What drives me?
As an urban specialist and systems thinker, the questions that motivate me are big picture issues:
Is there a way of looking at the messiness of the real world that can point us towards better ways of making decisions and hence better solutions?
Can human ingenuity grounded in an ethical framework outfox human acquisitiveness and so safeguard our only home?
Can we create places and systems where every person has a chance to achieve their full potential, while durably diminishing the pain and hardship in the world?
Like anyone else, I only work on very limited approximations to these issues, but every little bit helps (I hope!). You can read more about my professional interests here.
Training and career
I have always been interested in the natural world and in a career that does some good. As an undergrad, I studied ecology and systematics at Cornell University (Ithaca is Gorges!). I went on to an MPH in international health epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, spending a summer in Ghana studying onchocerciasis (“riverblindness”)—my first real overseas work experience. I stayed in Ann Arbor for my PhD in infectious disease epidemiology, with a year in Kisumu, Kenya studying patterns and causes of urban malaria among city residents—my first exposure to the complexity of urban health issues. Then I meandered a bit, hopping to Austria for a postdoc at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and shifting from traditional epidemiology to a broader systemic focus on how cities and urban processes influence health. Enjoy the meanders—they end up shaping your life!
Since my postdoc, I’ve taken a wide-ranging, curiosity-satisfying path. I spent a few more years at IIASA, working with world-class teams in demography and greenhouse gas mitigation, then five years at the United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH), leading a small urban health research, policy, and practice focus, and three years as the Senior Science Lead for Cities and Health in the Our Planet, Our Health (OPOH) programme at the Wellcome Trust—one of the world’s foremost funders of health research. Along the way, I’ve consulted for governments, like the Tohono O’Odham Nation in the US southwest, major multilaterals like the OECD, and pillars of the global science community like the International Science Council. As of now, I’m working with the World Bank and the World Health Organization on their own approaches to healthy cities. My current CV is available here.
Some favorites
My favorite projects have always been those where I could build new relationships and be enriched by new perspectives. A few notable examples are:
the ISC Urban Health and Wellbeing programme, with which I engaged during planning and later as an ex officio member of the science committee;
the SCHEMA project (“Systems Thinking and Place-based Methods for Healthier Malaysian Cities”) which I co-led at UNU-IIGH with colleagues from Cardiff University’s Sustainable Places Research Institute;
the SALURBAL (“urban health in Latin America”) project, for which I was a co-investigator—and co-founder of the anteceding LAC-Urban Health research network—and later, a liaison from Wellcome;
the OPOH programme, which introduced me to a whole new universe of colleagues on the cutting edge of planetary health.
Professional service
I currently serve on various boards, councils, or advisory committees, including for:
I can survive in several languages, and I run—I’ve run (well, ‘run’ is a strong word) the Athens and Rome marathons, and have my (very) long-term eye on Constantinople—cook, garden, and take (lots and lots of) pictures when time permits. You can read a little more about things I do in my spare time (ha!) here.