About This Site
Think Global Health is a multi-contributor website that examines the ways in which changes in health are reshaping economies, societies, and the everyday lives of people around the globe. The articles on this website consider the ways that health influences and interacts with broader social, economic, and demographic trends. Topics range from the growth of cities and the migration of people, to the effects of climate change and trends in global agriculture, to the expansion of international supply chains and the empowerment of women and girls.
The mission of Think Global Health is to provide a compelling forum for examining where and why global health matters and to engage readers in debates and efforts that improve health worldwide. To realize this mission, Think Global Health is committed to featuring and publishing contributors in low- and middle-income countries, and covering issues in global health that have been neglected in the past.
As of June 1, 2022, Think Global Health is offering an honorarium to the lead contributor from a low- and middle-income country. In its coverage, this website seeks to illuminate the ways in which global health is an investment in societies and economies, not just a form of humanitarian or emergency relief. If you have questions about the honoraria, please reach out to us at [email protected].
Think Global Health launched on January 21, 2020. Since then, the site has published almost 700 articles from over 750 authors, representing 55 countries on 6 continents, and has more than 3.5 million page views. Recommendations, analyses, forecasts, interviews, and data visualizations on the site have been circulated widely and many have been featured in or cited by Vox, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, New York Times, Intercept, Washington Post, the BBC, and many others.
Think Global Health is an initiative of the Council on Foreign Relations in collaboration with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation IHME at the University of Washington. Think Global Health was made possible by a generous grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.
All statements and views expressed on this website are solely those of the individual author(s) and are not necessarily shared by his/her/their institutions. The Council on Foreign Relations takes no institutional positions on policy issues and has no affiliation with the U.S. government.
Who Can Write for Think Global Health?
Think Global Health welcomes outside submissions that provide compelling and timely analysis and sound knowledge that improves the understanding of global health and its evolving role in the world. The current focus areas for the site are: urbanization, climate and the environment, trade, migration, governance, poverty, food policy, aging, migration, and gender. We also welcome pieces on the COVID-19 pandemic, noncommunicable diseases, global institutions, health aid and development, and other related topics.
Managing Editor
Thomas J. Bollyky is director of the Global Health program and senior fellow for global health, economics, and development at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is also an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University. Bollyky is also the author of the book Plagues and the Paradox of Progress: Why the World Is Getting Healthier in Worrisome Ways. Prior to coming to CFR, he was a fellow at the Center for Global Development and has served in a variety roles in the U.S. government, including most recently at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Bollyky was a Fulbright scholar to South Africa, where he worked as a staff attorney at the AIDS Law Project, and at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, where he represented clients before the International Court of Justice and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been a consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and a temporary legal advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO). Bollyky has testified multiple times before the U.S. Senate and his work has appeared in many publications, including Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Science, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Bollyky received his BA in biology and history at Columbia University and his JD at Stanford Law School. In 2013, the World Economic Forum named Bollyky as one of its global leaders under forty.
Staff Editor
Caroline Kantis is a staff editor for Think Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations. She previously worked as a research associate for global health, interdepartmental program assistant, and interned for the director of studies, all at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining the Council on Foreign Relations, Caroline worked for Deal Street Asia in Singapore.
Research Associate
Chen Chen is a research associate for Think Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Before coming to CFR, she was a community reporting fellow at KTOO Public Media in Juneau, Alaska. She studied global affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar in Beijing, China. She has interned with public health organizations in the United States and China, conducted infectious disease research, and is a science journalist with articles published in outlets such as Medscape Medical News, The Plain Dealer, The Third Pole, and Oxpeckers Investigative Environmental Journalism.
Contributing Editors
Katherine Leach-Kemon is a policy translation manager at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. In this role, Katherine works to bridge the gap between academic research and policy. To this end, she fosters collaboration with organizations worldwide, designs communication strategies to engage decision-makers and policy influencers, and oversees the production of reports, infographics, and policy briefs. Her work has been published in The Lancet, Health Affairs, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Humanosphere. She earned a master's in public health at the University of Washington and a BA in history from the College of William & Mary, and previously worked as a post-graduate fellow at IHME studying foreign assistance for health.
Ted Alcorn is a journalist and educator with expertise in gun violence prevention policies and programs. He contributes reporting to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other national publications, and is a lecturer at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Previously he was the founding research director of Everytown For Gun Safety, and he served as a policy analyst in the Office of the Mayor of New York City. He earned graduate degrees as a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and their School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and lived in Beijing, China as a Henry Luce scholar.
