Dr. Jennifer Chan is an Associate Professor and Director of Global Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a hybrid researcher-practitioner with over 15 years of experience working with NGOs and UN agencies as a public health, crisis informatics, and humanitarian data specialist.
As a humanitarian practitioner, Jennifer has worked and collaborated with NGOs and UN agencies for over 15 years, supporting organizations as a public health specialist, deputy of health operations, humanitarian data specialist, and most recently advising humanitarian organizations. During her career she has performed rapid assessments, evaluated public health programs, completed information communication technology (ICT) assessments and helped design and implement community-based information exchange programs.
She co-authored Disaster 2.0, a report describing the challenges of information sharing and technology in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and built the Crisis Informatics program at NetHope during the West Africa Ebola Response. Her transdisciplinary research in the information and computer sciences, engineering, and epidemiology, focus on the translation of scientific methods into practice. She collaborates with research teams and practitioners to help strengthen the theoretical and methodological assumptions of how scientific applications translate into practice with a focus on operational impact and ultimately decision-making. She previously advised NetHope, the United Nations Centre for Humanitarian Data, and acted as an external advisor to the International Federation of the Red Cross 2018 World Disaster Report. She continues to advise global health and humanitarian organizations.
INTERESTS
- Global Health
- Humanitarian Data
- Crisis Informatics
EDUCATION
- MD, Northwestern University
- MPH, Tulane University
- BS, Columbia University
- Emergency Medicine Residency, Harvard University (HAEMR) – Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital
- International Emergency Medicine Fellowship – Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital