Additional Appointees

David Blumenthal MD, MPP is Professor of Practice of Public Health and Health Policy at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and a Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is also Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School. From 2013 to 2023, Dr Blumenthal was president and CEO of the Commonwealth Fund, a health care philanthropy based in New York City with the mission of improving the functioning of the US health care system. From 2009 to 2011 he was National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under President Obama, where he led the implementation of the HITECH Act and of the concept of the meaningful use of electronic health records. Prior to 2009, Dr. Blumenthal was a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Director of the Institute for Health Policy at MGH and Harvard, which he founded.

Dr. Blumenthal is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and a member of the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine, where he has also served as a National Correspondent. He is also a member of the board of New England Journal AI, a new publication focusing on artificial intelligence in medicine and health. He serves on the board of Aledade, a company supporting value based primary care and on the boards of the Carol Emmott Foundation and the Josiah Macy Foundation. He has served previously on the boards of the University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania health systems. He holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Rush University and Honorary Doctors of Science from Claremont Graduate University and the State University of New York Downstate.

Alex Domash works with Professor Larry Summers on US macroeconomic and labor market research. Before joining M-RCBG, he spent five years working at the intersection of research and policy, focusing on development, labor markets, social protection, and trade & investment. He has worked with the World Bank in Uganda, where he collaborated with the Ministry of Education to improve the incentives and performance of public sector workers. He has also been a consultant for the Ministry of Trade and Industry in Ethiopia, where he helped shape Ethiopia’s export promotion strategy, and for the Ministry of Labor and Social Development in Saudi Arabia, where he advised on strategies to increase youth and female participation in the labor market. He is also serves as an Advancing Evidence in Policy Fellow at the Center for Global Development, where his work focuses on improving the use of evidence in U.S. foreign aid and development policy. He holds a Masters in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. E-mail: alex_domash@hks.harvard.edu

Luca Giani (MPP 2022) is a M-RCBG Fellow researching the interconnection of business and government in the biotech space, with a particular focus on early-stage R&D and applications of novel technologies to the field.  Luca is the co-founder and CEO of Ilios Therapeutics, a platform chemistry startup developing first-in-class small molecules simultaneously modulating three key drivers of neurodegenerative diseases. Driven by personal and family experiences, Luca is dedicated to advancing brain-related disease research.

Luca previously served as a TAPP Fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center, researching under Dr. Bob Langer's mentorship on how to improve neurodegenerative disease research towards impact. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, Luca studied Translational Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, holds an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BS from Georgetown University.

Joshua Horton is the senior program fellow for solar geoengineering at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. Horton conducts research on geoengineering policy and governance issues, including the regulation of research, liability and compensation, and geopolitics. He previously worked as a clean energy consultant for a global energy consulting firm. His recent publications include “Solar Geoengineering Research on the U.S. Policy Agenda: When Might Its Time Come?,” coauthored with Tyler Felgenhauer and David Keith; “Parametric Insurance for Solar Geoengineering: Insights from the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Assessment and Financing Initiative,” coauthored with Penehuro Lefale and David Keith; and “Steering and Influence in Transnational Climate Governance: Nonstate Engagement in Solar Geoengineering Research,” coauthored with Barbara Koremenos. Horton holds a PhD in political science from Johns Hopkins University and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. Email: horton@seas.harvard.edu

Lynn M. Hua is a Health Care Markets, Policy, and Regulation Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. She conducts research on health care and insurance markets, drug pricing, and vertical integration of healthcare organizations with Professor Leemore Dafny. She holds a PhD in Managerial Science and Applied Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to Wharton, she was a predoctoral research fellow at Stanford Health Policy. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Starting Fall 2024, Lynn will be an Assistant Professor of Insurance Economics at the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. Email: lynnhua@hks.harvard.edu 

Valerio Nispi Landi is a Post-Doctoral Fellow, researching International, Monetary, and Environmental Economics. His latest work analyzes how the green transition affects the role of monetary policy. He is also studying the global implications of the introduction of a US central bank digital currency. His research has also focused on the role of capital controls in affecting financial stability in emerging economies. He previously worked as an economist at the Research Department of the Bank of Italy. He has a PhD in Economics from Bocconi University, with a thesis on "Financial frictions and financial shocks: policy response and macroeconomic implications".

Chris Miller is Associate Professor of International History at The Fletcher School, where his research focuses on technology, geopolitics, economics, international affairs, and Russia. He is author of Chip War: The Fight for the World's Most Critical Technology, a geopolitical history of the computer chip. He is the author of three other books on Russia, including Putinomics: Power and Money in Resurgent Russia; We Shall Be Masters: Russia's Pivots to East Asia from Peter the Great to Putin; and The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR. He has previously served as the Associate Director of the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy at Yale, a lecturer at the New Economic School in Moscow, a visiting researcher at the Carnegie Moscow Center, a research associate at the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow at the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Academy. He received his PhD and MA from Yale University and his BA in history from Harvard University

William H. Overholt, has been a Senior Research Fellow or Senior Fellow in Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and previously the Harvard Asia Center since 2008. During 2013-15 he also served as President of the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong. His career includes 16 years doing policy research at think tanks and 21 years running investment bank research teams. Previously he held the Asia Policy Distinguished Research Chair at RAND’s California headquarters and was Director of the Center for Asia Pacific Policy; concurrently he was Visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiaodong University and, earlier, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Korea’s Yonsei University. During 21 years in investment banking, he served as Head of Strategy and Economics at Nomura’s regional headquarters in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2001, and as Managing Director and Head of Research at Bank Boston's regional headquarters in Singapore. For Bankers Trust, he ran a country risk team in New York from 1980 to 1984, then was regional strategist and Asia research head based in Hong Kong from 1985 to 1998. At Hudson Institute from 1971 to 1979, Dr. Overholt directed planning studies for the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, National Security Council, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Council on International Economic Policy. As Director of Hudson Research Services, he also did strategic planning for corporations. Dr. Overholt has published eight books, including China’s Crisis of Success (Cambridge University Press, 2018); Renminbi Rising: The Emergence of a New Global Monetary System (Wiley, 2016) and Asia, America and the Transformation of Geopolitics (Cambridge University Press, 2007); The Rise of China (W.W. Norton, 1993; and (with William Ascher) Strategic Planning and Forecasting (John Wiley, 1983). He is principal co-author of: Asia's Nuclear Future (Westview Press, 1976) and The Future of Brazil (Westview Press, 1978). With Zbigniew Brzezinski, he founded the periodical Global Assessment in 1976 and edited it until 1988. Dr. Overholt received his B.A. (magna, 1968) from Harvard and his Master of Philosophy (1970) and Ph.D. (1972) from Yale. Email: williamoverholt@fas.harvard.edu

 Nancy Rose is the Charles P. Kindleberger Professor in the MIT Economics Department, where her research and teaching focus on industrial organization, competition policy, and the economics of regulation.  Her recent research on the economic and legal foundations for more effective antitrust enforcement builds on her experience as the DAAG for Economic Analysis in the DOJ Antitrust Division from 2014 through 2016.  She directed the National Bureau of Economic Research program in Industrial Organization from its inception in 1991 through 2014, and is a current NBER Research Associate. 

Rose has been recognized with a number of professional honors and awards, including election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Carolyn Shaw Bell Award from the American Economic Association’s (AEA) Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, the Industrial Organization Society Distinguished Fellow award, MIT’s Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellowship, and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, among others.  She was a fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study for 2021-22.  Rose currently serves as President of the Industrial Organization Society (IOS), Vice President of the Western Economics Association International, and on the advisory boards of the American Antitrust Institute, the Hamilton Project, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  She is a member of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) Research and Policy Network on Competition Policy. Her past professional service includes terms as Vice President and Executive Committee member of the AEA, Vice President of the IOS, and on a number of editorial boards.

Martin Söndergaard is a Research Associate at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School and a Visiting Researcher with Professor Michael E. Porter as faculty sponsor at the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School. His research investigates what strategic actions companies can take to increase both profitability and social impact. He has designed course curricula and taught extensively at undergraduate and graduate levels with excellent course evaluations. He has published a book, as well as several book chapters and reports with leading institutions. Within his field of research, he has worked as a public speaker and workshop leader for the top management of publicly traded multinationals and has been featured as an expert on national television. He has founded two startups. Martin is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Stockholm School of Economics with a B.Sc. in Psychology from Stockholm University and a B.Sc. in Business and Economics from Stockholm School of Economics.  Email: Martin_Soendergaard@hks.harvard.edu

Alexander Wagner is a Professor of Finance at the University of Zurich (UZH) and a Senior Chair at the Swiss Finance Institute. He leads the Executive Education of UZH’s Faculty of Business, Economics, and Informatics, and he is Co-Head of the UZH Center for Crisis Competence. He earned his PhD in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University, with Richard Zeckhauser as his primary advisor. Prior to that, he completed studies in economics and law in his hometown Linz, Austria. His research focuses on corporate finance and governance, sustainable finance, and behavioral economics and finance. His talk on “What really motivates people to be honest in business” is available on TED.com. Details at: www.alex-wagner.com. 

Robert Paarlberg is an Associate at Harvard’s Weatherhead Center and also an Associate in the Sustainability Science Program at the Kennedy School. He has been an adjunct professor of public policy at the Kennedy School and is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Wellesley College. He received his PhD in International Relations from Harvard University, and his research focus is on international food and agricultural policy. He is the author of six university press books, including one on agricultural technology in Africa (Starved for Science, Harvard University Press, 2008), another on America’s overconsumption of both food and fuel (The United States of Excess, Oxford, 2015), and more recently a 2021 book from Knopf titled Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food we Grow and Eat (a Nautilus Book Award winner in 2022). Paarlberg has been a member of the Board of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the National Research Council of the National Academies, and the Board of Directors of Winrock International. He has worked in 15 different countries in Africa as a consultant to the International Food Policy Research Institute, USAID, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Aspen Institute, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and is currently researching livelihood protection in West Africa under the threat of climate change, with a grant from Harvard’s new Salata Institute. He recently chaired the independent steering committee for a CGIAR research program, Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH). On six different occasions he has testified to Congress. The third edition of Paarlberg’s 2010 OUP book, Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, was published in September, 2023. 

Richard Yarrow is a fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center. He was recently a fellow at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and previously the Harvard University Archives, where he ran a university-wide faculty oral history program. His research focuses on science, economics, and political thought in modern China and Germany. Yarrow has also worked or studied at think tanks across the political spectrum including the Center for American Progress, Urban Institute, and American Enterprise Institute. He studied intellectual history and philosophy at Harvard University, where he received the Sophia Freund Prize. His faculty sponsor is Lawrence Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor. Email: ryarrow@fas.harvard.edu