Title: Global Health Expert Holds Part-time Position at Georgetown

“As a former student and faculty member, it is an honor to return to Georgetown a special place that blends the best of rigorous training, serious scholarship and public service to promote social justice,” said John Monahan, advisor to President John J. DeGioia for global health.

– John Monahan (C’83, L’87), a former special advisor for global health partnerships at the State Department, joined Georgetown this month as an advisor to President John J. DeGioia for global health.

Monahan is helping DeGioia coordinate the university’s work on global health issues and will offer courses at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute (GPPI) as a senior fellow.

“The future of global health and development requires strategically bringing together the tools of diplomacy, policy, business, medicine and science to work with public and private sector leaders in developing countries to catalyze opportunities for their citizens,” Monahan says. “With a distinguished faculty, an engaged student body and a long tradition of public service, Georgetown University is uniquely positioned to contribute to this important work and to help train the leaders of tomorrow in global health and development.”

Invaluable Resource

While serving at Georgetown, Monahan will hold a part-time appointment with the State Department, where he serves as vice-chair of the Finance and Operational Performance Committee of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

As special advisor for global health partnerships at the State Department from 2010 to 2013, Monahan developed, organized and managed the United States’ diplomatic strategy to reform the Global Fund, a multilateral organization that disburses more than $3 billion annually in health assistance to developing countries.

He also served as counselor to the secretary and director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and played a significant role in creating one of Georgetown’s most prestigious institutes.

“It’s a pleasure to welcome John back to the Hilltop to join one of our most important efforts – meeting the challenges of global health,” DeGioia says. “John is an exemplary alumnus who has served in a significant number of senior positions at the highest levels of the federal government. I know he will be an invaluable resource for our community and our work.”

Honor to Return

Monahan was a visiting professor at Georgetown Law from 2007 to 2009, and was the founding executive director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, an innovative interdisciplinary policy center exploring ways to use the law as tool for improving health.

“As a former student and faculty member, it is an honor to return to Georgetown – a special place that blends the best of rigorous training, serious scholarship and public service to promote social justice,” he says.

The double alumnus has also served as a senior fellow at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute’s Center for Urban and Metropolitan Policy and as senior fellow with the Center for the Study of Social Policy.

Health and Human Services

During the first three years of the Clinton administration, Monahan held the position of director of intergovernmental affairs at HHS, representing the secretary before state and local elected officials and managing the department’s negotiations with governors’ offices on statewide health and welfare reform waivers.

In 1996, he was appointed principal deputy assistant secretary at HHS for children and families, serving as the second-ranking official in an agency with an annual budget of more than $30 billion and responsibility for more than 50 low-income programs.

He also worked in senior positions with the Clinton presidential campaign, Democratic National Committee and the Obama-Biden and Clinton-Gore transition teams.