More than 200 US Leaders Call for a People's Vaccine

More than 200 leaders from the fields of public health, medicine, global development, and racial justice, joined faith leaders, economists, Nobel laureates, former members of Congress and artists to sign a public letter calling on President Biden to champion a People’s Vaccine for COVID-19 -- a public good that is freely and fairly available to all, prioritizing those most in need at home and around the world.

At a time when millions of Americans and people around the world face the dual-ills of health and economic insecurity, with communities of color facing disproportionate burdens, and where too many households stand only one health crisis away from poverty, it has never been more important to deliver a vaccine that can serve to protect everyone, everywhere.

Signers of the letter include philanthropists Abigail Disney and Chelsea Clinton, singers Gloria Estefan and Sara Bareilles, actors Aisha Tyler, Forest Whitaker, Mark Ruffalo, and Bradley Whitford, Nobel laureates Sir Richard J. Roberts, Muhammad Yunus, and Joseph Stiglitz, professors Noam Chomsky, Philip Alston, Henry Richardson, Amy Kapczynski, John Ruggie, Darrick Hamilton and Dani Rodrik, as well as activists Kristin Urquiza and Ady Barkan. Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich and former members of Congress Lynn Woolsey, Mary Jo Kilroy, Claudine Schneider, and Sander Levin also signed.

“In the battle against COVID, we must remember that none of us is safe until everyone, everywhere is safe,” said Alyssa Milano, actor, activist, and signer of the letter. “President Biden can and must bring about a People’s Vaccine so our families are safe, so people can get back to work, so we can live our lives again. Making sure that everyone gets access to a vaccine is the best way to restart our economy and save lives here and around the world.”

The letter comes at a time when an increasing number of people in the United States are getting vaccinated, yet 130 countries around the world have not had access to a single dose. That’s because vaccines currently in circulation and those still in development are closely controlled by a small number of pharmaceutical companies, and individual countries are competing for the limited quantities that individual manufacturers can produce. The scarcity this competition creates means the COVID-19 crisis could be around for much longer than if a vaccine was made widely available to all.

"COVID-19 has affected the lives, health, and economic well-being of people on every continent and in every country in the world. To truly stem the tide of this pandemic, we have to take a global approach to vaccination efforts,” said Dr. Monica Peek, Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Research at the MacLean Center of Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago and signer of the letter. “COVID-19 doesn’t care about borders. That’s why we have to fight for access to vaccines here at home and around the world. We need a People's Vaccine that is accessible to everyone, everywhere, as soon as possible."

Signers of the letter urge for the technology and know-how to make COVID-19 vaccines to be shared with the world. Patents must be licensed, data published and technical assistance provided to teach appropriate vaccine production, so that qualified manufacturers everywhere can help expand the world’s supply and prevent the type of artificial scarcity which will cost lives and livelihoods at home and abroad.

“President Biden must use all of the policy tools at his disposal to ensure global access to vaccines,” said Mariana Mazzucato, author of Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism and signer of the letter. “His actions will be what stand between his vision of building back better and the status quo, which has served us so terribly during this pandemic.”

Renowned epidemiologist Arthur Reingold joined Paul Farmer, co-founder of Partners In Health, Peter Hotez, Director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital; and Vanessa Kerry, Director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change at Harvard Medical School and CEO of Seed Global Health; along with a who’s who of public health experts from around the United States. Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; Oscar Chacon, Executive Director of Alianza Americas; and Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director of UNICEF, also lent their names to the effort.

Melanie Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable; Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director of the NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice; Donna McKay, Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights; Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen; and David Miliband, CEO of the International Rescue Committee also signed the letter.

“I’ve signed this letter because no one is truly safe from this coronavirus until everyone, everywhere is safe,” said Abby Maxman, President and CEO of Oxfam America. “Scientists raced to deliver the necessary knowledge and technology to fight the pandemic. Now President Biden, policymakers, and corporate executives must do their part to ensure we end the pandemic.”

The group calls on President Biden to:

1. Guarantee all vaccines are sold at affordable prices, as close to cost as possible, to ensure that the US and other governments can provide protection to people for free.
2. Ensure full transparency and accountability over US funding for the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
3. Ensure that companies and research institutions share vaccine technologies and know-how nationally and globally to overcome price and supply barriers, especially for those vaccines developed with taxpayer money.
4. Prevent monopoly control of production in order to mobilize large-scale and decentralized manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines to adequately supply safe and effective vaccines for people here and around the world.
5. Work collaboratively with world leaders and health authorities worldwide to deliver and implement a fair and equitable global distribution plan for the vaccine and all COVID-19 products and technologies.
6. Empower scientists to independently determine - without fear or favor - if each vaccine is safe and effective for approval. Neither politics nor profits have a place in the vaccine approval process.
7. Prioritize protection for those people most in need and most at risk, including frontline healthcare and social-care workers, essential workers, older people, people with pre-existing conditions at higher risk, and high-transmission communities here and around the world.

“US taxpayers have already committed more than $10 billion in public money towards a COVID19 vaccine,” the letter states. “A vaccine paid for by the people should work for the people and remain of the people.”

/ENDS

Notes:

Oxfam is part of the Peoples’ Vaccine Alliance, which is calling for all COVID-19 vaccine developers to openly share their intellectual property, technology and know-how to enable the mass production of successful vaccines all over the world. The call for a People’s Vaccine is backed by past and present world leaders, health experts, faith leaders and economists. For more information visit: https://peoplesvaccine.org

Full letter and signers below:

Open Letter to President Biden: A People’s Vaccine—Free and Fair for All—to End the COVID-19 Crisis

A safe, effective and accessible COVID-19 vaccine is vital to bring an end to today’s dual economic and health crisis – so our families are safe, so people can get back to work, so we can live our lives again. No one anywhere is safe from this disease until everyone everywhere is safe.

As a cross-section of leaders from public health, development, faith-based, racial justice and labor organizations, public service, entertainment and economics, we join our voices to call on President Biden to commit to a People’s Vaccine, which provides protection as a global public good, freely and fairly available to all, prioritizing those most in need worldwide.

President Biden has tremendous power to help decide who gets access to protection from this virus, when and at what cost. With this power comes an historic opportunity for America to lead again by leveraging the strength, know-how and generosity of our people to combat this disease here at home and wherever it resides.

A People’s Vaccine is a medical necessity, an economic priority, and a moral imperative. The COVID-19 virus ruthlessly exploits existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting seniors, frontline healthcare and other essential workers, communities of color, people living in poverty, and people at more risk due to pre-existing conditions. Conflict over access to a vaccine that is distributed based on one’s wealth or nationality - rather than on need - will risk millions of lives, delay our economic recovery and exacerbate the crisis. A safe, effective, free and fairly-distributed People’s Vaccine is the fastest and most effective way to fight this pandemic, reopen our businesses and schools, protect Americans and our interests, and save lives here in the US and around the world. At a time when millions of Americans and people around the world face the dual-ills of health and economic insecurity, with communities of color facing disproportionate burdens, and where too many households stand only one health crisis away from poverty, it has never been more important to deliver a vaccine that can serve to protect working people.

Toward this end, the technology and know-how to make a COVID-19 vaccine should be shared with the world. Patents should be licensed, data published and technical assistance provided to teach appropriate vaccine production, so that qualified manufacturers everywhere can help expand the world’s supply and prevent the type of artificial scarcity which will cost lives and livelihoods at home and abroad.

US taxpayers have already committed more than $10 billion in public money towards a COVID 19 vaccine. A vaccine paid for by the people should work for the people and remain of the people.

We call on President Biden to:

1. Empower scientists to independently determine - without fear or favor - if each vaccine is safe and effective for approval. Neither politics nor profits have a place in the vaccine approval process.
2. Ensure full transparency and accountability over US funding for the development of COVID-19 vaccines.
3. Guarantee all vaccines are sold at affordable prices, as close to cost as possible, to ensure that the US and other governments can provide protection to people for free.
4. Ensure that companies and research institutions share vaccine technologies and know-how nationally and globally to overcome price and supply barriers, especially for those vaccines developed with taxpayer money.
5. Prevent monopoly control of production in order to mobilize large-scale and decentralized manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines to adequately supply safe and effective vaccines for people here and around the world.
6. Work collaboratively with world leaders and health authorities worldwide to deliver and implement a fair and equitable global distribution plan for the vaccine and all COVID-19 products and technologies.
7. Prioritize protection for those people most in need and most at risk, including frontline healthcare and social-care workers, essential workers, older people, people with pre-existing conditions at higher risk, and high-transmission communities here and around the world.

Signed,

Frederick Abbott - Edward Ball Eminent Scholar Professor, Florida State University College of Law; Co-Chair of the Global Health Law Committee of the International Law Association

Joyce Ajlouny - General Secretary, American Friends Service Committee

Bisrat Aklilu, PhD - Senior Development Advisor, Oxfam Board of Directors

Philip Alston - John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Co-Chair, NYU Center for Human Rights and Global Justice

Nancy Altman - President, Social Security Works

Sharif Aly - CEO, Islamic Relief USA

Joe Amon, PhD MSPH - Director of Global Health and Clinical Professor, Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University

José Andrés - Founder, World Central Kitchen; Chef/Owner, ThinkFoodGroup

Armand H. Matheny Antommaria, MD, PhD - Director, Ethics Center, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

Stuart Appelbaum - President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU/UFCW)

Hale Appleman - Actor

Shahzeen Attari, PhD - Associate Professor, O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington

Ricardo A. Ayala - Ethicist and Visiting Scholar, Division of Medical Ethics at New York University; Researcher in Business Ethics, University of Amsterdam

Luke Baines - Actor

Brook Baker - Professor, Northeastern University School of Law; Senior Policy Analyst, Health Global Access Project

Radhika Balakrishnan, PhD - Faculty Director, Center for Women's Global Leadership; Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Rutgers University; President, International Association for Feminist Economics

Robert Bank - President and CEO, American Jewish World Service (AJWS)

Sara Barellies – Singer; Actress

Ady Barkan - Co-founder, Be a Hero PAC; Organizer, Center for Popular Democracy

Donna Barry, MSN, MPH - Director, Global Nursing; Assistant Professor, Regis College

Michele Barry, MD, FACP, FASTMH - Professor of Medicine and Tropical Diseases, Stanford University; Director, Center for Innovation in Global Health; Senior Associate Dean for Global Health, Stanford University*

Monica L. Baskin, PhD - President, Society of Behavioral Medicine

Rania Batrice - Interim Executive Director, March for Science

Sister Ruth Battaglia - Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes

Alicia Bazzano, MD, PhD, MPH - Chief Health Officer, Special Olympics, Inc.

Carol Bellamy - Former Executive Director, UNICEF (1995-2005)

Avril Benoît - Executive Director, Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières USA

Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, PhD - Chairperson, Buddhist Global Relief

George Biddle - Chairman, World Connect

Paul Bland - Executive Director, Public Justice

Sister Pegge Boehm - Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Aberdeen, South Dakota

Ali Bokhari, DO, MPH - President, American Medical Student Association

Rabbi Sharon Brous - Senior and Founding Rabbi, IKAR

Rev. Jennifer Butler - Founding Executive Director, Faith in Public Life; Author, Who Stole My Bible?

Kate Campana - Founder and CEO, The Access Challenge

Bonnie Campbell - Former Attorney General of Iowa

Melanie Campbell - President and CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; Convener of the Black Women's Roundtable

Sister Simone Campbell, SSS - Executive Director, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice

Sharon Carpenter - TV Personality and Host

Marco Castillo - Co-Director, Global Exchange

Oscar Chacón - Executive Director, Alianza Americas

Martin Chalfie - University Professor, Columbia University (2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry)

R. Alta Charo, JD - Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law & Bioethics, University of Wisconsin Law School

Lincoln Chen, MD, MPH - President Emeritus, China Medical Board Foundation

Eliza Lo Chin, MD, MPH - Executive Director, American Medical Women's Association

Rev. Eugene Cho - President and CEO, Bread for the World

Noam Chomsky, PhD - Institute Professor (Emeritus), MIT; Laureate Professor, University of Arizona

Chelsea Clinton, DPhil, MPH - Vice Chair, Clinton Foundation; Board Member, Clinton Health Access Initiative; Board member, Alliance for a Healthier Generation

Jonathan Cohen - Director, Public Health Program at Open Society Foundations

Ronald Coleman - President, New Orleans Chapter of the NAACP

Chuck Collins - Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good, Institute for Policy Studies

Misha Collins - Actor

Christopher Cox, M.Div. - Associate Director, Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment

Ophelia Dahl - Co-founder and Chair, Board at Partners in Health

Patricia Davidson, PhD - Dean and Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing; Counsel General, International Council on Women's Health Issues; Secretariat, World Health Organizations Collaborating Centers for Nursing and Midwifery

Sheila Davis, DNP - CEO, Partners in Health

Marie Dennis - Senior Advisor, Pax Christi International

Abigail Disney - Documentary Film Producer, Philanthropist, and Social Activist

Yacine Djibo - Founder and Executive Director, Speak Up Africa

John C. Dorhauer - General Minister and President, United Church of Christ

David J. Doukas, MD - James A. Knight Chair, Humanities and Ethics in Medicine and Director, Program in Medical Ethics and Human Values, Tulane University School of Medicine

Jason T. Eberl, PhD - Professor of Health Care Ethics and Philosophy and Director, Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, Saint Louis University

Gloria Estefan – Musician

Malu Fairley-Collins, Rev, BCC, ACPE Certified Educator - Vice President, Alliance of Baptists

Paul Farmer, MD, PhD - Co-founder and Chief Strategist, Partners in Health; Professor, Kolokotrones University; Chair, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity, Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Kathleen Foley, MD - Member Emeritus, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York , NY

Phyllis Freeman, JD - Editor Emerita, Journal of Public Health Policy

Latanya Mapp Frett - President and CEO, Global Fund for Women

Sakiko Fukada-Parr - Professor of International Affairs, The New School; Director, Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs

Martha Gaines, JD, LLM - Distinguished Clinical Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School; Founder, Center for Patient Partnerships

Jason George - Actor

Daniel Gillies – Actor

George Goehl – Director, People’s Action

Marcy Goldstein-Gelb - Co-Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Gregg Gonsalves, PhD - Assistant Professor in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health; Associate Professor of Law, Yale Law School; Co-director, Global Health Justice Partnership and the Collaboration for Research Integrity and Transparency

Bob Goodfellow - Interim Executive Director, Amnesty International USA

Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD, FACMI, FACE - Professor of Medicine and Philosophy and Director, Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

Genevieve Gorder - Designer, Television Personality, Activist

Lawrence Gostin, JD - Professor of Global Health Law, Georgetown University; Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law; Director, WHO Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights

Rebecca L. Gould - Executive Director, Nebraska Appleseed

Sharon Groves, PhD - Vice President, Partner Engagement at Auburn Seminary

Susan Gunn - Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Rhiana Gunn-Wright - Director of Climate Policy, Roosevelt Institute

Arjun Gupta – Actor

Jeb Gutelius – Executive Director, The Ally Coalition

Rohini Haar, MD, MPH - Adjunct Professor, University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health; Research Fellow, Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley School of Law; Medical Advisor, Physicians for Human Rights

Darrick Hamilton - Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and University Professor, The New School

Rosa Handelman - TV Writer and Producer, Little Fires Everywhere

Chelsea Handler - Comedian, Actress, Writer, TV Host, Producer and Activist

Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD, MPH, FAAP - Director, Pediatric Public Health Initiative; C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health, Division of Public Health; Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Lisa Haugaard - Co-director, Latin America Working Group

Mary Annaise Heglar - Climate Justice Writer; Co-creator and Co-host, Hot Take podcast and newsletter

Michele Heisler, MD, MPA - Medical Director, Physicians for Human Rights; Professor of Internal Medicine and Public Health, University of Michigan

Rev. Katharine Henderson, PhD - President, Auburn Seminary

Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe - General Secretary and General Board of Church and Society, The United Methodist Church

Claire Holt - Actor

Peter Hotez, MD, PhD - Director, Center for Vaccine Development, Texas Children's Hospital; Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine; Professor, Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine

Chaz Howard, Rev. Dr. - University Chaplain and Vice President for Social Equity and Community, University of Pennsylvania

Margaret Huang - President and CEO, Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Action Fund

Eddie Iny - Director, Corporate Accountability Program at United for Respect

Frederick Isasi - Executive Director, Families USA

Klaus H. Jacob, PhD - Geophysicist, The Earth Institute of Columbia University

Rabbi Jill Jacobs - Executive Director, T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

Saru Jayaraman - President, One Fair Wage; Co-founder, Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United; Director, Food Labor Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley

Sherine Jayawickrama - INGO Consultant and Former Executive Director, NGO Leaders Forum; Oxfam Board of Directors

Martha Jeffries - Film and Television Director, Producer, and Writer; Founding Member, Ocean Collectiv

Maz Jobrani - Comedian and Actor

Robert Johnson - President, Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET); Senior Fellow, the Roosevelt Institute

Margarida Jorge - Campaign Director, Lower Drug Prices Now

Amy Kapczynski, JD - Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Michael Katz, MD - Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics, emeritus, Columbia University, President of Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute, University of Oxford, UK

Kerry Kennedy - President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Christopher G. Kerr - Executive Director, Ignatian Solidarity Network

Vanessa Kerry, MD, MSc - Co-founder and CEO, Seed Global Health; Director of the Program in Global Public Policy and Social Change, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

Aaron Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH - Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital

Navina Khanna - Executive Director, HEAL Food Alliance

Mary Jo Kilroy - Former Representative for Ohio’s 15th District

Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH - Second Century Distinguished Professor and Dean Emeritus, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Kendall Kliewer - Treasury Director, Avera Health

Viviana Krsticevic, LLM - Executive Director, Center for Justice and International Law

Lake Street Dive – Musicians

Robert S. Lawrence, MD, MACP - Professor Emeritus, Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Founding Member, Board Member Emeritus, and Past Board Chair, Physicians for Human Rights

Barbara Lawton - Former Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin

Jennifer Leaning, MD, SMH - Senior Research Fellow and former Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard University; Professor of the Practice (retired), Harvard Chan School of Public Health; Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School

Sander Levin - Former Representative for Michigan's 9th District and Former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee; Professor of Practice, University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy

Maggie Lindemann - Musician

Natalia Linos, MSc, ScD - Executive Director, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University; Member of Poor People’s Campaign COVID-19 Health Justice Advisory Committee

Michael C. Lu, MD, MS, MPH - Dean, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

Sean Maguire - Actor

Tessie San Martin - CEO, Plan International USA

Jessica E. Martinez - Co-Executive Director, National Council for Occupational Safety and Health

Kate Marvel, PhD - Climate Scientist and Science Writer; Associate Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and Columbia Engineering's Department of Applied Physics and Mathematics

Abby Maxman - President and CEO, Oxfam America

Mariana Mazzucato, PhD - Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value, University College London (UCL); Founder/Director, UCL's Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Benjamin Mason Meier, JD, LLM, PhD - Associate Professor of Global Health Policy, Department of Public Policy, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Amy L. McGuire, JD, PhD - Leon Jaworski Professor of Biomedical Ethics Director, Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine

Tjada D'Oyen McKenna - CEO, Mercy Corps

Donna McKay - Executive Director, Physicians for Human Rights

Debra Messing - Actor

David Michaels, PhD, MPH - Epidemiologist and Professor, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University

Alyssa Milano - Actor, Producer, and Political Activist

David Miliband - CEO, International Rescue Committee

Ranit Mishori, MD, MHS, FAAFP - Senior Medical Advisor, Physicians for Human Rights; Professor of Family Medicine, Georgetown University School of Medicine

Javier Muñoz – Actor

Thao Nguyen - Musician

Elena Nightingale - Member and Emerita Scholar-in-Residence, National Academy of Medicine; Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Abel Nunez - Executive Director, Central American Resource Center

Michelle Nunn - President and CEO, CARE USA

José Antonio Ocampo - Professor of Professional Geophysicist, The Earth Institute of Columbia University in International and Public Affairs; Director, Economic and Political Development Concentration in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University; Member, the Committee on Global Thought; Co-President, Columbia's Initiative for Policy Dialogue; Chair, Committee for Development Policy

Raymond Offenheiser - Director, Pulte Institute of Global Development, Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame

OK Go – Musicians

Harriet Jane Olson - General Secretary/CEO, United Methodist Women

Ole Petter Ottersen, MD, PhD - President, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden

Laura Packard - Founder, Health Care Voices

Morris Pearl - Former Managing Director, BlackRock; Chairperson, Patriotic Millionaires

Monica E. Peek, MD, MPH, MS - Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of Research, MacLean Center of Clinical Medical Ethics; Associate Director, Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research; Executive Medical Director, Community Health Innovation, The University of Chicago

Reshma Ramachandran, MD, MPP - Physician-Fellow, Yale National Clinician Scholars Program

Jonathan Reckford - CEO, Habitat for Humanity

John Regan - Veteran’s Legal Clinic, Legal Services Center, Harvard Law School, Oxfam Board of Directors

Robert Reich - Chancellor's Professor, University of California at Berkeley; Former U.S. Secretary of Labor

Arthur Reingold, MD - Professor and Division Head of Epidemiology, School of Public, UC Berkeley

Henry S. Richardson, PhD - Professor of Philosophy, Georgetown University; Senior Scholar, Kennedy Institute of Ethics

Les Roberts, PhD - Professor, Program on Forced Migration and Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Sir Richard J. Roberts - Chief Scientific Officer, New England Biolabs; Co-recipient 1993 Nobel Prize in Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Emily Robinson - Actor

Dani Rodrik, PhD - Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; President-Elect, International Economics Association; Co-director, Economics for Inclusive Prosperity

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS - Professor of Medicine and Public Health, Yale School of Medicine

Kenneth Roth – Executive Director, Human Rights Watch

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner - Co-founder and Executive Director/CEO, Moms Rising

Leonard Rubenstein, JD, LLM - Professor of the Practice, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Mark Ruffalo - Actor

John Ruggie, PhD - Berthold Beitz Professor in Human Rights and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; former UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights

Mohammed Zaher Sahloul, MD - Co-founder and President, MedGlobal; Associate Professor, University of Illinois in Chicago, Founder, Syria Faith Initiative

Marcus Samuelsson – Chef, Marcus Samuelsson Group

Maya Haile Samuelsson – Model, Founder of Three Goats

Angela Sanbrano - Co-Executive Director, National Day Laborer Organizing Network

Claudine Schneider - Former Representative for Rhode Island’s 2nd District

Bill Schultz, JD - Former General Counsel, Department of Health and Human Services; Former Deputy Commissioner, FDA; Board of Trustees, Partners in Health; Leadership Council, Yale School of Public Health; Board Co-chair, National Health Law Project; Board Member, Center for Science in the Public Interest

Jamey Shachoy - Chief Tax Officer, Accenture; Oxfam Board of Directors

Donna Shelley, MD, MPH – Professor, Public Health Policy and Management and Global Health, Vice Chair of Research, Department Public Health Policy and Management, NYU School of Global Public Health

Sekou Siby, DBA - Executive Director, Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) United

Gayle Smith - President and CEO, the ONE Campaign

Rev. Jason Smith - Congregational Engagement Specialist, Alliance of Baptists

Anthony D. So, MD, MPA - Professor of the Practice and Director, Innovation + Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health*

Ben Sollee - Musician; Activist

Paul B. Spiegel MD, MPH - Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health; Professor of Practice, Department of International Health and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Rev. Sharon Stanley-Rea, DMin - Director of Refugee & Immigration Ministries (RIM) for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Joseph Stiglitz, PhD - Nobel Laureate in Economics; University Professor, Columbia University; President, Columbia's Initiative for Policy Dialogue; Chief Economist and Senior Fellow, the Roosevelt Institute

Chadwick Stokes - Musician; Activist

Eric Stover - Faculty Director, Human Rights Center; Adjunct Professor of Law and Public Health, University of California, Berkeley

Cheryl Strayed - Award-winning author of 4 books, including #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Wild; Podcast host

Rev. Cathy Tamsberg - Secretary of the Alliance of Baptists

Rev. Adam Russell Taylor - President, Sojourners

Alice Carbone Tench - Chef; Author

Benmont Tench - Musician

Bishop Efraim Tendero - Secretary General and CEO, World Evangelical Alliance

Geoff Thale - President, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)

Rev. Liz Theoharis - Co-chair, Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival; Director, the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice at Union Theological Seminary

Liz Tigelaar - TV Writer, Producer, and Author - Little Fires Everywhere

Aisha Tyler - Actor, Comedian, Director, and Talk show host

Kristin Urquiza, MPA - Co-founder and Chief Activist, Marked by COVID

Baldemar Velasquez - Founder and President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)

Sten Vermund, MD, PhD - Pediatrician and Infectious Disease Epidemiologist; Dean and Professor, Yale School of Public Health

Melanne Verveer - Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security; Former U.S. Ambassador, Global Women’s Issues

Anjelika Washington - Actor

Randi Weingarten - President, American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

Michael Weinstein - President, AIDS Healthcare Foundation

Robert Weissman - President, Public Citizen

Amy Westervelt - Environmental Print and Radio Journalist; Founder, Critical Frequency Podcast Network; Host of the popular podcast “Drilled”

Forest Whitaker - Artist; Social Activist; Founder/CEO, Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative

Bradley Whitford - Actor

Katharine Wilkinson, DPhil - Climate Author, Strategist, Teacher; Principal Writer and Editor-in-Chief, Project Drawdown

James Winkler - President, National Council of Churches (NCC)

Lynn Woolsey - Former Representative for California’s 6th District

Sam Worthington - CEO, InterAction

Matthew K. Wynia, MD, MPH - Director, Center for Bioethics and Humanities and Professor, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado School of Public Health; Advisory Council, Physicians for Human Rights*

Alicia Yamin, JD, MPH - Senior Fellow, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School (PFC); Senior Scholar, Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University (GHELI); Adjunct Lecturer on Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; Senior Advisor on Human Rights, Partners in Health

Muhammad Yunus - 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Founder, Grameen Bank

Monette Zard - Allan Rosenfield Associate Professor of Forced Migration and Health and Director of the Forced Migration and Health Program, Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Jane Zelikova - Co-founder, 500 Women Scientists; Chief Climate Scientist, Carbon180; Researcher, University of Wyoming; Co-founder, Hey Girl Productions

Josh Zinner - CEO, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR)

Johnny Zokovitch - Executive Director, Pax Christi USA

* Affiliation for identification purposes only.