Thoai D. Ngo Named Next Chair of Population and Family Health
Thoai D. Ngo, an internationally recognized scientist working at the intersections of global public health, population dynamics, gender equality, and sustainable development, will become the next chair of the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health effective October 8.
Ngo joins the School from the Population Council, where he has held research leadership and executive roles since 2016, and before that at other prominent international research institutions and nonprofits, addressing a wide range of global health and development issues.
“We are excited that Thoai will bring his considerable expertise and innovative approaches to advancing health equity to our community,” Dean Linda P. Fried said in an announcement.
At the Population Council, Ngo currently serves as the Vice President for Social and Behavioral Science Research (SBSR), where he leads a global team of interdisciplinary scientists with expertise in demography, epidemiology, economics, public health, sociology, and climate science to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), health and wellbeing for young people and marginalized populations, gender equity, and climate justice in 30 countries. In that role, he led international research collaborations to understand trends and develop solutions that improve health and social outcomes in specific areas including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), adolescent health and well-being, gender inequality and norms, and population dynamics and mega-trends. Also at the Population Council, he was the Founding Director of the Girl Innovation, Research, and Learning (GIRL) Center—a globally recognized innovation hub that generates and translates high-quality evidence on adolescents to support investments that transform their lives.
As a champion for research transparency, he conceptualized and launched the Adolescent Data Hub in 2018—an open data portal for adolescents and young people in low- and middle-income countries, used by thousands of researchers worldwide. In 2021, he and his team at Population Council launched the Adolescent Atlas for Action (A3)—an innovative analytic tool that integrates various data points related to health, education, and social issues, making it accessible and user-friendly for advocates, funders, and policymakers globally.
In addition, he was instrumental in founding and helping to grow the Population Council’s Gender, Education, Justice, and Equity Initiative which tackles the global learning crisis and inequities in participation; the Population, Environmental Risks, and the Climate Crisis Initiative, which drives scientific progress at the intersection of climate, health, gender, and equity; and the Humanitarian Taskforce, which is designed to address the critical needs of vulnerable populations in crisis-affected settings.
Before the Population Council, Ngo was the Vice President and Senior Director of Research at Innovation for Poverty Action, directing a team of 500 research staff in conducting over 250 impact evaluations of programs and policies to address global poverty in 18 countries. Ngo has also served as the Head of Global Research at MSI Reproductive Choices, a non-governmental organization providing sexual and reproductive health services in 37 countries, where he was instrumental in establishing its international research department. Additionally, he was a researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health.
With more than 100 high-impact research publications, Ngo’s work has been widely cited and used in amicus briefs, parliamentary briefings, national policies, and guidelines from the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO). For example, his research on abortion and family planning access has helped shape the field, influenced changes in WHO guidelines, national policy and clinical guidelines, and helped expand access to essential SRH services for marginalized communities across various settings. His scholarly contributions and thought leadership have been recognized in popular media outlets such as Bloomberg News, NPR, Forbes, Project Syndicate, and Scientific American. In 2017, he was honored as one of the "120 Under 40" leaders making a significant impact in reproductive health worldwide.
He received a PhD in epidemiology and population health from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and his Master of Health Science in Global Epidemiology and Disease Control from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ngo has served on the Board of Directors and as board chair for Ibis Reproductive Health, as an academic editor for PLoS Global Public Health, and as an advisor to two leading scholarly journals in demography and SRHR—Population Development Review (PDR) and Studies in Family Planning (SFP). He also advises various organizations including FCDO, USAID, the World Bank, private foundations, UN agencies, the WHO, and governmental bodies worldwide, on research and policy agenda-setting on health and development issues.