rsd15 081 0253a

Paul H. Wise, MD, MPH

  • Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society
  • Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
  • Core Faculty, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
  • Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation

Biography

Dr. Paul Wise is dedicated to bridging the fields of child health equity, public policy, and international security studies. He is the Richard E. Behrman Professor of Child Health and Society and Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology and Developmental Medicine, and Health Policy at Stanford University. He is also co-Director, Stanford Center for Prematurity Research and a Senior Fellow in the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, and the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University. Wise is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been working as the Juvenile Care Monitor for the U.S. Federal Court overseeing the treatment of migrant children in U.S. border detention facilities.

Wise received his A.B. degree summa cum laude in Latin American Studies and his M.D. degree from Cornell University, a Master of Public Health degree from the Harvard School of Public Health and did his pediatric training at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. His former positions include Director of Emergency and Primary Care Services at Boston Children’s Hospital, Director of the Harvard Institute for Reproductive and Child Health, Vice-Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and was the founding Director or the Center for Policy, Outcomes and Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine. He has served in a variety of professional and consultative roles, including Special Assistant to the U.S. Surgeon General, Chair of the Steering Committee of the NIH Global Network for Women’s and Children’s Health Research, Chair of the Strategic Planning Task Force of the Secretary’s Committee on Genetics, Health and Society, a member of the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, and the Health and Human Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality.

Wise’s most recent U.S.-focused work has addressed disparities in birth outcomes, regionalized specialty care for children, and Medicaid. His international work has focused on women’s and child health in violent and politically complex environments, including Ukraine, Gaza, Central America, Venezuela, and children in detention on the U.S.-Mexico border.  

publications

Commentary
March 2022

Adversity and Opportunity—The Pandemic’s Paradoxical Effect on Child Health and Well-being

Author(s)
cover link Adversity and Opportunity—The Pandemic’s Paradoxical Effect on Child Health and Well-being
Commentary
March 2016

The Grand Divergence in Global Child Health: Confronting Data Requirements in Areas of Conflict and Chronic Political Instability

Author(s)
cover link The Grand Divergence in Global Child Health: Confronting Data Requirements in Areas of Conflict and Chronic Political Instability

In The News

Adorable Girl with T-shirt "Future Leader"
Commentary

Adversity and Opportunity—The Pandemic’s Paradoxical Effect on Child Health and Well-Being

In this JAMA Pediatrics commentary, Paul Wise and Lisa Chamberlain write the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered emergency policy responses that have cut through years of muddled inaction on issues critical to child health and well-being.
cover link Adversity and Opportunity—The Pandemic’s Paradoxical Effect on Child Health and Well-Being