Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH, is the Enterprise Chief of Emergency Medicine for Mass General Brigham (MBG) and the Founding Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI) at Harvard University. He serves as the Chair of Emergency Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. At Harvard Medical School, he is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, he is a Professor of Humanitarian Studies.
With clinical interests in international emergency medicine and humanitarian assistance, Dr. VanRooyen has led complex humanitarian operations with numerous relief organizations in more than thirty countries affected by conflict and disaster. He has worked internationally as a humanitarian and leadership expert with several prominent non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and as a policy advisor, testifying before Congress and at United Nations (U.N.) briefings.
Domestically, Dr. VanRooyen has worked as an emergency physician with the U.S. Secret Service, NASA, and the U.S. Public Health Service, particularly with Navajo and Apache tribes. He has led responses to many local and national crises including the Boston Marathon bombings, the COVID-19 pandemic, Hurricane Katrina, the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.
With over 100 publications and 2 books, Dr. VanRooyen often lectures on topics including complex emergency medicine and humanitarian leadership. In 2012, he founded the Humanitarian Academy at Harvard University, an educational program designed to advance professional development for humanitarian leaders globally. He has served on several academic advisory boards, panels, and on the Perspectives Editorial Advisory Board of the New England Journal of Medicine.
As Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Dr. VanRooyen aims to provide evidence-based solutions to “relieve human suffering in war and disaster” through interdisciplinary research, education, and policy development. Through the initiative, he has provided technical support services to the U.N. and NGOs in most major conflict areas and disasters.