DR. ASHWIN VASAN, NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT, NAMED DISTINGUISHED FELLOW FOR SCHOOL OF GLOBAL HEALTH AT MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 30, 2024
Contact:
School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College
SGH@mmc.edu
Dr. Ashwin Vasan
Rachel Noerdlinger | rnoerdlinger@actumllc.com
DR. ASHWIN VASAN, NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT, NAMED DISTINGUISHED FELLOW FOR SCHOOL OF GLOBAL HEALTH AT MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE
Former Commissioner of America’s Oldest and Largest Municipal Health Department to Bring Expertise on Multi-Disciplinary Policy Solutions
Nashville, TN (Wednesday, October 30, 2024) – Dr. Ashwin Vasan, who led New York City through the COVID-19 pandemic as its 44th Health Commissioner, has been named the James McCune Smith Distinguished Fellow for the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College, the institution announced today. Dr. Vasan brings 20 years of experience working in public health to the nation’s oldest and largest historically Black academic health sciences institution’s nearly 150-year tradition of advancing health equity.
“As Founding Dean of the School of Global Health, my goal is to actualize, operationalize, and optimize equitable solutions and responses to our most complex health issues,” said Daniel E. Dawes, J.D., Founding Dean of the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College. “In doing so, we have sought to bring in practitioners and thought leaders like Dr. Vasan, who can bring their experience here and help us achieve new heights. Dr. Vasan’s health leadership in New York City and elsewhere is an example for our nation and beyond, and I know he will be a strong addition to what we are building here at Meharry, as we continue to work with our founding advisory board to develop long-term solutions for communities around the globe.”
“I am excited to help Dean Dawes craft a new vision for global health education and impact that puts equity at the center of a common project for better health for all,” said Ashwin Vasan, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Fellow for the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College. “And to do it at one of the nation’s most storied HBCUs is essential, because more than ever solutions for Black and Brown communities must come from within. I’m eager to support and mentor the next generation of doers and thinkers, who will take the lessons from the pandemic and beyond, to put us on a course toward a better future, where everyone has an equal shot at a healthier, longer life. But it is especially humbling to hold a fellowship named for someone who, at every turn fought for their seat at the table when he wasn’t given one, and whose work made an impact on medicine and public health for generations to come. James McCune Smith dedicated his life to breaking down barriers, opening doors, and making communities healthier, and I am honored to carry on his legacy and his name through this appointment.”
This August, the nation’s first school of global health focused on making health inequities history welcomed its inaugural cohort of students at Meharry Medical College, which opened its doors in 1876. Dean Dawes and the School of Global Health sought to shift the paradigm from just a population-wide intervention to public health to instead focus on multidisciplinary, multi-level, and multisectoral approaches that are centered on health equity and the political determinants of health framework. The School of Global Health has quickly established itself for a center of education, research, and impact on a host of health factors such as upstream determinants, climate change and the environment, mental and behavioral health factors, global health diplomacy, and health communications.
The Distinguished Fellowship is named for Dr. James McCune Smith, a colleague of Frederick Douglass who became the first Black American to earn a medical degree, and to operate a pharmacy. Born into slavery in Manhattan in 1813, he became free at age 14 but was forced to get his medical degree at Glasgow University in Scotland after being refused admission in the US based on his race. He was a fierce abolitionist, and wrote many scientific articles refuting the pseudo-science of African inferiority, ran a thriving medical practice in New York City while also becoming involved in the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Dr. Vasan most recently served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, appointed in December 2021 and serving from March 2022 until October 2024. Under his leadership, the Department led the city out of the COVID-19 pandemic, tackled new health challenges like mpox and the asylum seeker crisis, all while reshaping the public health agenda for the city to take on the crisis of falling life expectancy and widening inequity. The Department under his leadership became a leader in reproductive rights and abortion access as well as in combatting Black maternal mortality, affordability and access to care, while also addressing the mental health impacts of social media on teenagers and expanding access through telehealth and digital mental health tools, while lowering the number of overdose deaths for the first time in a five years. Dr. Vasan’s signature initiative was HealthyNYC, which aims to bring the average lifespan for New Yorkers to its highest point ever at 83 by 2030 by focusing on premature and preventable deaths, that disproportionately impact communities of color. The commitments of HealthyNYC have since been enshrined into law, meaning the City of New York must consider health and longevity as part of its five-year strategic plans. Dr Vasan began his career with a decade in global public health, fighting HIV/AIDS in the developing world with organizations like Partners In Health and the World Health Organization, and later went on to lead a new citywide program, the Health Access Equity Unit in New York City, focused on integrated care for justice involved and other marginalized people. Dr. Vasan additionally teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and continues to see patients as a primary care internist in the Division of General Medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
About the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College
The School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College, located in Nashville, Tennessee, is rooted in Meharry’s nearly 150-year legacy of leading on health equity issues. As the nation’s first and only School of Global Health we are committed to preparing the next generation of global health learners and leaders to find solutions and respond to our communities’ complex and evolving health challenges with a global perspective. A hub for research and academic innovation in global health, mental and behavioral health, population health, public health, environmental health, health communications, social and political determinants of health, and more, the School is a trusted resource for health equity approaches and actionable solutions to the inequities affecting our most vulnerable, under-resourced, and marginalized communities. Learn more at MeharryGlobal.org.
About Dr. Ashwin Vasan
As a physician, epidemiologist, and the 44th Health Commissioner for the City of New York, Dr Ashwin Vasan has devoted his career to prevention, equity, and centering the needs of marginalized communities. He has pioneered a range of transformative policy, program, and research initiatives in health and human services, over a 20-year career, including global work for Partners In Health and the World Health Organization. From 2016 to 2019, he served as the he founding Executive Director of the Health Access Equity Unit at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Before returning to the Department as Commissioner in 2022, Dr. Vasan was the President and CEO of Fountain House, a U.S.-based mental health and human services nonprofit, that provides employment, education, supportive housing, health and wellness programs. He holds a BA in Economics from UCLA, a ScM in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health, an MD from the University of Michigan, and a PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in the UK. He completed his internal medicine/primary care training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
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