- Director for academics at Schwarzman Scholars
- Former Director, Emerita, Columbia Global Centers | East Asia
- Lecturer, Global Health, Harvard Medical School
- Adjunct Professor of Global Health Policy, Tsinghua University
- Expert on Globalization and Global Education, Global Health and Development, Women’s Health and Rights, and Population, Family Planning, Reproductive Health (with focus on China)
- Director for academics at Schwarzman Scholars
- Former Director, Emerita, Columbia Global Centers | East Asia
- Lecturer, Global Health, Harvard Medical School
- Adjunct Professor of Global Health Policy, Tsinghua University
- Expert on Globalization and Global Education, Global Health and Development, Women’s Health and Rights, and Population, Family Planning, Reproductive Health (with focus on China)
Joan KAUFMAN is the Director Emerita of Columbia Global Centers East Asia, Lecturer in Global Health of Harvard Medical School, and Adjunct Professor of Global Health Policy, Tsinghua University.
Kaufman just stepped down as the Director of the Columbia Global Centers | East Asia based in Beijing, one of eight global centers established by Columbia University worldwide. Dr. Kaufman has lived and worked in China for over 13 years. Dr. Kaufman was one of the first UN international program officers in China in the 1980’s and from 1996-2001 she led the Ford Foundation’s Gender and Reproductive Health Program for China based in Beijing. She was the China Team Leader for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative from 2002-2012.
She is an internationally recognized academic working on reproductive health, global health, health policy, and women’s rights with a focus on China, most recently as an Associate Professor at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health. She is a lecturer in Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Adjunct Professor of Global Health Policy, Tsinghua University’s Center for Public Health Research. Prior to joining Columbia University, she was Distinguished Scientist and Senior Lecturer at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University where she taught global health policy and served as the Associate Director for Academics for the Masters in Science program in International Health Policy and Management, one of two Sustainable International Development master degree programs at the Heller School.She spent 2001-2002 as a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard and 2005-2006 as a Soros Reproductive Health and Rights Fellow. In 2002 she founded the AIDS Public Policy Project at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, a program which trained government officials in China and Vietnam about the multi-sectoral and governance requirements for an effective HIV/AIDS response.
She holds a Doctorate in Public Health (Harvard School of Public Health), Masters in Asian Studies and Health and Medical Sciences (University of California, Berkeley), and BA cum laude in Chinese Studies (Trinity College). She has published widely on AIDS, reproductive health, gender, population and international health policy, emerging infectious diseases, and civil society and health with a focus on China.
