Joan Kaufman, D.S.

Dr. Kaufman teaches, advises, conducts research on global health policy issues and works as  the  Senior Director for Academic Programs for the Schwarzman Scholars Program, a one-year masters in global affairs modeled on the Rhodes Scholars program and based at Tsinghua University in China. She was previously the Director of Columbia University’s Global Center for East Asia, Distinguished Scientist at Brandeis University, founder and Director of the AIDS Public Policy Program at the Harvard Kennedy School, and the China team leader for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, a public-private partnership based in New York. She has served as program officer for both the United Nations Population Fund and the Ford Foundation in their China offices. She holds a doctorate in public health from Harvard, was a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, and named as a Soros Reproductive Health and Rights fellow. Dr. Kaufman speaks Mandarin and has lived in China for more than 15 years, working closely with the government and key donors on many aspects of HIV prevention and service provision and community participation, reproductive health improvement, and women’s rights achievement. Her research projects focus on building the capacity for government and nongovernmental-organization collaboration on China’s AIDS response, improving reproductive health services for poor women, developing and evaluating mental health counseling interventions for AIDS orphans, and examining social policies and demographic evidence related to the impacts of China’s one-child population policy. She has collaborated with global research networks aimed at improving the integration of HIV/AIDS and reproductive health services and to improve women’s participation in health planning in poor communities in Asia and Africa aimed at reducing maternal mortality and morbidity and improving diagnosis and treatment of reproductive-tract infections. Current projects include a focus on China’s health aid to Africa, China’s increasing participation in global health governance mechanisms, and an in-depth examination of adolescent health needs in China and globally. Her overall research and teaching focuses on gender, population and global health policy and governance issues including health and trade, health and climate change, emerging infectious diseases and health security.