Paul H. Wise

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

Unsplash-Barbara Zandoval-Boy on Bike
News

In Conflict Zones and Borderlands, Paul Wise Protects the Health of Vulnerable Children

Stanford Health Policy's Paul Wise — professor of pediatrics and senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies — is featured in this Stanford Magazine story about his work at the U.S.-Mexico border as the federally appointed juvenile monitor and around the world as a pediatrician who works on behalf of children of conflict.
cover link In Conflict Zones and Borderlands, Paul Wise Protects the Health of Vulnerable Children
People crossing through wire at a river
News

Lives on the Line

In conflict zones and borderlands, Paul Wise protects the health of vulnerable children.
cover link Lives on the Line
Ukrainian Children on a war-ravaged school bus
News

Evacuating Child Cancer Patients From Ukraine While Highlighting Rise of Attacks on Hospitals and Health Workers Around the World

The Spring 2023 issue of Dædalus—the journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences—focuses on the delivery of humanitarian and health aid in areas of violent conflict. Paul Wise, one of three co-editors of the three-year project, writes about how international humanitarian law has lost purchase with many 21st-century combatants.
cover link Evacuating Child Cancer Patients From Ukraine While Highlighting Rise of Attacks on Hospitals and Health Workers Around the World