John Borrazzo

Adjunct Professor

Department: Global Health

Contact:

Email: John Borrazzo

Milken Institute School of Public Health 950 New Hampshire Avenue, NW Washington DC 20052

John Borrazzo, Ph.D. is an independent global health analyst, advocate, and policy advisor and holds an appointment as a part-time Professorial Lecturer in the GWU Milken School of Public Health’s Department of Global Health. In a career that has been devoted to addressing inequities in health outcomes for children, he served for over 30 years in various roles across government, multilateral organizations, and international non-governmental organizations, working in over 17 countries. This included most recently serving as Lead Advisor, Child Health in the Department of Global Health at Save the Children U.S. in Washington DC (2021-2025) and as Senior Health Specialist for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health at the World Bank-hosted Global Financing Facility for Women, Children, and Adolescents (2018-2021).

Previously, he had a long career at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) where he implemented environmental health, water supply and sanitation, and maternal and child health programs for over 25 years, playing a leadership role in helping formulate global policy, supporting research and innovation, and building collaboration across sectors within USAID and with multilateral institutions, private sector, NGO partners, and other donors.

Dr. Borrazzo received Masters and Ph.D. degrees researching various issues in indoor air quality at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, completed post-doctoral research at the then-Institute for Water, Soil, and Air Hygiene in Berlin, Germany, and holds an undergraduate degree in physics from Harvard University. He was also one of the Commissioners on the WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission “A Future for the World’s Children?” which issued its report in February 2020.

Education

Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1991
M.S. Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 1990
B.A. Physics, Harvard University, 1980

Publications

Holtz TH, Hilmi L, Rao MM, Borrazzo J, Cherian D, GallagherThomas CK, et al. (2025)
“Beyond emergency relief: The role of U.S. foreign health assistance amid growing displacement and climate change.” PLOS Glob Public Health 5(11): e0005321.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0005321

Clark H. et al, “A future for the world’s children? A WHO-UNICEF-Lancet Commission,” The Lancet, 395:605-658, 2020.
https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(19)32540-1/fulltext

Kuruvilla S. et al, “The Global Strategy for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health (2016–2030): a roadmap based on evidence and country experience,” Bull World Health Organ, 94:398–400, 2016.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2471/BLT.16.170431

Rosenthal J.P. and J. Borrazzo J. (2015) “Saving Lives by Building Bridges Between User Needs and Clean Cooking Technology,” Journal of Health Communication, 20:sup1, 1-2, 2015.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10810730.2014.996304

Chopra, M., E. Mason, J. Borrazzo, H. Campbell, I. Rudan, L. Liu, R. Black, Z. Bhutta, “Ending
of preventable deaths from pneumonia and diarrhoea: an achievable goal,” The Lancet,
301:1491-1506, 2013.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)60319-0/abstract

Borrazzo, J.E., R. Walling, and H. Falk, ”An overview of international environmental health,” International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health, 206(4-5):257-262, 2003.

Borrazzo, J.E., C.I. Davidson, and J.B. Andelman, ”Uptake of volatile organic compounds by fibrous surfaces,” ASTM Special Technical Publication, Symposium on Modeling of Indoor Air Quality and Exposure, April 27-28, 1992, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Borrazzo, J.E., C.I. Davidson, and M.J. Small, ”Stochastic Simulation of diurnal variations of CO, NO, and NO 2 concentrations in occupied residences,” Atmospheric Environment Part B: Urban Atmosphere, 26(3), 369-377, 1992.

Giardino, N.J., J.B. Andelman, J.E. Borrazzo, and C.I. Davidson, ”Sulfur hexafluoride as a surrogate for volatilization of organics from water indoor water uses,” Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association, 38(3), 278-280, 1988.

Borrazzo, J.E., J.F. Osborn, R.C. Fortmann, R.L. Keefer, and C.I. Davidson, ” Modelling and monitoring of CO, NO, and NO 2 in a modern townhouse,” Atmospheric Environment, 21(2), 299-311, 1987.