Jennifer Leaning

Jennifer Leaning, MD, SMH, has transformed understanding of humanitarian crises and human rights through her pioneering work spanning four decades. After earning her BA magna cum laude from Radcliffe College, MSc from Harvard School of Public Health, and MD with honors from the University of Chicago, she has built an extraordinary career combining medical expertise with humanitarian advocacy. As former Director of the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights (2010-2018) and co-founder of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, she has shaped global responses to humanitarian crises through research and field work in conflict zones including Afghanistan, Somalia, Kosovo, and the African Great Lakes region. Her expertise spans emergency medicine, public health, human rights law, and forced migration, with particular focus on climate change impacts. Her influential work includes co-editing seminal texts on humanitarian crises and nuclear war, while serving on boards of major organizations including Physicians for Human Rights and the American Red Cross. Currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard FXB Center and Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, she continues to influence global policy through her research on public health in war zones, mass atrocity prevention, and climate-induced displacement.