In Gratitude to Dr. Ranit Mishori

January 24, 2024

Dear Colleagues:

I write to offer my deep gratitude and appreciation to our colleague, Ranit Mishori (M’02), MD, MHS, MSc, FAAFP, who will be departing Georgetown at the end of this month for a new role at the World Bank.

After receiving her medical degree at our School of Medicine and completing her Family Medicine Residency program, Dr. Mishori returned to Georgetown in 2008 as a faculty member and practicing physician in the Department of Family Medicine, becoming a full professor in 2014. In August 2020, at the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic, she took on the immense responsibility of serving as our chief public health officer and was formally appointed our vice president for public health and chief public health officer in 2021. I could not be more grateful for her steadfast leadership and for her guidance, expertise, and deep care for each member of our community.

As our first chief public health officer for the University, she was responsible for leading our planning and response for the range of public health issues that could impact a college campus and has been central to our ongoing response to COVID-19. She was tireless in her efforts—establishing new public health operations and protocols that were informed by best practices and scientific data, forming a Care Navigator response team to help those in our community impacted by COVID-19, coordinating with national and local public health officials, and collaborating with a wide range of members of our community—from our public health advisory group to our faculty, our operations team, our academic and administrative leadership, and our students. As the pandemic evolved and new challenges emerged, Dr. Mishori and her team helped us to adapt and bring in new public health measures that could be responsive to the challenges of the moment and enable us to provide the strongest possible context for our community.

She brought to this role deep experience and expertise, working on global and public health, human rights, and issues related to health inequities, preventative and primary care. Her career has spanned journalism and medicine and she has led important work here at Georgetown, including our Practice-Based Research Network (CAPRICORN), emphasizing the value of primary care and family medicine; our Health and Media Fellowship program; and our Health Policy Fellowship program. For over a decade, she led initiatives related to global health and has brought a human rights and global lens to her work in clinical care, teaching, mentorship, research, and scholarship.

I am deeply grateful to Dr. Mishori for her leadership and for her work to build an extraordinary team focused on public health in our community. Together, she and her team were instrumental in our response to the pandemic and continue to provide important contributions to the ongoing health and safety of our community. In the time ahead, as we prepare to launch a new search, our public health office will be led by Michala Koch as acting chief public health officer. Seble Kassaye, MD, a faculty member and specialist in infectious diseases at the Medical Center, will serve as acting medical advisor to the public health office.

Please join me in expressing our appreciation to Dr. Mishori. She has served Georgetown with extraordinary distinction, and we wish her the very best as she prepares to take on her new role at the World Bank, in her continued service to our global community.

Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia