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CUNY SPH is delighted to announce that Dr. Natalia Kanem has been appointed to the faculty as distinguished scholar.
An eminent leader in public health and philanthropy, Dr. Kanem has devoted her career to improving the health and lives of women and children. Over a career spanning four decades, she has leveraged her expertise to advance the reproductive health of women and girls, and uphold the human rights and dignity of all.
She has championed programs that resonate with her lifelong conviction that the people experiencing an issue best know the ways to solve their problems. She has declared her faith in women and in young people to lead the ever-present and always necessary principled fight for equality, justice, and peace.
Dr. Kanem served as executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) from 2017 to 2025, after serving as deputy executive director of programmes since 2016 and country representative for Tanzania since 2014.
Previously, she served as founding president of ELMA Philanthropies, Inc., a private funding institution focusing on Africa’s children and youth, and as a senior associate of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies.
As a Ford Foundation officer from 1992 to 2004, Dr. Kanem helped pioneer work in women’s reproductive health and human rights in West Africa, and subsequently served at the Foundation’s headquarters in New York as deputy vice-president for its peace and social justice programs in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and North America.
Dr. Kanem holds a medical degree from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in public health with specializations in epidemiology and preventive medicine from the University of Washington in Seattle. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University in history and science. In 2020, Dr. Kanem was presented with an honorary doctoral degree from CUNY SPH at its fourth commencement, where she also delivered the keynote address.
“We are honored to confer upon Dr. Kanem the title of distinguished scholar,” says CUNY SPH Dean Ayman El-Mohandes. “Her research and leadership experience will be indispensable to our success as we continue to flourish as an institution.”
