Harvey Fineberg

Dr. Harvey Fineberg is a physician who has held many esteemed titles over the course of his long career. He currently serves as the president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

From 2002 to 2014, he served as the president of the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine). He served as Provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001, following thirteen years as Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health (now Harvard Chan School of Public Health). He has devoted most of his academic career to the fields of health policy and medical decision making. His past research has focused on the process of policy development and implementation, assessment of medical technology, evaluation and use of vaccines, and dissemination of medical innovations.

Fineberg helped found and served as president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and also served as a consultant to the World Health Organization.

At the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, he has chaired and served on a number of panels dealing with health and science policy issues, including AIDS, vaccine safety, and reproducibility and replicability in scientific research. He has served as a member of the Public Health Council of Massachusetts (1976–1979), as chairman of the Health Care Technology Study Section of the National Center for Health Services Research (1982–1985), and as president of the Association of Schools of Public Health (1995–1996).

Fineberg is co-author of books including "Clinical Decision Analysis," "Innovators in Physician Education," and "The Epidemic That Never Was," also published under the title "The Swine Flu Affair," an analysis of the controversial federal immunization program against swine flu in 1976. He has co-edited several books on such diverse topics as AIDS prevention, vaccine safety, and understanding risk in society. He has also authored numerous articles published in professional journals.

In 1988, he received the Joseph W. Mountin Prize from the Centers for Disease Control and the Wade Hampton Frost Prize from the Epidemiology Section of the American Public Health Association. On October 18, 2011, Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, awarded Fineberg the highest prize in public health -- The Frank A. Calderon Prize in Public Health.

Fineberg earned an A.B. in 1967 from Harvard College, an M.D. in 1971 from Harvard Medical School, a Master of Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government in 1972, and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1980. Fineberg has been awarded honorary degrees by a number of universities. On May 24, 2018, he was awarded the Doctor of Laws degree by Harvard University, his fifth Harvard degree.

Fineberg served his medical residency at Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, and was a fellow in Harvard's Society of Fellows. He worked as a practicing physician at two Boston-area health centers from 1974 to 1984. He taught at the Kennedy School of Government from 1973 to 1981, and served on the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health from 1973 to 1984, when he became the school's dean.

Fineberg is married to Dr. Mary E. Wilson, a noted expert in infectious diseases, travel medicine, and global health and adjunct professor at Harvard School of Public Health and visiting professor at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

From 2013 until 2018, Fineberg served as chairperson of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has served on the boards of a number of philanthropic organizations, including the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Foundation (USA), and the China Medical Board.