Felicia Knaul

Dr. Felicia Knaul has worked for decades on research and advocacy in global health and social development. Her research focuses on violence against women and children, global cancer (particularly breast cancer), health systems reform, health financing, and palliative care.

Currently, she is a distinguished professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she holds other roles, such as senior advisor to the dean and to the president of UCLA Health, and director of Global Health at the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. At the University of Miami, she was director of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas and professor at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. She also served as secretary general of the Hemispheric University Consortium.

From 2009 to 2015, she was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Global Equity Initiative. In Mexico, she is a senior economist at the Mexican Health Foundation and a member of the Mexican National Academy of Medicine.

After her breast cancer experience, Dr. Knaul founded Tómatelo a Pecho, A.C. in 2008, now focusing on women’s health and on health system strengthening. Dr. Knaul has produced over 355 academic and policy publications.

She currently co-chairs several commissions, including the Lancet Commission on Cancer and Health Systems and the Lancet Commission on Violence Against Women and Children. She co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Control.

Felicia Knaul joined Tecnológico de Monterrey as Distinguished Visiting Professor in Public Health for the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

• Ph.D., Economics, Harvard University
• M.A., Economics, Harvard University
• B.A., International Development Studies, University of Toronto

• Jamison DT, Summers LH, Chang A, Karlsson O, Mao W, Norheim O, Ogbuoji O, Schäferhoff M, Watkins D, OAdeyi O, Alleyne G, Alwan S, Anand S, Belachew R, Berkley S, Bertozzi S, Bolongaita S, Bundy D, Bustreo F, Castro M, Chen S, Fan V, Fawole A, Feachem R, Gebremedhin L, Ghosh J, Goldie S, Gonzalez-Pier E, Guo Y, Gupta S, Jha P, Knaul FM, Kruk M, Kurowski C, Liu G, Makimoto S, Mataria A, Nugent N, Oshitani H, Pablos-Mendez A, Peto R, Sekhri Feachem N, Reddy S, Salti N, Saxenian H, Seyi-Olajide J, Soucat A, Verguet S, Zimmerman A, Yamey G. Global health 2050: the path to halving premature death by mid-century. The Lancet, Volume 404, Issue 10462 p1561-1614. October 19, 2024. DOI: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2824%2901439-9
• Coles CE, Earl H, Anderson BO, Barrios CH, Bienz M, Bliss JM, Cameron D, Cardoso F, Cui W, Francis PA, Jagsi, R, Knaul FM, McIntosh S, Phillips KA, Radbruch L, Thompson MK, André F, Abraham JE, Bhattacharya I, Borinelli Franzoi MA, Drewett L, Fulton A, Kazmi F, Rajah DI, Mutebi M, Ng D, Szeyi Ng, Olopade OI,  Rosa WE, Rubasingham J, Spence D, Stobart H, Vargas Enciso V, Vaz Luis I, Villarreal-Garza C on behalf of the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission. The Lancet Breast Cancer Commission Report. The Lancet. April 15, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00747-5
• Knaul, F., Arreola-Ornelas, H., Jiang, X., Bhadelia, A., Berterame, S., Connor, S., De Lima, L., Downing, J., Krakauer, E., Méndez, O., Pastrana, T., Perez-Cruz, P. E., Portenoy, R., Rosa, W., Touchton, M., Enciso, V., & Radbruch, L. (2024). Distributed opioids in morphine equivalent: A global measure of availability for palliative care. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2024.10.026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2024.10.026
• Knaul, Felicia & Rosa, William & Radbruch, Lukas & Jiang, Xiaoxiao & Vargas, Valentina & Bhadelia, Afsan & Arreola-Ornelas, Héctor & Coppola, Marissa. (2024). Improving access to palliative care to mitigate multi-dimensional breast cancer suffering. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 42. e24084-e24084. 10.1200/JCO.2024.42.16_suppl.e24084.
• Frenk, J., Gómez-Dantés, O., Knaul, F. M., & Arreola-Ornelas, H. (2020). Salud: Focos rojos. Retroceso en tiempos de la pandemia. Peguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A. de C.V. Editorial Debate.

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