Brian Wee

Biography

Brian Wee is an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School and Samvid Scholar focused on why some health interventions get adopted and sustained by governments while others do not -- and what governance and financing structures determine that outcome. Originally from Boulder, Colorado, he graduated from Harvard College with highest honors in Chemical and Physical Biology and Government before earning a Master of Public Policy and an MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. Brian has engaged in fieldwork in Sierra Leone and Nigeria as part of the MacArthur-funded Sentinel Initiative, conducting qualitative governance research on infectious disease surveillance integration. His broader experience spans executive-level health policy advisory work at the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, governance research on technical cooperation between WHO/PAHO and member states in Latin America, and founding initiatives at local and global scale -- including the World Pre-Health Conference, which has convened over 3,300 attendees from 100+ countries, and the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, which earned Harvard's Student Organization of the Year Award. Brian was named a Rising Expert in Global Health Governance and Diplomacy by Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP), one of 20 selected globally. As a physician-policymaker in training, Brian is committed to building health systems that are genuinely accountable to the populations they serve -- with particular focus on West Africa, Latin America, and migrant and refugee communities. The son of Korean immigrants, he enjoys hiking, learning languages, international cinema, and undertaking monthly lifestyle challenges.