Photo of Vanessa Kerry

Vanessa Kerry, MD, MSc

Director, Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change
CEO, Seed Global Health
Associate Professor of Medicine

Vanessa Kerry is the director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 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. The Program’s signature initiative is on health system strengthening and crisis response. Dr. Kerry is the founder and CEO of Seed Global Health, a non-profit that invests in health system strengthening by training needed health professionals in resource limited settings; these health professionals can not only provide quality care but can help train others ensuring there is pipeline of doctors, nurses and midwives for future generations. She is also a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves as the associate director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives at the hospital’s Center for Global Health.

Dr. Kerry graduated from Yale University summa cum laude and Harvard Medical School cum laude, completing her internal medicine residency and critical care fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. She earned her Master’s in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London Schools of Economics and of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Affiliations:

  • Instructor in Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Associate Director of Partnerships and Global Initiatives, Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health

Vanessa Kerry is the director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. 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. The Program’s signature initiative is the Threatened Health System Initiative which specifically focuses on the opportunities for protecting health systems in crisis response especially by security and military actors. The Initiative’s goal is to strengthen policies around crisis response, to develop networks between security actors, health providers, iNGOs and others to improve problem solving, to engage in research to better understand the health systems’ vulnerability and the subsequent opportunities for improved response, and to provide technical support to build capacity in in these systems. Dr. Kerry is the founder and CEO of Seed Global Health, a non-profit that invests in health system strengthening by training needed health professionals in resource limited settings; through her work at Seed Global Health, she examines the role for and impact of improving human resources for health in these countries.

Adolescents and the right to health: eliminating age-related barriers to HIV/AIDS services in Rwanda.
Authors: Authors: Binagwaho A, Fuller A, Kerry V, Dougherty S, Agbonyitor M, Wagner C, Nzayizera R, Farmer P.
AIDS Care
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Managing the demand for global health education.
Authors: Authors: Kerry VB, Ndung'u T, Walensky RP, Lee PT, Kayanja VF, Bangsberg DR.
PLoS Med
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Transforming health professionals' education.
Authors: Authors: Lee PT, Kerry VB, Stone VE, Freedberg KA, Bangsberg DR.
Lancet
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Meeting cholera's challenge to Haiti and the world: a joint statement on cholera prevention and care.
Authors: Authors: Farmer P, Almazor CP, Bahnsen ET, Barry D, Bazile J, Bloom BR, Bose N, Brewer T, Calderwood SB, Clemens JD, Cravioto A, Eustache E, Jérôme G, Gupta N, Harris JB, Hiatt HH, Holstein C, Hotez PJ, Ivers LC, Kerry VB, Koenig SP, Larocque RC, Léandre F, Lambert W, Lyon E, Mekalanos JJ, Mukherjee JS, Oswald C, Pape JW, Gretchko Prosper A, Rabinovich R, Raymonville M, Réjouit JR, Ronan LJ, Rosenberg ML, Ryan ET, Sachs JD, Sack DA, Surena C, Suri AA, Ternier R, Waldor MK, Walton D, Weigel JL.
PLoS Negl Trop Dis
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An international service corps for health--an unconventional prescription for diplomacy.
Authors: Authors: Kerry VB, Auld S, Farmer P.
N Engl J Med
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TRIPS, the Doha declaration and paragraph 6 decision: what are the remaining steps for protecting access to medicines?
Authors: Authors: Kerry VB, Lee K.
Global Health
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Cunningham L, Daoust P, Sayeed S
Authors: Authors: Kerrry V