Jody Heymann

Jody Heymann, MD, PhD, is founding director of the WORLD Policy Analysis Center and served as dean of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health from 2013-2018.

As director of the WORLD Policy Analysis Center (WORLD), Heymann leads an unprecedented effort to improve the level and quality of comparative policy data available to policymakers, researchers and the public. WORLD examines health and social policies and outcomes in all 193 UN countries. WORLD’s mission is to strengthen equal opportunities worldwide by identifying the most effective public sector approaches, improving the quantity and quality of globally comparative data available, and working in partnerships to support evidence-based improvements in countries worldwide. WORLD has worked with global bodies (WHO, UNICEF, UNESCO, ILO and others), civil society, research groups, private sector leaders and other global change agents. WORLD’s launches on policies affecting children reached people in 190 countries, as did their No Ceilings partnership with the Clinton and Gates Foundations on equal opportunities for women, men, girls, and boys. Heymann is leading initiatives on the role of constitutions in all 193 UN countries in realizing equal rights and improving social and economic conditions; legislative and policy approaches to advancing equality and full inclusion in education and at work of youth with disabilities in 193 countries; and increasing transparency around what countries are doing to address the needs and rights of refugees and migrants in 150 countries. Heymann previously held a Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Social Policy at McGill University where she was the founding director of the Institute for Health and Social Policy. While on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, she founded the Project on Global Working Families.

Heymann has authored and edited more than 400 publications, including 18 books. Selected titles include Changing Children’s Chances (Harvard University Press, 2013), Making Equal Rights Real (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Lessons in Educational Equality (Oxford University Press, 2012), Protecting Childhood in the AIDS Pandemic (Oxford University Press, 2012), Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder (Harvard Business Press, 2010), Raising the Global Floor (Stanford University Press, 2009), Trade and Health (McGill Queens University Press, 2007), Forgotten Families (Oxford University Press, 2006), and Healthier Societies (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Heymann has received numerous honors, including election to the U. S. National Academy of Medicine in 2013 and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2012. She has worked with leaders in North American, European, African, and Latin American governments as well as a wide range of intergovernmental organizations including the World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, the World Economic Forum, UNICEF, and UNESCO.

Heymann’s findings have been featured on CNN Headline News; MSNBC; Good Morning America; Fox News; National Public Radio’s All Things Considered; Fresh Air and Marketplace; in The New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Business Week, Inc; Portfolio; Forbes India and USA Today among other internationally and nationally syndicated programs and press.