Date February 20, 2025

Renowned health experts bring White House and global experience to Brown’s School of Public Health

Global health security leaders Stephanie Psaki and Nikki Romanik bring their extensive experience in pandemic preparedness, global health security and health policy to the School of Public Health.

Stephanie Psaki, Ph.D., and Nikki Romanik, M.D., former senior White House officials with the Biden-Harris administration, have been appointed distinguished senior fellows in global health security at the Brown University School of Public Health.

Based at the School of Public Health’s Washington, D.C. office, the two leaders will play pivotal roles in advancing the school’s global health and biosecurity initiatives. Psaki and Romanik bring a robust track record in navigating complex global health challenges at the highest levels of government.

“We are thrilled to welcome these two distinguished leaders to our community,” said Dean Ashish Jha. “Their unmatched experience in global health security and policy will enable us to deepen our impact on some of the most critical challenges in public health today. Through their leadership, our community will gain deeper insights into navigating complex health and biosecurity challenges and ensuring effective government and private sector responses to the most pressing global health challenges of our time.”

As part of their time at Brown, Psaki and Romanik will engage with policymakers and leaders from around the world on global health and health security, write extensively on these topics and use their firsthand experience at the forefront of national and global health policy to help inspire the next generation of public health leaders.

Initiatives they will take on range from developing strategies to enhance biothreat detection, contributing to innovative vaccine manufacturing — including mRNA technology — while addressing gaps in sustainable financing for global health security. They will also lead discussions on how the lessons learned from COVID-19, mpox, Marburg, Ebola and other outbreaks can inform preparedness for future biological threats. They will work with scholars and practitioners across the field to shape discussions about the future of global health, including the role of the United States, and explore innovative approaches to addressing growing global health threats, such as those posed by climate change and humanitarian emergencies.

Psaki previously served as special assistant to the president and the inaugural U.S. coordinator for global health security at the White House, appointed by President Biden. In this role, Psaki oversaw the federal government’s international response to emerging global health threats such as mpox, Ebola and Marburg. She also led U.S. Government engagement with other countries and multilateral institutions on key global health and health security challenges. Psaki served on the staff of the National Security Council during the Biden-Harris Administration, overseeing issues ranging from strengthening global health security to ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat, expanding access to sexual and reproductive health services and protecting human rights. Psaki also oversaw U.S. Government participation in a range of multilateral health negotiations, including the Pandemic Accord negotiations, as well as the U.S. government's relationship with the World Health Organization.

We are facing a moment of enormous challenge in this country and in the world. Addressing these challenges will require not only deep expertise, but also the ability to work with allies and partners around the world, and to find creative – and sustainable – solutions to meet the growing threats of outbreaks, climate change, and humanitarian crises.

Stephanie Psaki Distinguished senior fellow in global health security

Prior to joining the Biden-Harris Administration, Psaki worked for nearly 20 years in senior roles at NGOs and research institutions, including leading a research center at the Population Council focused on adolescent health and economic opportunity. Her research on health, education, gender equality and other issues has been published in top scientific journals, including The Lancet and Demography. She served as editor of Studies in Family Planning, a top demography journal. Psaki previously worked at the National Institutes of Health, Partners in Health and FHI 360. She has a Ph.D. in public health from Johns Hopkins University.

Romanik most recently served as the special assistant to the president, deputy director and chief of staff for the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy at the White House. In this role, she strategically led the recruitment and establishment of the inaugural office, overseeing key outcome- focused endeavors to strengthen national preparedness and response to pandemics. Romanik oversaw the federal government’s domestic preparedness and response to emerging global health threats such as the mpox and Marburg outbreaks in DRC and Rwanda. Romanik brings deep experience in pandemic and outbreak response, policy development and emergency management, drawing on her extensive experience leading outbreak efforts at the White House, the World Health Organization, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She has over 15 years of leadership in both national and international public health initiatives — from spearheading policy initiatives while serving on the White House National Mpox Response Team to developing strategic partnerships for the WHO during the height of the COVID pandemic. Her expertise spans early detection and response, vaccine distribution, health equity, stakeholder engagement and her past work has emphasized the importance of public-private partnerships and engaging civil society organizations, while navigating difficult crises in complex political and social environments.

Public health is in my heart. I want to focus on how we communicate public health issues effectively — especially as we face a whole new set of challenges.

Nikki Romanik Distinguished senior fellow in global health security

Both Psaki and Romanik expressed excitement about transitioning from public service to academia and highlighted the importance of sharing lessons from their time in government.

“We are facing a moment of enormous challenge in this country and in the world. Addressing these challenges will require not only deep expertise, but also the ability to work with allies and partners around the world, and to find creative – and sustainable – solutions to meet the growing threats of outbreaks, climate change, and humanitarian crises,” Psaki said. “These are the questions I tackled at the White House, and I look forward to making progress alongside the incredible scholars at Brown.”

Romanik added: “I’m looking forward to reflecting on my experiences and sharing what I’ve learned with the next generation of public health practitioners and the broader public. Public health is in my heart. I want to focus on how we communicate public health issues effectively — especially as we face a whole new set of challenges. One of the main questions is how we engage and reach a broad range of people from across the political spectrum?”

Psaki and Romanik’s appointments underscore Brown’s commitment to deeply engaging with the pressing issues of our time while equipping students and researchers with the resources to confront global health challenges. In addition to driving thought leadership and research in health security, Psaki and Romanik will engage with students and collaborate with faculty from centers such as the Pandemic Center and the Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research.

“By bringing leaders of this caliber into our fold, we are reinforcing Brown’s commitment to shaping solutions to the world’s most urgent public health challenges,” Jha added.