Former NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, M.D. appointed Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
Today Harvard Kennedy School’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government announced that it has appointed Monica Bertagnolli, M.D., 17th director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a senior research fellow with the Center’s Healthcare Policy Program.
Dr. Bertagnolli served from 2023 to 2025 as NIH Director and was the first surgeon and second woman to helm the country’s premium medical research agency. Prior to her appointment as director, she headed the National Cancer Institute and served as the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery in surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She trained in surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and was a research fellow in tumor immunology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Bertagnolli was also recently nominated for the presidency of the National Academy of Medicine.
“The Kennedy School is at the intersection of so many important national conversations between healthcare, science, and public policy,” said Dr. Bertagnolli. “We are at a critical inflection point for the future of healthcare in America, which will require new ideas and approaches to ensure that everyone has access to innovative treatment approaches and high quality healthcare options in this country. I’m looking forward to engaging with the HKS community during my appointment and partnering with Professor Chandra’s Healthcare Policy Program to lead conversations about the future of healthcare policy.”
“I’m delighted to welcome Dr. Bertagnolli to HKS and the Healthcare Policy Program. Her experience as both a groundbreaking physical-scientist and NIH Director brings invaluable scientific, research, and policymaking expertise to the Kennedy School,” said Professor Chandra, Ethel Zimmerman Wiener Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Healthcare Policy Program at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government. “Her appointment will be a tremendous benefit to our work at the Center, and I’m thankful that our faculty, researchers, and students will have the opportunity to partner with one of our country’s leading medical authorities here at Harvard."
About the Healthcare Policy Program
The mission of the Healthcare Policy Program is to discover solutions and provide leadership for unprecedented problems in healthcare. The program has three aims: research, on access, innovation, and value in healthcare; establishing conversations between researchers, government, and industry; and preparing future generations of leaders through educational programs.
About the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
The mission of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government is to advance the state of knowledge and policy analysis concerning some of society’s most challenging problems at the interface of the public and private sectors. The scope of its work ranges from the local to the global. Drawing on the unparalleled intellectual resources of the Kennedy School and Harvard University, and bringing together thought leaders from both business and government, the center conducts research, facilitates dialogue, and seeks answers that are at once intellectually rigorous and policy relevant.
Media Contact
Mediarelations@hks.harvard.edu