Emergency Physician, CNN Medical Analyst, and Op-Ed Columnist for The Washington Post
Dr. Leana Wen: Biography at a Glance
- Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
- She is also a CNN medical analyst and contributing columnist for The Washington Post, where she writes "The Checkup With Dr. Wen."
- She wrote the critically acclaimed book on patient advocacy, When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests, and a memoir titled Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health.
- Dr. Wen previously served as Baltimore’s Health Commissioner, where she led the nation’s oldest continuously operating health department in the U.S.
- Dr. Wen has received recognition as one of Governing’s Public Officials of the Year, Modern Healthcare’s Top 50 Physician-Executives, World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, and TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
Media
Official TwitterWashington Post: The Checkup With Dr. WenBook: Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public HealthBook: When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary TestsCNN: A doctor's diagnosis of our broken public health systemGoverning: Public Officials of the YearCNN: CNN’s Leana Wen: ‘Public health is now under attack in a way that it has no...WSJ: Physician Leana Wen Is a Public-Health Pragmatist
Videos
Biography
Dr. Leana Wen is an emergency physician, CNN medical analyst, and op-ed columnist for The Washington Post, where she writes a weekly column and anchors the Post newsletter, "The Checkup with Dr. Wen". She is also a professor of health policy and management at George Washington University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and author of two books, When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests and Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health.
Previously, she served as Baltimore's Health Commissioner, where she led the nation’s oldest continuously operating health department in the U.S. to fight the opioid epidemic, treat violence and racism as public health issues, and improve maternal and child health.
Dr. Wen obtained her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine and studied health policy at the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. She completed her residency training at Brigham & Women's Hospital & Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dr. Wen has received recognition as one of Governing's Public Officials of the Year, Modern Healthcare's Top 50 Physician-Executives, World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders, and TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People.
Dr. Wen lives with her husband and their two young children in Baltimore.
Topics
Lessons from COVID-19 and Implications for the Future of Healthcare
CNN medical analyst Dr. Wen has been one of the nation’s leading experts during the COVID-19 pandemic, called upon for her expertise by Congress, state and local governments, businesses, schools/universities, and scientific organizations. She can speak to the learnings from COVID-19 and what it has revealed about the need to focus on social determinants of health, public health preparedness, and care for the most vulnerable. She can then look forward to the future. What are major trends in payment reform, health workforce, and medical technology, and how will they, in the recovery from the pandemic, shape the future of public policy and healthcare delivery?
Reducing Health Disparities and Striving for Health Equity
Dr. Wen is a leading national expert on health disparities. During the COVID-19 crisis, she was asked to testify four times to the U.S. House of Representatives on the unequal impact of the pandemic on communities of color. While she served as Baltimore’s health commissioner, she reconfigured the agency to specifically focus on health equity and was among the first leaders to declare racism as a public health crisis. She can speak from the lens of current events on how COVID-19 has unmasked existing disparities and specifically focus on innovative solutions that reduce disparities and improve health in the short-term, as well as long-term efforts to address structural inequities. Here, she draws upon lessons in her new book, Lifelines: A Doctor’s Journey in the Fight for Public Health, and gives specific examples of successful innovations that reduce disparities and improve equity.
Mental Health and Well-Being
The stress that employees have endured during the pandemic will not vanish after the immediate crisis passes. Employees have been coping with isolation, dealing with loss, acting as caregivers, and struggling with childcare. Dr. Wen brings audiences a world of insights and understanding from her work as a practicing physician, former Health Commissioner of Baltimore, and chairwoman of a nonprofit addressing mental health and addiction. She shares personal experiences (including her own battle with postpartum depression and her experience as a caregiver to her ailing mother), best practices on employee health and well-being, and strategies for developing resiliency. And she outlines for audiences a framework for incorporating mental and physical wellness practices into the office, home, and everyday life.
Women in Leadership
Women, and women leaders, face distinctive challenges in the workplace. Trained in trauma/ER medicine and having been one of many “firsts” as a woman of color, Dr. Wen speaks from first-hand experience and from her professional research about the challenges and opportunities for women in leadership. These include advice for women about the “double bind” and “glass cliff,” such as owning one’s authentic identity and negotiating societal expectations. Dr. Wen also gives talks on crisis leadership, innovative leadership, and overcoming adversity. These include lessons from innovative leadership locally and nationally, drawing upon her background in convening unlikely stakeholders around shared goals; leading collective impact, public-private collaborations in public health; and getting to points of agreement in turbulent political environments.
