An accomplished and practicing physician, Dr. Jha is recognized globally as a trusted expert on major issues impacting public health, and a catalyst for new thinking and approaches. A long-time leader on pandemic preparedness and response, from directing groundbreaking research on Ebola to serving on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response, he has led national and international analysis of key issues and advised local and federal policy makers around the world.

President Joe Biden appointed Dr. Jha as White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator in March 2022, describing him as “one of the leading public health experts in America.” Dr. Jha led the work that increased the development of and access to treatments and newly formulated vaccines, dramatically improved testing and surveillance, facilitated major investments in indoor air quality measures, and put in place an infrastructure to respond to current and future disease outbreaks more effectively. He has received bipartisan praise for his pragmatic approach to public health that, in the words of President Biden, “translates…complex scientific challenges into concrete actions” that help improve millions of lives.

Before joining the Brown School of Public Health, Dr. Jha was a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. He was the faculty director of the Harvard Global Health Institute from 2014 until 2020 and has held other various leadership roles at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Wilmot James Ph.D., an internationally recognized thought leader in biosecurity, global health, and pandemic preparedness, is a senior advisor to the School’s Pandemic Center.

James has served as Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health in South Africa, and most recently held positions at Columbia University as Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and as Chair of the Center for Pandemic Research. He is a highly sought-after consultant for organizations such as the African Society for Laboratory Medicine and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, and serves on the advisory board of Resolve to Save Lives. James uses his extensive experience to address public health and national security challenges in his role as senior advisor to the Pandemic Center.

As the top Democrat on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, and the second woman to chair the Committee, Congresswoman DeLauro is a relentless advocate for working families and children. She has prioritized critical investments to support the strengthening of core public health capabilities at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), including increased funding for CDC laboratories, public health data modernization and investments in our public health workforce.

A lifelong champion of paid family and medical leave, paid sick leave and improving women’s health care, DeLauro’s leadership was instrumental in the passage of the monthly, expanded and improved Child Tax Credit, which reached millions of families, reducing child poverty to the lowest recorded levels in history.

DeLauro also leads efforts to improve and expand federal support for child nutrition, and for modernizing our food safety system. As an ovarian cancer survivor, she is an outspoken advocate for research and expanded access to care – particularly for women and underserved communities.