Ramin Asgary

Ramin Asgary headshot

Ramin Asgary

Professor of Global Health and International Affairs

Full-time Faculty


Ramin Asgary, MD, MPH, FASTMH, is Professor of International Affairs and Global Health, and Director of Humanitarian Health and Disaster Response Program. He is a humanitarian worker and global health practitioner and educator. Professor Asgary has three decades of operational experience in the field of international aid and humanitarian assistance. He started working in humanitarian settings and complex emergencies with multiple humanitarian agencies and Doctors Without Borders-MSF in the mid 90s as a field worker, healthcare coordinator and director, and senior advisor in more than two dozen projects and missions in regions including Eurasia/Former Soviet States, Sub-Saharan/East/South Africa, South/Central America, and often in conflict or refugee settings. He served two consecutive elected terms on the Board of Directors, MSF/Doctors Without Borders-USA (2012-2018), where he supported its leadership and strategic planning. He also spearheaded multiple international level committees including Accountability to Beneficiaries and Ethics, served as a governing liaison for MSF operational centers, and as a senior member of Program Committee overseeing >$380 million of grants. Prof. Asgary served as senior medical and operational advisor/referent for projects in operational centers of Doctors Without Borders. Currently, he serves as Vice-Chair of Institutional Review Board for Research Ethics at International Rescue Committee. He was Past-President for Global Health of American Society of Tropical Medicine and a Governing Councilor representing International Health Section of American Public Health Association.

Professor Asgary holds appointments at Milken Institute School of Public Health and GWU School of Nursing and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Previously he was a faculty at Program on Forced Migration and Health, Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and at Weill Cornell College of Medicine/NY Presbyterian Hospitals where he directed its Community Medicine program. He was Co-Founder and Director of Immigrant & Refugee Health Program, and Co-Founder and Director of Global Health Initiative in SM/PC at Montefiore Medical Center of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Asgary was Founding Director of Human Rights Program and Deputy Director and General MPH Track Director for MPH at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He was Associate Director for Homeless Healthcare of Community Medicine Program of New York University/Langone Health and the lead faculty to develop Global Health Section in Population Health Department, New York University. 


Professor Asgary’s expertise and interest are in: Humanitarian Ethics & Accountability; Humanitarian Operations and Disaster Response; Global Health Curriculum Development; International Women's and Reproductive Health; and Cancer Control in Humanitarian Settings. 

Prof. Asgary is a recipient of multiple teaching, research, and service awards and over the span of his humanitarian and academic career has mentored more than hundreds of graduate and post-graduate students, PhD and doctoral students, fellows and junior faculty. His contribution to policy and practice changes has been recognized in multiple press releases by mainstream newspapers and media outlets, nationally and internationally. 

Primarily trained as a physician he received complementary graduate and post-graduate training at Columbia University, New York University, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and John’s Hopkins University.