Biography

Jonathon Lee Simon, MPH, DSc, Director of the Center for Global Health & Development, leads scientific and strategic efforts of the CGHD. Dr. Simon is also Chair of the Department of International Health and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. He received his Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California at Berkeley; his MPH is also from UC Berkeley. Dr. Simon received his Doctorate of Science from the Harvard University School of Public Health, having completed dissertation research on the changing demography of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Dr. Simon has had extensive experience working in Africa and South Asia, particularly on issues including child survival, infectious diseases, and capacity strengthening. For the past seven years, he has been part of a core research team at the CGHD evaluating the social and economic impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic while maintaining an active role in the center’s ongoing child survival research work. He serves as Principal Investigator (PI) of an applied research project on orphans and vulnerable children. He remains involved in the technical work on HIV economics and program evaluation studies. Dr. Simon teaches a master’s-level course on the history of the public health movement and advises doctoral students.

Dr. Simon has been involved in applied child health research activities for 25 years, working in more than 20 developing countries. Before joining Boston University in 2001, Dr. Simon was a tenured Fellow of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), and Director of the HIID Health Office. During his tenure at HIID, he was resident in Pakistan for two years as the regional advisor. He worked extensively on strengthening institutional and individual research capacity.

Dr. Simon was named the first Robert A. Knox Professor, a newly created endowed professorship designed to support a faculty member who has an outstanding record of scholarship and teaching in public health and management. The professorship was established through a $2.5 million gift from The Robert and Jeanne Knox Foundation, a philanthropic entity co-founded by BU Board of Trustees Chair Robert Knox (CAS ’74, GSM ’75) and his wife, Jeanne, who heads the BU Parents Leadership Council.

Projects

• AIDS and the Private Sector in Africa
• AIDSTAR-One: AIDS Support and Technical Resources for Prevention, Care, and Treatment
• Analysis of the Committed Communities Development Trust’s Residential Care for Children Affected by HIV/AIDS (including the Children of Sex Workers)
• Analyzing the Organizational Development of 3 NGOs Providing Care to OVC
• Applied Diarrheal Disease Research (ADDR) Project
• Applied Research on Child Health (ARCH) Project
• Assessing the Karnataka Cash Transfer Program
• Baseline Evaluation of USAID/Pact Program for Highly Vulnerable Children: Yekokeb Berhan
• Child and Family Applied Research Project (CFAR)
• Children Affected by AIDS – Organizational Network Analysis
• DELIVER I and II
• Disclosure of HIV Status to Children: Global Lessons and India Practice
• Dissemination Meeting & Capacity Building Workshop
• Economic and Quality of Life Outcomes for Patients on ART in Kenya
• Economics and Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment (South Africa Associate Award)
• Effectiveness of an Integrated Care Model in Drop-in Centers in Maharashtra
• Evaluation of the Community Faith-Based Regional Initiative for Vulnerable Children (FABRIC)
• Evidence-based Landscape Analysis on Childhood Diarrheal Disorders and Development of Global Consensus on Priorities for Research and Interventions (DGAP)
• External Evaluation of the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) Project
• Filling the Knowledge Gap on How to Better Serve Children Orphaned by HIV/AIDS
• Global Urban Health Summit
• Health and Development Discussion Papers
• Impact of Services for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Mozambique
• ISHED: International Studies in Health and Economic Development
• Labor Productivity and Antiretroviral Therapy in Kenya
• Longitudinal Orphans and Vulnerable Children Study in Zambia
• Orphans and Vulnerable Children Comprehensive Action Research Project (OVC-CARE)
• Orphans and Vulnerable Children Research in India
• Project SEARCH (Supporting Evaluation and Research to Combat HIV/AIDS)
• The Amajuba Child Health and Well-Being Research Project
• Zambia Chlorhexidine Application Trial (ZamCAT)

Publications