Michelle E. Morse

Morse was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a public school teacher. Morse earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in French in 2003 from the University of Virginia and her medical degree from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 2008.[2] In medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, she had her first exposure to global health when she worked in a pediatric clinic in Guatemala. Morse also took a year off from medical school to conduct research on tuberculosis in Botswana.[3] Following this, she received an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health in 2012.[4]

As part of her residency training, Morse worked several months per year in the Partners in Health-supported hospital in Lascahobas, during which she realized she had more formal training than all of her Haitian colleagues. As a result, she co-founded EqualHealth in 2011, a Non-governmental organisation that "aims to inspire and support the development of Haiti's next generation of healthcare leaders through improving medical and nursing education and creating opportunities for growth amongst health professionals."[5] Some of the activism Morse is involved with through EqualHealth includes the Campaign Against Racism (CAR) that she co-founded with Camara Jones, past president of the American Public Health Association. It is a network of 23 chapters in 10 countries, with 250 active members, "uncovering racial capitalism and reimagining a future where sociocultural, political and economic systems work towards health equity, rather than against it."[6] These efforts were supported by a $100,000 grant from the Soros Equality Fellowship in 2018.[7][8]

Following this collaboration, Morse served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for Partners in Health (PiH) from 2012 to 2016 and served as the Director of Medical Education and the Advisor to the Medical Director of Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais.[9] While serving in her role as Deputy CMO, Morse also co-founded Medicine Consortium, a global coalition that advocates, educates, and conducts research using the lens of social medicine so that health professional education can more honestly align with the root causes of illness.[10] In 2013, Morse worked to open and operate a 300-bed teaching hospital in Mirebalais, Haiti and launched the first three residency training programs at the hospital.[11] Upon returning to North America and completing her Master's in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Morse also assumed the position of Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.[12] While serving in her role as Deputy CMO in 2015, Morse also co-founded Social Medicine Consortium with Michael Westerhaus, a global coalition with the stated aim of advocating, educating, and conducting research using the lens of social medicine.[13] Returning to North America and completing her Master's in Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Morse assumed the position of Assistant Program Director for the Internal Medicine residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.[14] She later worked as a Clinical Instructor and then an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School.[1]

Morse has also worked in the area of health policy. From September 2019 to January 2021, she served as one of the six professionals selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy and worked with the Ways and Means Committee, Majority Staff, in the U.S. House of Representatives.[15] Following this, she also published Creating Real Change at Academic Medical Centers - How Social Movements Can Be Timely Catalysts to describe her work on heart failures.[16] In February of 2021, Morse was made the first Chief Medical Officer of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and succeeded Torian Easterly as head of the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness. Her primary role as CMO is addressing gaps between public health (and the Department) and the healthcare sector. She oversees CHECW's work to understand health inequities and end disparities relating to premature mortality, racial inequity, and chronic disease, among others.[17] Having previously published on medical racism in the United States,[18] Morse co-authored an op-ed on that topic in the Boston Review.[19] In the article, Morse argued in favor of federal reparations; her writing received criticism from researcher Chris Rufo for being a "moral crime and unconstitutional."[20]

• 40 under 40 Leaders In Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum in 2018.[21]
• Excellence in Humanitarian Services award by the Society of Hospital Medicine in 2018.[22]
• George W. Thorn Award by BWH Department of Medicine in 2019. Morse is the first black woman to receive this highest clinic education honour offered by the BWH Department of Medicine.[2]
• Soros Equality Fellowship in 2018.[7]