Vanessa Kerry

Dr. Kerry is the co-founder and CEO of Seed Global Health, a non-profit organization focused on health systems strengthening and transformation through long-term investments and training of the health workforce. Under her leadership, Seed has helped educate more than 34,000 doctors, nurses, and midwives in seven countries, helping to improve health care for more than 73 million people. In June 2023, Dr. Kerry was appointed WHO Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health. She has spoken and written about the effects of climate change on human health and health systems and the need to integrate a health-centered response into climate change mitigation and adaptation measures. Dr. Kerry is supporting the COP28 Presidency to shape the first-ever COP Day of Health on December 3, 2023 and leading efforts to build advocacy around the impact of climate change on health and ensure equitable and just climate action. As co-chair of a workstream on the World Health Organization’s Public Health and Emergency Health Workforce Roadmap, she is helping to galvanize consensus for investment in surveillance, detection, and treatment for the next pandemic. She is a critical care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and serves as the associate director of partnerships and global initiatives at the MGH Center for Global Health. She directs the Global Public Policy and Social Change program at Harvard Medical School where she has focused on links between security and health. She is the mother of two children.