Michael VanRooyen, MD, MPH

Dr. Michael VanRooyen is an academic emergency physician and humanitarian leader who served as Chief of Enterprise Emergency Medicine for Mass General Brigham, where he set a unified strategy for emergency care across ten hospitals, sixteen urgent care centers, transport, and home-based services that handle more than 700,000 patient visits a year. He also chaired the Departments of Emergency Medicine at MGH and BWH. He has worked as a humanitarian physician in more than thirty countries and led responses to crises including Hurricane Katrina, the September 11 attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Boston Marathon bombing.

He founded and directs the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which he has grown into a leading center for humanitarian research and training, securing roughly $70 million in grants and gifts over his career. He has served on the board of the International Rescue Committee and on U.S. government and policy panels, edited a leading emergency medicine textbook, authored a book on humanitarian work, and reached tens of thousands of learners through an online course on leading in crisis. He also founded the health-technology companies Diagnotion, Pont Health, and Ibex Healthdata. Dr. VanRooyen brings experience in health-systems transformation, crisis and disaster leadership, governance, and technology innovation.