Atul Gawande, MD, MPH, is a renowned surgeon, author, and public health leader. He holds the John and Cyndy Fish Chair in Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is Professor of the Practice at Harvard Medical School. He was Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID from January 2022 to January 2025. Prior to that, he co-founded and chaired Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation where he is now Distinguished Professor in Residence, and Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. From 2018-2020, he was CEO of Haven, the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase healthcare venture.

Dr. Gawande is also a longtime writer for The New Yorker magazine and has written four New York Times best-selling books: Complications, Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. He was executive producer for the Emmy-nominated documentary film adaptation of Being Mortal (2016) and for the Oscar-nominated documentary film, To Kill A Tiger (2024).