Ana Langer, M.D.

Director of Global Policy and Programs, ICON-✗

Professor of the Practice of Public Health

Director of the Dean's Special Initiative on Women and Health

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Dr. Ana Langer, a physician specializing in pediatrics and neonatology and reproductive health expert, leads the Women and Health Initiative at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. She joined the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in July 2010 as a Professor of the Practice of Public Health in the Department of Global Health and Population. Dr. Langer is respected worldwide as a leader who uses research findings to influence policy and improve the overall quality of health care for women and families. For more than 30 years, she has been a leading researcher, programmer and advocate for the improvement of women’s health. She is the Director of Global Policy & Programs for the Women, Heart and Brain Global Initiative.

Dr. Langer is the founder of the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF), a program currently hosted at the Harvard Chan Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health. The MHTF works toward the elimination of preventable maternal mortality, reduction of maternal morbidity, and improvement of maternal health globally through the generation and management of evidence on maternal health, the promotion of evidence-informed effective policies and programs, and the education of new and emerging leaders in the field.

Dr. Langer has published extensively on maternal mortality; psychosocial support during pregnancy, labor, delivery and the post-partum period; quality of maternal health care; unsafe abortion; contraception; the introduction of evidence-based practices in maternal and reproductive health services; and strategies to improve services for women domestically and globally.

In 2015, in collaboration with experts from all over the world, Dr. Langer published the groundbreaking report Women and Health: A key to sustainable development in The Lancet. The paper lays out the foundations of the women and health framework which analyzes women’s health along the life cycle and its connections with social determinants of health and global transitions and provides the evidence to fully demonstrate the critical role of women in terms of their own and their families’ health, and the development of communities and nations.

Dr. Langer teaches at Harvard Chan on global sexual and reproductive health and advises multiple masters and doctoral students working on women’s health and maternal health issues. Dr. Langer serves on several editorial boards, including The Lancet International Advisory Board and The Lancet Public Health. She is on the advisory board of NIH’s Office for Research on Women’s Health, the Countdown to 2030 project, and the Steering Committee of the NYC

DOHMH Maternal Mortality and Morbidity as well as other global and domestic entities doing work in her fields of expertise.