Introducing the Burke Climate and Health Fellowship
In partnership with the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, the Harvard Global Health Institute is excited to announce that we are now offering a 2-year fellowship program for eligible research fellows, post-doctoral scholars, and early career faculty pursuing scholarly research at the intersection of climate change and global health. The Burke Climate and Health Fellowship will support fellows as they work closely with Harvard faculty mentors in any school or department on their proposed research project.
The Burke Climate and Health Fellowship is made possible through the generous support of Harvard alumna Katherine States Burke, AB’79, and her husband, T. Robert Burke, who established the Burke Fund to help launch and advance the careers of promising early career researchers in global health.
The Award:
The fellowship award includes a salary of $75,000 per year for up to two years to support scholarship at the intersection of climate change and health. During the fellowship period, Burke Climate and Health Fellows will be integral members of the Harvard Global Health Institute and Salata Institute and will participate in cross-University engagements on climate change and health. All fellows will have physical space both at The Harvard Global Health Institute and at the Salata Institute as they build a community of colleagues focused on climate change and its effects on health. The Harvard Global Health Institute and the Salata Institute expect to support two Climate and Health Fellows to join the 2023 Burke Fellow cohort.
Basic Qualifications:
- We welcome applicants from both domestic and foreign institutions. Non-US citizens who are permitted to work within the US are eligible to apply.
- Proposed research projects should have a clear climate and health focus and may include mitigation or adaptation actions that consider or directly evaluate interventions designed to improve health outcomes. Understudied populations, including but not limited to residents of low- or middle-income countries or regions, children, people who are pregnant, migrant laborers, and racial or ethnic minoritized groups, will be prioritized.
- Candidates must have a doctoral or equivalent degree in a relevant field of study (e.g., medicine, public health, climate science, epidemiology, environmental health, economics etc.).
- Ideal candidates include research fellows, post-doctoral fellows, or those within roughly the first 5 years of a faculty position at their home institution.
- Applicants must secure a commitment from one Harvard faculty member to serve as a research mentor prior to submitting an application (see criteria on this requirement below).
- Candidates must commit at least 75% FTE effort to their research for the 2-year program.
- Candidates should demonstrate experience performing scholarly research (e.g., publications of peer reviewed manuscripts or policy briefs) as part of their application.
Fellow Expectations:
- Submit an annual progress report and a scholarly paper (e.g., peer-reviewed publication) to tThe Harvard Global Health Institute and Salata Institute.
- Participate in relevant Harvard Global Health Institute and Salata Institute scheduled events.
- Participate in Harvard University Center for the Environment (HUCE) bi-weekly fellow dinners and other HUCE scheduled activities throughout the year.
- Present research findings and accomplishments achieved as a result of Burke funding to the global health community at the end of their fellowship.
- Serve as a Pathways to Global Health Speaker seminar series. This is a 1-hour, virtual seminar series for undergraduate students interested in careers in global health.
- Acknowledge HGHI Burke funding in all award letters and event communications, including invitation letters, websites, announcements, flyers, press releases, presentations, publications and publications, presentations, and reports.
- Serve as a reviewer for future applicants to the fellowship.
Criteria for Harvard Faculty Sponsoring Mentor:
- Sponsoring mentor must have a PhD or MD and be a Harvard faculty member (Assistant, Associate or Full Professor)
- Sponsoring mentor must demonstrate expertise to support the applicant’s area of research.
- Sponsoring mentor must submit a letter of support (maximum of two pages) to the selection committee describing in detail their commitment to the candidate’s research. Applications without this letter of support will not be considered.
- The sponsoring mentors Harvard department must administratively credential and house their mentee.
- Applicants and the Faculty Sponsoring Mentor must submit a letter from their academic department head acknowledging that any indirect costs of Harvard affiliated institutions are not covered. Applications without this letter of support will not be considered.
- Mentors must guarantee at least 75% of protected time for the research of their mentee.
All application materials are due by 5PM EST, Friday, March 10, 2023
Applicants will be notified in May 2023 if selected for this position. The fellowship will run July 1, 2023, to June 30th, 2025.
We look forward to reviewing your application. If you have questions about these programs, please contact Olivia Mulvey, Fellowships Manager at olivia_mulvey@harvard.edu. For more information on eligibility requirements and FAQ’s please visit our website.
To support the continued development of women leaders in global health, the Harvard Global Health Institute and the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health offer a 1-year fellowship designed to advance leadership skills in individuals from low- and middle-income countries. We are excited to announce that the 2023-2024 LEAD Fellowship application is now open!
LEAD FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM OVERVIEW:
The 2023-2024 LEAD Fellowship program will consist of a 12-month virtual curriculum with a 4-week in-person experience in April 2024. Throughout their fellowship year, fellows will engage in 1:1 leadership coaching, speaking events, mentorship, executive education courses, leadership workshops, team-building opportunities, and networking.
Harvard LEAD Fellows have the autonomy to build their own custom leadership development curriculums. They are connected to world-class faculty and senior mentors who offer instruction and guidance aligned with fellows’ specific interests and goals. LEAD fellows also engage in tailored leadership training programs as a cohort and are offered opportunities for speaking, networking, and independent project work. Each year, fellows graduate from the program having built a network of peers and mentors across Harvard University. The fellowship experience specifically aims to offer global health leaders this time to reflect, connect, and explore uncharted territories.
The 2023 – 2024 cohort of LEAD fellows will join a close-knit community of former fellows from around the world. To date, fellows have come from 12 different countries with representation from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America. Their areas of expertise span research, advocacy, administration, and policy. You can learn more about our current and past fellows here.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
We welcome applicants from all continents, regions, disciplines, sectors, and gender identities. Candidates nominate themselves by applying for the fellowship.
- Applicants must work full-time in the field of global health and have at least 15 years of professional experience beyond their education. Global health related work completed as a university student does not count as professional experience.
- Applicants must have substantial leadership experience and demonstrate further potential.
- Applicants must have the support of their employer and a champion in their organization who serves as an internal mentor.
- Applicants must take a leave of absence (or equivalent) from their home institution during their in-residence experience for 4 weeks total in April 2024.
- Applicants must be able to obtain a J-1 visa for travel to the United States in April 2024 and must be available to reside in Cambridge, MA for four weeks. NOTE: Visa fees, housing, and flights will be covered by the fellowship and a living stipend will be provided for the time in-residence.
- In the two years prior to their fellowship at Harvard, candidates may NOT have participated in any full-time fellowship that lasted 4 months or longer.
All application materials are due by 5PM EST, Friday, March 10, 2023
Applicants will be notified in May 2023 if selected for this position. The fellowship will run from September 1, 2023 to August 31, 2024.
We look forward to reviewing your application. If you have questions about the fellowship program, please contact Olivia Mulvey, Fellowships Manager at olivia_mulvey@harvard.edu For more information on eligibility requirements and FAQs please visit the LEAD Fellowship page of the HGHI website.
The Burke Global Health Fellowship program at the Harvard Global Health Institute provides funding for Harvard junior faculty members from across the University for innovative research and curriculum development and teaching in global health. The Fellowships are made possible through the generous support of Harvard alumna Katherine States Burke, AB ’79, and her husband, T. Robert Burke, who established the Burke Fellowship to help launch and advance the careers of promising junior faculty in global health.
We are thrilled and honored to introduce the 2022 Burke Global Health Fellows:

Crystal North, MD MPH
Dr. Crystal North is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Physician in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. As a Burke fellow, Dr. North will research air pollution and lung health in resource-limited settings: understanding the impact of biomass.
“The Burke Global Health Fellowship is making it possible for me to expand my research from a single site to a regional air quality network and to create collaborative opportunities to study the impact of ambient air pollution on communicable and non-communicable health outcomes among vulnerable populations in Uganda, positioning me at the forefront of global health researchers working to ameliorate the impacts of air pollution on lung health” – Crystal North

Jocelyn Kelly, PhD
Dr. Jocelyn Kelly is an instructor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative’s (HHI) Gender, Rights and Resilience (GR2) program. As a Burke fellow, Dr. Kelly will develop an evidence-based intervention to improve human and climate resilience in fragile settings.
“The Burke Global Health Fellowship gives me a unique chance to expand my research intersection of public health and climate solutions. This support comes at a critical time when the role of women in addressing climate change is being increasingly acknowledged, but there is a gap in identifying successful locally-led solutions. I’m honored to contribute to research at this important intersection of issues, and grateful for the chance to expand my work with our incredible project partners.” – Jocelyn Kelly

Pooja Chitneni, MD
Dr. Pooja Chitneni is an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Infectious Disease and Internal Medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also an affiliated researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health. As a Burke fellow, Dr. Chitneni will develop an STI partner notification services delivery intervention in southwestern, rural Uganda.
“I am thrilled to be the recipient of a 2022 Burke Global Health Fellowship. This fellowship support will allow me to pursue research related to global STI care and prevention which is a relatively understudied and under-funded area. This award would allow me to focus specifically on STI partner notification to develop a novel STI partner notification services delivery intervention which I would then be able to further develop and test in the future, thus launching my career as an expert in STI care and prevention in resource-limited settings.” – Pooja Chitneni

Zahir Kanjee MD, MPH
Dr. Zahir Kanjee is a hospitalist and firm chief at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As a Burke fellow, Dr. Kanjee will develop a Professional Development Course for Medical Students for the University of Global Health Equity in Kigali, Rwanda
“By developing, implementing, and studying this curriculum, I hope to make a lasting impact on health professional education in Rwanda and beyond. The Burke Fellowship will allow me to continue to work and innovate at the intersection of my two greatest professional passions: global health and medical education.” – Zahir Kanjee
To learn more about our 2021 Burke Fellows, including their full bios and project descriptions, please click here.
Cambridge, MA – The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) has announced five Burke Global Health Fellowships for 2020-21. The Fellowship, made possible by Harvard alumna Katherine States Burke, AB ’79, and her husband T. Robert Burke, supports the global health research and training efforts of Harvard junior faculty. The Burke Global Health Fellowship serves as a career catalyst, coming at a critical juncture in faculty’s academic development. A Burke Fellowship gives some of Harvard’s most impactful junior faculty the freedom to focus on important work that will transform global health.
Since its start in 2009, the Burke Fellowship has supported 38 Harvard junior faculty at pivotal stages of their careers. Applicants across disciplines apply for one-year research or curriculum development awards, worth up to $75,000 or $25,000, respectively. Proposals are reviewed by a committee of established Harvard global health faculty and leaders. Previous recipients have been promoted to tenured faculty and have received key research independence and career development awards from the NIH. A full list of the current and past Burke Fellowship recipients can be found here.
The 2020 Burke Global Health fellows are:
Adeline A. Boatin, MD, MP
Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital
Matthew Bonds, PhD
Assistant Professor in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and co-founder & scientific director of PIVOT
Dhruv S. Kazi, MD, MSc, MS
Associate Director of the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology and Director of Cardiac Critical Care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Elisabeth D. Riviello, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Attending Physician in Pulmonary Critical Care Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Dylan Tierney, MD, MPH
Instructor in Medicine in the Division of Global Health Equity and the Division of Infectious Disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
“The Burke Global Health Fellowship provides critical support for some of the most talented junior faculty at Harvard, providing them an opportunity to pursue work that will improve global health at a critical juncture in their career. This year’s awardees span a broad range of critical issues, from addressing the critical needs of obstetrical care in sub-Saharan Africa, and improving one of the most under-resourced health systems in the world, through work in Madagascar, to addressing the impact of climate change on Mumbai’s health system, designing an intervention to improve outcomes among critically ill patients in low-income nations, and developing innovative approaches to facilitate the delivery of high-quality TB care for people in Lima, Peru. This fellowship provides a platform for these innovative scholars, who come from a range of institutions across Harvard, and who provide important insights about the ways to move forward on critical global health issues. This work would not be possible without the generous and ongoing support of Kathy and Bob Burke, whose commitment to the long-term improvement of global public health through investments in our most promising faculty is hard to overstate. We are so deeply grateful for their support of these scholars,” said HGHI Associate Faculty Director, Ingrid Katz.
About HGHI
The Harvard Global Health Institute leverages the expertise and resources across Harvard and beyond to pioneer solutions to the biggest challenges in human health through the creation, dissemination, and translation of new knowledge. Collaboration within Harvard’s community of students, faculty, researchers, and staff allows HGHI to pursue multi-sectoral engagement that leads to the creation of sustainable health outcomes in low-, middle-, and high-income countries. HGHI is committed to using our platform to train the next generation of leaders and push the status quo with evidence-based knowledge and tools.