Dr. Craig Spencer

Craig Spencer MD MPH is an emergency medicine physician and an Associate Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. He is known for surviving Ebola.

He has worked in Africa and Southeast Asia as a field epidemiologist on numerous projects examining access to medical care and human rights, including measuring mortality and maternal health in Burundi, child separation in emergencies in D.R. Congo and South Sudan, hepatitis E surveillance response program in Chad, and coordinating Doctors Without Borders’ (MSF) national epidemiological response in Guinea during the Ebola outbreak.

In addition to his international public health work, Craig has provided medical care in the Caribbean, Central America, West and East Africa, and most recently abroad onboard a MSF medical search and rescue boat in the Mediterranean. In 2019, he was elected to the Board of Directors for Doctors Without Borders USA. His work at Brown focuses on the historical foundations of public health, with a particular emphasis on the fields of humanitarian response, global health, and pandemic preparedness and response. His writing has appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Politico, Los Angeles Times, Council on Foreign Relation's Think Global Health, USA Today and other outlets.

He currently serves on the board of advisors for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières USA.

In 2024, he joined the Council on Foreign Relations as a life member.