Atul Gawande named featured speaker for Harvard Alumni Day

Renowned surgeon, best-selling author, and public health leader Atul Gawande, M.D. ’95, M.P.H. ’99, will be the featured speaker for Harvard Alumni Day, the annual University-wide celebration of the global alumni community hosted by the Harvard Alumni Association on June 6.

Driven by a relentless curiosity about how health systems function — and where they fall short — Gawande has devoted his career to rethinking not just how medicine is practiced, but how it is delivered to improve health outcomes for all. As a general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Gawande has fostered the next generation of physicians and health professionals. As assistant administrator for global health at the U.S. Agency for International Development under the Biden administration, he spent the past three years leading efforts to expand access to care, control health threats, and reduce disparities in life expectancy globally.

In addition, Gawande is widely recognized for his writing, which has broadened public awareness and understanding of modern health challenges and solutions across a wide range of topics. A contributor to The New Yorker since 1998, he has authored four New York Times best-sellers, including “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.”

“Atul Gawande is one of the most influential thinkers, writers, and innovators in health and medicine today,” said President Alan M. Garber ’77, Ph.D. ’82. “From advancing surgical safety to expanding access to high-quality care worldwide, he brings a deeply humanist perspective to his work and is dedicated to ensuring that healthcare policies and systems prioritize the people that they serve. I can’t think of a more fitting voice to inspire our alumni as they continue their own efforts to make a difference in the world.”

“I’m excited to return to Harvard,” said Gawande. “This is a community like no other — in its history, discoveries, and impact. And I’m continually inspired by alumni of all ages driving change for the common good, both within their local communities and around the world.”

Gawande has long been a force in health systems innovation, mobilizing people to take on entrenched challenges. His research has led to breakthroughs in patient care, including the widely adopted WHO (World Health Organization) Surgical Safety Checklist, a 19-item protocol credited with reducing surgical mortality rates by nearly half. Recognizing a critical gap from this work, he co-founded the nonprofit Lifebox in 2011 to make surgery safer by providing pulse oximeters to operating rooms worldwide. In 2012, he founded Ariadne Labs, a joint center at BWH and Harvard Chan School, to develop scalable solutions to some of health care’s most complex problems. He is currently an Ariadne Labs distinguished professor in residence.

He was a member of President Joseph Biden’s Transition COVID-19 Advisory Board and co-founded CIC Health, a public benefit corporation that supported pandemic response operations nationally. From 2018 to 2020, Gawande was the CEO of Haven, a joint venture launched by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to revolutionize healthcare delivery.

A recipient of numerous honors, including a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, Gawande is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and was named one of the 100 most influential thinkers by Foreign Policy and Time magazine.

“A surgeon with the heart of a storyteller, Atul Gawande has a rare gift,” said HAA President Moitri Chowdhury Savard ’93. “He shows us that medicine is not just a science, but a profoundly human endeavor — one that demands reflection, empathy, and continuous improvement. Through his writing, research, and leadership, he challenges us all to ask: ‘How can we do better?’ I know his words will resonate with the alumni community as we reflect on what it means to lead lives of connection and purpose. It’s truly a privilege to have him join us.”

A Harvard homecoming

“I came to Harvard as a medical student and found an extraordinary community that has pushed me to think better, work better, and try for more than I ever imagined,” said Gawande. “Nothing that I have done since — surgery, innovation, writing, public health — was expected or possible without this place.”

Raised in Athens, Ohio, by physician parents who emigrated from India, Gawande has said that going into medicine felt so inevitable that he did everything he could to avoid it. He studied biology and political science at Stanford, then politics, philosophy, and economics as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. Even at HMS, his approach was unconventional — deferring admission for three years, then stepping away to work on healthcare reform in the Clinton administration.

After earning his medical degree and completing his second year of surgical training, Gawande’s next steps took him not to the laboratory, as was expected, but across the quad to Harvard Chan School, where he later earned a master’s degree.

It was during his surgical residency at BWH that The New Yorker first invited Gawande to write for them. Rather than play it safe, he tackled one of medicine’s most uncomfortable realities: medical errors — including a serious one that he had made. His many articles since then, unflinching in their examination of issues from end-of-life matters to skyrocketing health care costs, have redefined the public discourse on health.

“We are thrilled to have Atul Gawande join us for Alumni Day,” said Sarah Karmon, executive director of the HAA. “While the world around him — around us — advances at a rapid pace, he reminds us that true progress isn’t about scientific or technological innovation alone. We must also rethink how we care for each other. Atul’s work, whether in the operating room or on the written page, exemplifies knowledge in service to the broader community and demonstrates the difference that one person can make in the lives of others.”

Harvard Alumni Day will take place on campus and virtually on June 6. All alumni are invited to attend. For more information, visit alumni.harvard.edu/alumni-day.