Marcella Alsan is a Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. Marcella received a BA from Harvard University, a master’s in public health from Harvard School of Public Health, a MD from Loyola University, and a PhD in Economics from Harvard University. She trained at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Hiatt Global Health Equity Residency Fellowship – then combined the PhD with an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to returning to Harvard, she was on faculty at Stanford.
Her research focuses on the causes and consequences of infectious disease for health and productivity. She uses historical public health natural experiments to explore the interaction between infectious disease, human capital and economic outcomes. Another vein of research focuses on the micro foundations of antibiotic overuse and resistance.