CHINA Town Hall: Health & Climate

    SPEAKERS

Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg is an internationally recognized leader in public health and medicine. She is the former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she served almost six years in the Obama administration. Previous government positions include assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, health commissioner for New York City, and assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Hamburg currently is foreign secretary at the National Academy of Medicine and recently completed her tenure as president and chair at the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS). In addition to her service on the board of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Hamburg currently sits on the boards of the Simmons Foundation, Commonwealth Fund, Urban Institute, Global Alliance for Vaccines Initiative, and the American Museum of Natural History, as well as the board of directors of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Dr. Hamburg earned her B.A. from Harvard College, her M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and completed her medical residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Ryan Hass is a fellow and the Michael H. Armacost Chair in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings, where he holds a joint appointment to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. He was in the inaugural class of David M. Rubenstein fellows at Brookings, and is a nonresident affiliated fellow in the Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School. Mr. Hass focuses his research on enhancing policy development on the pressing political, economic, and security challenges facing the United States in East Asia.

From 2013 to 2017, Mr. Hass served as the director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the National Security Council (NSC). In that role, he advised President Obama and senior White House officials on all aspects of U.S. policy toward the region, and coordinated the implementation of policy among American government departments and agencies. Prior to joining the NSC, Mr. Hass served as a foreign service officer at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. He received multiple Superior Honor and Meritorious Honor commendations during his 15-year tenure in the foreign service.

Mr. Hass graduated from the University of Washington and attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Angel Hsu is an assistant professor of environmental studies at Yale-NUS (National University of Singapore) College and founder and director of the Data-Driven EnviroPolicy Lab, an interdisciplinary research group that innovates and applies quantitative approaches to pressing environmental issues. Her research explores the intersection of science and policy and the use of data-driven approaches to environmental sustainability, particularly in climate change and energy, urbanization, and air quality. Focusing on China and the Global South, Dr. Hsu has provided expert testimony to the U.S.-China Economic Security and Review Commission and is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and a Public Intellectuals Program fellow.

In addition to publishing in academic journals, Dr. Hsu is committed to public outreach, was a TED 2018 Age of Amazement speaker, and was recognized as an inaugural Grist 50 leader. She is the co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Global Public Goods in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. She holds a Ph.D in environmental policy from Yale University.

    MODERATOR

Merit E. Janow is an expert in international trade and investment and northeast Asia, with extensive experience in academia, government, and business. She is dean of the faculty of the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), professor of practice in international economic law and international affairs at SIPA, an affiliated faculty member at Columbia Law School, and co-director of the APEC Study Center. At SIPA, Professor Janow has introduced several new interdisciplinary academic initiatives around technology and public policy, central banking and sound financial policy, and key regions of the world.

In 2003, Professor Janow was elected for a four-year term as one of seven members of the World Trade Organization’s Appellate Body – the first female to serve on the Appellate Body. Prior to that, she served as the executive director of the first international antitrust advisory committee of the U.S. Department of Justice, and deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for Japan and China.

Professor Janow is the author of three books and numerous articles. She is the past chair of the Nasdaq Stock Market and serves on the boards of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, MasterCard, the American Funds, and Trimble Inc. She is also a trustee of the Japan Society. In 2009, she became a charter member of the International Advisory Council of China’s sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation. She grew up in Japan and speaks Japanese. She has a J.D. from Columbia Law School and a B.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan.