Vanessa Bradford Kerry, MD MSc

Educational History

  • 2007 M.D. Harvard Medical School
  • 2005 MSc. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine & London School of Economics
  • 1999 B.S. Yale University

Professional Training

  • 2000-08 Internship in Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • 2008-10 Residency in Internal Medicine
  • 2011-13 Fellowship in Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital

Dr. Kerry is an Instructor in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Instructor in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is also the Director of the Global Public Policy and Social Change Program in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. The program helps examine the underutilization of healthcare as a tool to address economic, social, and cultural disparities that define poor health domestically and internationally. Her academic focus is on developing needed partnerships between medicine and public and foreign policy. She is working to help highlight the impacts of political decisions on health, the need to support health education and capacity building programs in developing countries, and the role health can play in improving foreign assistance efforts. Her work has included efforts to have U.S. federal funding for training and careers in global health, as well as looking at models for U.S. foreign assistance to fund health efforts which improve efficiency of aid delivery, develop capacity, and enhance national sovereignty. She lead a grassroots effort for a Global Health Service Corps - a Peace Corps for health - with a goal of teaching and education for health system strengthening guided by host country requests. The program was announced in partnership with the Peace Corps in the spring of 2012.

Dr. Kerry is the Associate Director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Center for Global Health. Through her position at MGH, she focuses on developing global health education, research, and capacity-building opportunities at MGH and in their partner countries.

Courses Taught

  • Introduction to Social Medicine

Research Interests

  • Global health education for US and partner health professionals
  • Role of US Military in health and development
  • US foreign outreach and policy and health equity

Current Projects

  • Case studies on NATO’s involvement in the health sector
  • Mapping the US global health education efforts
  • Global Health Service Partnership, a Peace Corps for skilled medical professionals

Select Publications

  • Kerry, VB Lee, K. “TRIPS, the Doha declaration and paragraph 6 decision: what are the remaining steps for protecting access to medicines?” Globalization and Health. 2007, 3:3 (24 May 2007)
  • Kerry, VB. “… And one for Doctors Too,” Op/Ed, New York Times, February 13, 2010
  • Kerry, VB, Auld S, Farmer P. “An International Service Corps for Health: An Unconventional Prescription for Diplomacy.” New England Journal of Medicine. 2010; 363 (13): 1199- 1201
  • Kerry, VB Bangsberg, D. “Investments in Global Health Today Reduce Our Foreign Aid Obligations Tomorrow” eJournal, Department of State, Washington D.C.
  • Kerry VB, Ndung'u T, Walensky RP, Lee P, Kayanja F, Bangsberg D. Managing the Demand for Global Health Education, PLoS Medicine, 2011, 8(11): e1001118. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001118