Harsha Thirumurthy is the Division Chief of Health Policy and a Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also Associate Director at the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics and a Research Associate at Penn’s Population Studies Center. In addition, he also serves as Co-Director of the Penn Development Research Initiative and the Behavioral Economics and Global Health Insights Lab. Dr. Thirumurthy’s interests lie at the intersection of economics and public health. A major focus of his research has been to use insights from economics and psychology to design and evaluate interventions to achieve better health outcomes in low-income settings. He has led numerous randomized trials of behavioral interventions, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. His research has also evaluated the population-level effects of large-scale health initiatives as well as economic policies like cash transfer programs. He has published peer-reviewed articles in leading journals in economics, public health, and medicine. In 2020, Dr. Thirumurthy co-founded the Indlela nudge unit to strengthen local research capacity in behavioral economics and health in South Africa. Dr. Thirumurthy completed a PhD in economics at Yale University.

Aaron Richterman, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He uses multiple research methodologies to evaluate the relationships between poverty, food security, and individual and population health outcomes (in particular those related to infectious diseases). He is interested in both non-experimental approaches to assessing the effects of poverty reduction and social protection programs on health outcomes, and in conducting hypothesis-driven research to design and evaluate innovative economic interventions to enable health behaviors and improve clinical outcomes. His work spans high- and low-income settings, with a focus on public-academic and community-academic partnerships. He has clinical expertise in HIV, and sees patients living with HIV in clinic weekly. Dr. Richterman earned his MD at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and his MPH at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.