Jonathan Quick, M.D.
• Author of 'The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It'
• Managing Director, Pandemic Response, Preparedness, and Prevention, Health Initiative, at The Rockefeller Foundation
An internationally known global health leader, Jonathan (“Jono”) D. Quick, MD, MPH is the author of The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It (Australian, Italian, Korean, South Asia, U.K. and U.S. 2018/2020/2021 editions). Offering evidence-based ways to prevent epidemics from spreading worldwide, Dr. Quick has been interviewed by North American, European, and Asia media during the current COVID-19 global epidemic, including the CNN, NPR, BBC, Bloomberg, MSNBC, ABC News.
A family physician and health management specialist, Dr. Quick is currently adjunct Professor of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute. He has served as Managing Director for Pandemic Response, Preparedness, and Prevention at The Rockefeller Foundation (2020-2021); President and Chief Executive officer of the global health nonprofit Management Sciences for Health (MSH, 2004-2017); Director of Essential Medicines and Pharmaceutical Policies at the World Health Organization (1995-2003); resident health systems advisor for programs in Afghanistan and Kenya (1989-1994); and clinical director/chief of staff at the U.S. Public Health Service Indian Hospital in Talihina, Oklahoma. Dr. Quick has carried out assignments to improve the health and lives of people in over 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. His other publications include Managing Access to Medicines and Health Technologies (MDS-3), the Financial Times Guide to Executive Health and more than 100 other books and chapters, as well as articles in leading medical journals. Dr. Quick’s op-eds, blogs and letters have appeared in TIME, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Sojourners, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Ms. Magazine, The Telegraph, WBUR’s CommonHealth and elsewhere. His Trinity Forum Readings focus on the lives and faith of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nelson Mandela, Albert Schweitzer, and human rights pioneer Bartolomé Las Casas.
Dr. Quick also holds faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School/Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the University of Boston School of Public Health. He is a past Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. He has a first degree from Harvard University and an MD, with distinction in research, and master of public health from the University of Rochester. Jono, his wife Tina, and their three now-grown daughters have lived in France, Kenya, Pakistan, and the U.
Speech topics
The Ricochet Effect: Global pandemics and business preparedness
A highly contagious, highly deadly pandemic like the 1918 Spanish flu could kill 200-400 million people and hit the global economy with the force of the Great Recession.
In a globally connected world, a pandemic that invades every continent hits every sector, and continues in over several years will disrupt supply, demand, and the ability of business, nonprofits, and governments to operate.
Using examples from swine flu, Ebola, Zika and other epidemics, Dr. Quick will describe how governments, businesses, and other organizations can keep the world working during a pandemic.
18 Million Americans Think about Zombies. How many think about the next pandemic?
More than 18 million adult viewers tune in weekly to watch The Walking Dead, a blood-soaked zombie apocalypse story. The Walking Dead is closer to reality than you might think.
Somewhere out there, a killer virus is boiling up in the bloodstream of a bat, monkey, chicken or pig – preparing to jump to a human being, with the potential wipe out millions of lives in a matter of weeks or months.
Dr. Quick will talk about the part each of us can play – from personal health habits, to routine vaccination to collection action – to create a world where everyone is safe from devastating epidemics. The enemy isn't zombie uprisings. The real enemy is complacency and inaction.
Pandemic Prevention in the 21st Century: The Best $1 We’ll Ever Spend
Governments, private philanthropy, the private sector, and communities could make the world much safer from pandemic threats by investing an additional $7.5 billion per year – an average of $1 for each person on the planet – to close fatal gaps in health system capacity, innovation, and emergency response.
Such an investment would not only save lives. For every $1 spent, it would also return up to $10 in reduced healthcare and indirect economic costs.
Drawing from smallpox, AIDS, avian flu, and other outbreaks, Dr. Quick will share vivid examples of successful, often heroic action to end epidemics and eradicate disease. He will also describe specific practical individual and collective actions that can end devastating epidemics.
Books
The End of Epidemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It
A leading doctor offers answers on the one of the most urgent questions of our time: How do we prevent the next global pandemic?