Emmanuela Gakidou

Dr. Emmanuela Gakidou is a co-founder of IHME. She is Associate Chair for Academic Programs at the Department of Health Metrics Sciences, and Senior Director of Organizational Development and Training at IHME. She also leads two research teams. She started the Gender Equality research team to investigate, quantify, and highlight the key drivers in disparities by gender to help promote and achieve pathways to gender equality and the elimination of hidden biases embedded in population health data collection, analyses, and results. 

The other research team she leads – TEAM – produces high-quality estimates for tobacco, education, obesity, physical activity, alcohol, bone mineral density, and select covariates, working with collaborators on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study. Dr. Gakidou has over 20 years of research experience in the areas of monitoring and evaluation, needs assessments, health disparities, and the social determinants and risk factors for health. Her current notable research accomplishments have focused on measurement of gender-based violence and its drivers; education and learning indicators including educational attainment; and tobacco- and alcohol-related risk factors as part of the GBD.

As the Senior Director of Organizational Development and Training, she oversees all academic, internal, and external trainings; the professional development of staff and researchers; development and implementation of fellowship and internship programs; and mentors faculty and fellows. Before joining IHME, Dr. Gakidou was a research associate at the Harvard Initiative for Global Health and the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, as well as a health economist at the World Health Organization (WHO), where she led work on the measurement of health inequalities. Originally from Greece, Dr. Gakidou moved to the US for higher education and received her degrees – an AB, a Master of International Health Economics, and a PhD in Health Policy, from Harvard University.