Public health and China Studies expert leads the Fairbank Center for 2020-2021
Winnie (Chi-Man) Yip will be the Acting Faculty Director at the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies for the 2020-2021 academic year while Director Michael Szonyi is on sabbatical. Dr. Yip is Professor of the Practice of Global Health Policy and Economics in the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and also Director of the school wide China Health Partnership. She has served on the Fairbank Center’s Executive Committee since 2018.
As an expert in public health, health economics, and policy, Professor Yip’s research examines the relative role of the government and the market in financing and provision of health care. Through this lens, her research encompasses both why health systems fail and how to improve them for the benefit of the people they serve, especially for the poor. With a network of over ten universities and research institutions in China, she conducts social experiments on health systems to provide affordable, equitable, efficient and good quality health care for people living in China’s low income provinces. Her other areas of research integrate economics, organization theories and management to examine how to build a competent, trusted and sustainable new cadre of primary health care providers in rural China to provide effective prevention, management and treatment of new infectious disease, non-communicable health conditions and rising needs of an aging population.
In addition, Professor Yip studies and advises health care reforms across Asia, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam. She has extensive experience in executive training courses for senior health policymakers in China (with the National Health Commission and the National Healthcare Security Administration) and India (with the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration). She is also the current president of International Health Economics Association.
Professor Yip commented, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with colleagues across many schools and disciplines to foster collaborations with China in order to do something impactful and meaningful for humanity.”
Michael Szonyi remarked, “I am thrilled that Professor Yip has agreed to serve as Acting Faculty Director during my upcoming sabbatical. I know the Fairbank Center will be in great hands under Winnie’s leadership. I am particularly pleased at this moment to have a Faculty Director who is keen to enhance collaboration in the fields of medicine and public health.”
Lawrence D. Bobo, Dean of Social Science and W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of Social Sciences added, “I am most grateful to Winnie for her willingness to serve in this capacity, and I much look forward to working with her over the coming year.”
Professor Yip will serve as Acting Director for one year starting in September 2020.
Watch Professor Yip present at our recent panels on COVID-19, including on public health and the economy, Taiwan’s experience of managing COVID-19, and the pandemic’s regional and global implications.