Shawna Novak

Research Fellow in Global Health and Social Medicine

Shawna Novak is a global health practitioner and physician with academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, University of Toronto, and McMaster University. She holds an MMSc in Global Health Delivery from Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and is Associate Faculty with Ariadne Labs at Harvard School of Public Health. As a postdoctoral fellow, her research centers on evaluating the World Health Organization’s "Health and Peace" approach and its impact on health outcomes and peacebuilding initiatives in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and among the Abraham Accord Signatories. In particular, she’s looking at the roles that state actors and NGOs play through grassroots health projects in achieving these outcomes, while also considering the broader regional political economy of peacebuilding and health system strengthening.

Her graduate thesis was a convergent mixed-method study which piloted a model that blended community empowerment, imaging technology, and social accompaniment to advance women's health in a limited-resource, conflict setting. Her work has been supported by organizations such as Ashoka Changemakers, United Way, the Fund for Innovation and Transformation (FIT), and Global Affairs Canada. She is also a recipient of the YMCA Women of Distinction Award for her contributions to social justice in healthcare.

Shawna serves as the Executive Director of The Canada International Scientific Exchange Program (CISEPO). She is also a public health advisor in the Global Health Unit of the Canadian Red Cross, focusing on epidemic prevention and control, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her portfolio also includes serving on the board of the Women for Dignity and Development Foundation and the Save a Child's Heart Canada Medical Advisory Committee, as well as the health workforce committee for the Consortium for Universities in Global Health (CUGH).

Shawna lectures regularly with a focus ranging from health in conflict settings to negotiation in polycrisis environments. She also consults to the World Health Organization on frameworks for healthcare delivery in complex humanitarian contexts and for migrant and refugee populations.