Wafaie Fawzi, MBBS, MPH, MS, DrPH is a physician and epidemiologist focused on advancing global health research, education, and practice. He is the Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences, Professor of Nutrition, Epidemiology, and Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Between 2011 and 2018, he served as Chair of the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard. He established and continues to lead the Nutrition and Global Health Program, an interdepartmental initiative at Harvard where over the past 25 years he sought to strengthen the evidence base for advancing human health and development. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
He directed the design and implementation of more than 30 randomized controlled trials and numerous large observational epidemiologic studies of maternal, child, and adolescent health, and major infectious diseases. He furthered understanding of the safety and efficacy of nutritional interventions in the prevention and management of major global health threats and spurred the translation of evidence into policy and programs. His work is published in over 500 original research papers and reviews. Key findings include evidence about the benefits of nutritional supplements to increase survival and immunity among adults and children with infections. He advanced evidence and policies about the safety and benefits of integrated nutritional interventions for pregnant women, infants, and adolescents; and research on the inter-relationships of food systems, climate change, and planetary health.
As a program director and an academic leader, he has convened interdisciplinary teams to establish and foster global health education and advance research and knowledge translation. He led multiple training grants and developed two implementation science initiatives to advance adolescent health in Africa and Asia, and the intersectoral integration of food systems/agriculture, nutrition, and planetary health. He is a founder of the Africa Academy of Public Health, the ARISE (Africa Research, Implementation Science and Education) Network, and CHAN (China Harvard Africa Network). All training efforts aimed to increase the diversity of global health leaders in the US, and enhance the next generation of public health leaders, particularly in Africa.