Madhury (Didi) Ray, MD, MPH

Madhury (Didi) Ray, MD, MPH, CEM is an innovator in disaster management working at the intersection of medicine, data, health equity, and public health at the New York City Health Department. As the inaugural Paul Farmer Resident in Anti-Racism and Preventive Medicine, Dr. Ray is conducting a scoping review with the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab to advance knowledge of how health systems can be strengthened to improve the health of displaced and migrant populations in the context of climate change.

Her projects integrate diverse disciplines, from inventing a novel, participatory method to define disaster risk to standing up NYC's first COVID-19 mass vaccination sites to designing NYC's first hyperlocal emergency response. Her interdisciplinary approach to innovation began when she graduated as a triple major in Russian, Mathematics, and Premedicine from the Pennsylvania State University, followed by a medical degree from Drexel University and a Masters in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School with a specialization in Global Health and a concentration in Humanitarian Studies. Dr. Ray counts her time as a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine during the Orange Revolution as one of her most formative experiences. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Center for Conflict Resolution (IC4CR) and was named a 40 Under 40 Rising Leader in Public Health by the deBeaumont Foundation. Dr. Ray's current work centers climate change's impact on human health, the greatest emerging public health threat of our time.