A life spent responding to emergencies around the world - Harvard Gazette

"Michael VanRooyen has spent decades responding to emergencies around the world, with no choice but to stare straight ahead at suffering, destruction, and death. These experiences have taught him how to ease pain amid chaos, forced him to navigate moments of intense fear and danger, and given him the technical and emotional depth to support war-torn communities in their efforts to heal and rebuild."

"VanRooyen, an emergency room doctor by his earliest training, is the J. Stephen Bohan Professor of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Lavine Family Professor of Humanitarian Studies at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2005, he helped found the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, which in the years since has sought to strengthen aid programs through education and research."

Michael VanRooyen spent more than 30 years responding to crises worldwide, moving from emergency rooms to disaster zones and conflict areas. His work taught practical skills for easing pain amid chaos and navigating fear and danger while sustaining the technical and emotional capacity needed to help communities heal and rebuild. He holds professorships in emergency medicine and humanitarian studies at Harvard and co-founded the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative in 2005 to strengthen aid programs through education and research. VanRooyen views frontline humanitarian work as deeply meaningful, driven by a commitment to relieve suffering rooted in family experiences of wartime trauma and illness.

Read at Harvard Gazette