Atul Gawande, MD, MPH

John and Cyndy Fish Chair in Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Samuel O. Thier Professor of the Practice of Surgery, Harvard Medical School
Professor of the Practice in Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Distinguished Professor in Residence, Ariadne Labs
Atul Gawande has short black hair and glasses. He is wearing a gray suit with a patterned tie and sitting with his hands folded in front of him.

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is a renowned surgeon, public health innovator, and author. He holds the Fish Chair in Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is the Samuel O. Thier Professor of the Practice of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. He is also Professor of the Practice at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Gawande was Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID from January 2022 to January 2025. Prior to that, he was co-founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation where he is now Distinguished Professor in Residence, and Lifebox, a nonprofit making surgery safer globally.  Dr. Gawande is also a longtime writer for The New Yorker magazine. He has written four best-selling books, including Being Mortal, and produced three award winning documentary films.

His work has had a lasting, transformative impact. It has introduced team checklists that have reduced deaths in surgery and in childbirth and delivered systems improving care and quality of life in serious illness. At USAID, he oversaw efforts that sustained health systems in conflicts from Ukraine to Haiti, contained 21 deadly disease outbreaks, and strengthened primary health systems, saving more than one million lives.