Shadi Saleh

Founding Director

Shadi Saleh founded the Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut in 2017, the first institute of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa, and directs it. He is professor of health systems and financing at the university, and has served there as associate vice president for health affairs; earlier he was professor of health systems at the State University of New York. He holds a PhD in health policy from the University of Iowa, and a master of public health and a bachelor's degree from AUB. His work covers health financing, evidence-informed decision making, digital health and the health of refugee and displaced populations, and runs to more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and commissioned reports, including in The Lancet, the American Journal of Public Health and Medical Care. He advises the World Bank, the World Health Organization and United Nations agencies on health financing and system strengthening, was chosen by the Wellcome Trust among a small group commissioned to reimagine the future of global health, and received the Velji Award for Global Health Leadership in 2022.