel Family Fund. The multi-institutional collaboration is a consortium led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Davis, and the University of Texas at Austin with expertise in environmental exposure assessment, health outcomes, wildfire risk assessment and management, and data science.

“This was an environmental and health disaster that will unfold over decades,” said Kari Nadeau, John Rock Professor of Climate and Population Studies and chair of the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard Chan School, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, and practicing physician at Beth Isreal Deaconess Hospital. “By bringing together experts from across multiple institutions and disciplines, we can rigorously examine the health effects from the wildfires’ toxic particles and gases that have spread hundreds of miles beyond the fire zones and provide the communities with this information in real time.”

Wildfire hazards

Wildfires in Los Angeles and other urban areas present unique hazards as buildings, cars, and products are incinerated, exposing people to particulate matter, gases, chemicals, heavy metals, asbestos, PFAS, microplastics, and other toxic pollutants. They settle out of the air into soil and dust and can become resuspended during recovery and rebuilding efforts. Water quality can also be affected.

The potential health impacts on millions of Los Angeles residents from exposure are many and include:

• Acute respiratory symptoms and worsening of lung conditions, including asthma and COPD
• Neurological impacts, including headaches and cognitive issues
• Cardiovascular effects, including increased risk of heart disease and stroke
• Immune system disruption
• Reproductive health concerns
• Increased cancer risk

“Air pollutants, such as those from wildfires, are linked to short-term health problems such as asthma and longer-term ones such as Alzheimer’s disease,” said Anthony Wexler, director of the Air Quality Research Center at UC Davis.

“Here in Los Angeles, we know that communities need accurate and timely information about what individuals and families can do to prevent and mitigate health effects from fires, both in the near- and long-term,” said Michael Jerrett, Jonathan Fielding Chair in Climate Change and Public Health, and professor in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “With this study we can supply sound science to help residents repopulate and rebuild their neighborhoods safely, and for the first time, we can learn about the long-term health effects of wildfires.”

Study aims

The L.A. Fire HEALTH Study has two primary objectives: First to examine which pollutants are present, at what levels, where, and how they change over time; and second to determine if the fires and aftermath are associated with chronic health effects in the nearby population.

In the study’s first phase, teams are mapping and understanding exposures during the fires, including emissions from the burning of vegetation and buildings and the composition of pollutants in the wildfire smoke. As part of the air sampling effort, a mobile van will be deployed, equipped with advanced measurement technologies that can measure the chemical composition of particulate matter and gases in real time.

A study of homes in the area will include monitoring indoor and outdoor air, drinking water, house dust, and soil samples, and assessing the role that building design and filtration plays in limiting infiltration of wildfire pollutants. A novel approach to estimate smoke infiltration into homes will also be used. “Building materials can absorb infiltrated smoke, creating the potential for exposure to harmful compounds for weeks and months after a wildfire. By taking measurements inside and outside of homes, we can quantify how building materials impact exposure and provide insights on when it is safe to return to homes in areas impacted by wildfires,” said Lea Hildebrandt Ruiz, associate professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. A novel model of 14 million homes in California built with advanced machine learning will allow researchers to understand how much smoke entered homes and where.

A key goal of all these efforts is to share evidence-based, rapid answers to the affected communities. In addition, the findings will be shared with civilians, firefighters, businesses, researchers, and government agencies.

The Spiegel Family Fund, which is funding the study, was founded by Evan Spiegel, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Snap, Inc. He grew up in Pacific Palisades, a town devastated by the recent fires, and still lives in Los Angeles with his family. In an emotional love letter to the city as the fires raged, he wrote: “We are not the first community to face a megafire. We will not be the last. But we will use our strength, our ingenuity, and our love to create again and anew.”

By funding the research study, Spiegel said he hoped to help spur that recovery and learn critical insights that could protect health and well-being both in Los Angeles and in other cities affected by wildfires in the future.

Other researchers on the team include Joe Allen, Francesca Dominici, Amruta Nori-Sarma, and Mary Rice from Harvard Chan School; Dave Allen, and Pawel Misztal from UT Austin; and David Eisenman, Katie McNamara, and Yifang Zhu from UCLA Fielding.

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With continued support from Diana Barrett, MBA ’74, DBA ’79, a first-of-its-kind initiative at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is working across disciplines and sectors to develop lasting solutions to America’s homelessness crisis

Diana Barrett, MBA ’74, DBA ’79, believes that creating a society where each person can reach their full potential starts with ensuring universal access to secure housing.

Homelessness in the United States has grown into a national crisis, affecting over 650,000 people on any given night. A severe shortage of affordable housing, combined with multiple social system failures, makes the problem hard to address. For those experiencing homelessness, the health impacts are staggering: their life expectancy is decades shorter than the general population, and up to three-quarters struggle with mental health and substance use disorders.

“There’s no great mystery,” Barrett says. “We don’t take care of people, and then we wonder why they’re not doing well.”

In 2019, Barrett made a gift to help launch the Initiative on Health and Homelessness (IHH) at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, providing additional support in 2022. From the start, she recognized the initiative’s potential to improve understanding of the pathways into and dynamics of homelessness, incorporate this knowledge into Harvard’s curricula to train future leaders, and unite experts across all sectors to influence policy and create a coordinated system of care and prevention. Her most recent gift in 2024 will expand research, education, and outreach efforts, advancing IHH’s goal of becoming a leading center in the national effort to end homelessness.

“The initiative simply wouldn’t exist without Diana’s support,” says Howard Koh, Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at Harvard Chan School and inaugural faculty chair for IHH. “Diana inspires us to aim higher and push harder to address one of the most glaring health inequities of our time. Right now, with her constant encouragement, we’re assembling an advisory group and intensifying our strategic planning. It’s challenging work, but we’re making progress, and we are all so proud of that.”

As IHH enters this next stage in its development, it builds on a strong foundation. To date, IHH has established a trusted national platform that connects a growing community of academic expertise and practice through regular events and collaborations. It also fosters and supports students to become leaders in the field through research opportunities, mentorship, and a new course on homelessness and health.

Changing the Narrative

As a board member of the Lord’s Place, a Florida-based organization focused on breaking the cycle of homelessness, Barrett has seen firsthand how quickly a life can unravel.

“Anyone could become homeless,” she says. “A car breaks down, you lose your job, and suddenly you’re facing eviction. But with the right support at the right time, homelessness is often preventable.”

Yet she finds that common misconceptions persist. “Every time I talk about my work on homelessness, people say, ‘Oh, they all have mental health problems, or they all struggle with substance abuse—it’s unsolvable, intractable.’ But that’s simply not true.”

After 25 years at Harvard, where she taught business and public health, Barrett left academia in 2005 to start the Fledgling Fund, a foundation dedicated to supporting films and other creative media projects that educate, engage, and mobilize people around complex social issues. She hopes IHH will shift public perceptions of homelessness through the power of storytelling.

“We live in a visual world, and storytelling is incredibly powerful,” she says. “If you see the challenges in cities like San Francisco—the image of tents lining the streets stays seared in your memory. No article alone can convey that.”

A Novel Solution to a Complex Problem

Research and education on health and homelessness in the U.S. have been critically underfunded and overlooked, leaving the academic community unable to fully investigate the root causes, health impacts, and possible solutions. As a result, people working to tackle this urgent health equity issue lack the robust evidence needed to develop effective systems, policies, and interventions.

As the first program of its kind within a school of public health, and one of only a few such academic hubs nationwide, IHH has made significant strides over the past five years. It launched Harvard’s first course dedicated to homelessness, covering essential topics such as demographic trends, the effect of structural racism, and the unique challenges faced by specific groups, including veterans and families.

“When students come to the University from around the world, they shouldn’t walk through Harvard Square and view people lying on the street as something normal,” says Koh. “At the very least, students should leave our School and University with a deeper understanding of the societal forces that put people there—and with insights into the policy solutions that could address and prevent homelessness.”

The initiative has become a draw for incoming graduate students, who cite it as a deciding factor in choosing Harvard for their studies. “Now, it’s possible for someone to build an academic career studying homelessness—a path that simply didn’t exist five years ago,” Barrett shares.

Through a monthly seminar series of research and practice, IHH convenes scholars and advocates to explore the complex intersections of health and homelessness. The initiative also leverages partnerships across the University—working with faculty in the health sciences, urban design, policy, law, and business—to promote a powerful interdisciplinary approach, including collaborations with the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab, and the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative.

“No one group or individual can solve this,” Koh says. “It must be a committed interdisciplinary response.”

The initiative has hosted several national summits to identify effective solutions, engage political leaders from mayors’ offices, and build an expanding network of external stakeholders, including the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program; state and local leaders in Massachusetts, California, Oregon, New York, Texas, and Illinois; and national nonprofits.

Barrett envisions IHH as a leading authority on health and homelessness. “I’d like Harvard to be so good at what we do that if someone asks, ‘What’s happening with homelessness right now in Atlanta?’ the answer would be, ‘Call Harvard. Call IHH. They’ll know.’ ”

–Laura Speers

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