Africa Initiative

Wilmot James joined Brown University in March 2023 as Professor and Senior Advisor for Pandemics and Global Health Security at the School of Public Health, and as of 1 July 2026 is Director of the Africa Initiative based at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs. Prior to his Brown appointment, he was a Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University. James is a thought leader in global health security and diplomacy. He serves on a variety of advisory boards and committees including the Wellcome Trust's Climate-Health Impact Awards Advisory Committee (Chair), the Scientific Advisory Council to the Fund for Science and Technology (Paul Allen FF-ST), co-chair of the Mirror Life Policy Working Group (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), panel chair of the Schmidt Sciences Post Doctoral Fellows Program and plays a leading role in the efforts of the G7-led Global Partnership's and Africa CDC's Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biothreats in Africa. James was a Member of Parliament (South Africa) between 2009-2017 and a Trustee of the Ford Foundation of New York between 1996 and 2008. He is the author and/or editor of 17 books including the policy-oriented Vital Signs: Health Security in South Africa (2020, Brenthurst Foundation), Nature's Gifts: Why we are the way we are (2010, WITS U Press, Johannesburg) and a co-edited collection of the Nelson Mandela's presidential speeches Nelson Mandela in His Own Words (Little Brown & Co. 2003 and 2017). James co-designed the first post-apartheid immigration and refugee protection system for the Mandela Government. The best job he ever had - he says - is as Chairman of the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra!