Scott C. Ratzan

Scott C. Ratzan is distinguished lecturer at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. He serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Health Communication and holds adjunct faculty appointments at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Tufts University School of Medicine.

Education Ratzan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Rhetoric from Occidental College, a Master of Arts in Communication from Emerson College, and a Master of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School. He received a Doctor of Medicine from the Keck School of Medicine of USC, where he is also listed as a notable alumnus. He is a member of the Board of Global Health of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. From 2010 to 2013, he co-chaired the Innovation Working Group in support of Every Woman Every Child, a United Nations initiative aimed at improving health outcomes for women and children. From 2012-2016, he served on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Disease. He currently co-chairs the Council for Quality Health Communication.

From 2018 to 2019, he was a senior fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard Kennedy School, where he contributed to the development of the Guiding Principles for Multisectoral Engagement for Sustainable Health. He served as the executive director of Business Partners for Sustainable Development, an initiative of the United States Council for International Business (USCIB) focused on advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ratzan is a co-founder of CONVINCE, a global initiative promoting vaccine confidence and uptake. He was also involved in the development of Text4Baby, a national health-related text messaging service for pregnant women.

As of 2025, he serves as co-chair of the Nature Medicine Commission on Quality Health Information for All, alongside Heidi Larson, Larry Gostin, and Carolina Batista. The international initiative focuses on improving the credibility, accessibility, and governance of global health information.

Ratzan has over 175 publications indexed in PubMed and has written op-eds or commentary for outlets including The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times.