Africa Initiative

Omar Galárraga, a health economist and health services researcher (PhD, Johns Hopkins University, 2007), is the Director of the Center for Global Public Health (CGPH) at the Brown University School of Public Health, where he is a tenured Professor of Health Services Policy and Practice. At Brown, he also serves in the steering committee for the Population Studies & Training Center (PSTC), on the advisory committee for the Center for Latin American Studies (CLACS), and the advisory board for the Data Science Institute (DSI); and is a Faculty Fellow at the Watson School for International & Public Affairs. He served as Director of the Doctoral Program in Health Services Research (HSR PhD), and was an appointed member of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council (OARAC) during 2021-24. His research uses insights from health and behavioral economics with a special focus on HIV treatment and prevention, health systems, and applied health econometric analysis. He evaluates economic-based interventions using experimental and rigorous non-experimental methods; his contributions appear in over 150 publications in health economics, public health and health services research journals. Dr. Galárraga currently serves as an Associate Editor for Health Economics; and as a standing member of the NIH Science of Implementation in Health and Healthcare (SIHH) study section. He conducts research in Ecuador, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, South Africa, and the U.S. in collaboration with community and academic partners.