24 Facts About Vanessa Kerry

Vanessa Bradford Kerry was born on December 31,1976 and is an American physician, public health expert, and advocate.

Vanessa Kerry is a founder of the non-profit Seed Global Health, director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, and serves as the Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health for the World Health Organization.

Vanessa Kerry is the younger daughter of politician John Forbes Kerry and writer Julia Stimson Thorne.

Vanessa Kerry's older sister Alexandra is an actress, filmmaker, director and producer.

Vanessa Kerry attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts for high school.

Vanessa Kerry took a year off from Harvard to attend the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, earning her master's of science in health policy, planning and financing.

Vanessa Kerry later studied and advised on government relations for health and development in Rwanda in partnership with Partners in Health.

Vanessa Kerry completed her internal medicine residency and critical care fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Vanessa Kerry is a physician specializing in critical care.

Vanessa Kerry has continued work in global health and has collaborated on projects in Haiti and Rwanda through the Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

Vanessa Kerry has worked on public sector partnerships in Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Sierra Leone through Seed Global Health and supports education and public policy at the MGH Center for Global Health.

Vanessa Kerry serves as director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change and is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School.

Active in global health for many years, in 2011 Vanessa Kerry started the non-profit Seed Global Health.

In 2010, Vanessa Kerry wrote an op-ed on the idea of sending American health professionals to teach for The New York Times.

Vanessa Kerry is the Director of the Program in Global Public Policy at the Mass General Center for Global Health and spearheads the program in Global Public Policy and Social Change at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine.

Vanessa Kerry is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and serves on its faculty.

In June 2023, Vanessa Kerry was appointed as the first Special Envoy for Climate Change and Health at the World Health Organization.

At WHO, Vanessa Kerry's responsibilities include raising awareness of the impact of climate change on health, helping to mobilize resources to advance the work of WHO, and to advance high-level advocacy.

On October 10,2009 in Boston, Vanessa Kerry married neurosurgeon Brian Vala Nahed, who specializes in brain tumors and spinal disorders.

Vanessa Kerry took a leave from her medical studies in order to campaign for her father's, then Senator John Vanessa Kerry, presidential bid in 2004, even introducing him at that year's Democratic National Convention.

Vanessa Kerry campaigned by herself and with her sister, mostly focusing on campaign stops at university campuses.

Vanessa Kerry made speeches in support of her father and focused on health care issues and tuition costs for students, two Democratic campaign issues she felt personally attached to.

Vanessa Kerry appeared with Alexandra on the MTV Music Video Awards show in Miami where she joined George W Bush's daughters Barbara and Jenna, who were campaigning for their father George W Bush, to encourage youth and citizen voting.

Vanessa Kerry has spoken at a number of venues around the globe including World Health Assembly, United Nations, Aspen Ideas Festival, Millennium Campus Network Conferences, TedX Boston, San Diego State University, UCLA, APHA and other venues.