Dr. Leana Wen is a practicing physician, healthcare executive, and op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, where she writes a twice-weekly column on medicine and public health and anchors the Post newsletter, “The Checkup with Dr. Wen.” She is also a professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a frequently featured on-air commentator, including as a medical analyst for CNN and guest contributor for NPR, PBS, BBC, and MSNBC.
Previously, she served as Baltimore’s Health Commissioner, where she led the nation’s oldest continuously operating health department in the U.S. to fight the opioid epidemic, address disparities and mental health access, and improve maternal and child health. She is author of two books, “When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests” and “Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health,” and serves as an independent board member of Glaukos Corporation and UroGen Pharma.
Dr. Wen obtained her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and studied health policy at the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She completed her residency training at Brigham & Women’s Hospital & Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Wen has received recognition as one of Governing’s Public Officials of the Year, Modern Healthcare’s Top 50 Physician-Executives, World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, and TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
Dr. Wen lives with her husband and their two young children in Baltimore.
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Current Positions
- Professor, The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health
- Distinguished Fellow, Fitzhugh Mullan Institute of Health Workforce Equity
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Past Positions
- Health Commissioner, Baltimore City
- Director of Patient-Centered Care Research, George Washington University
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Education
- MD, Washington University
- MSc, University of Oxford
- BS, California State University, Los Angeles