Full Name
Dr. Felicia Knaul
Job Title
Director of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas
Current Employer
University of Miami
Speaker Bio
Felicia Marie Knaul (BA, University of Toronto; MA & PhD, Harvard University) is Director of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, a Full Professor at the Miller School of Medicine, and, a Full Member of the Cancer Control Program of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, all based at the University of Miami.
Her research focuses on health system strengthening, equity and poverty alleviation, cancer control, pain relief and palliative care, women and health, medical employment, female labor force participation, and at-risk children and youth and she has produced over 330 academic and policy publications. Knaul currently serves as Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Cancer And Health Systems and of the Lancet Commission on Gender-based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People, and previously chaired the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief. She also served on the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission, published in April 2024. She maintains a strong research and advocacy base in Mexico and has published extensively on the Mexican health systems, most recently in 2023 in The Lancet.
In 2008, as a result of her breast cancer experience, Knaul founded Cáncer de Mama: Tómatelo a Pecho A.C., a Mexican non-profit institution founded to promote research, advocacy, and awareness to reduce the burden of breast cancer and now focused on women’s health broadly. Knaul chronicled her cancer journey, published as Tómatelo a Pecho (Grupo Santillana, 2009) and Beauty without the Breast (Harvard University Press/ Harvard Global Equity Initiative 2013). She lectures globally on the challenge of cancer, both as a patient advocate and as a health systems researcher.
A citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom, and resident of the USA and Mexico, Knaul and her husband, Dr. Julio Frenk, have two children, Sofia Hannah and Mariana Havivah.
Her research focuses on health system strengthening, equity and poverty alleviation, cancer control, pain relief and palliative care, women and health, medical employment, female labor force participation, and at-risk children and youth and she has produced over 330 academic and policy publications. Knaul currently serves as Co-Chair of the Lancet Commission on Cancer And Health Systems and of the Lancet Commission on Gender-based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People, and previously chaired the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief. She also served on the Lancet Breast Cancer Commission, published in April 2024. She maintains a strong research and advocacy base in Mexico and has published extensively on the Mexican health systems, most recently in 2023 in The Lancet.
In 2008, as a result of her breast cancer experience, Knaul founded Cáncer de Mama: Tómatelo a Pecho A.C., a Mexican non-profit institution founded to promote research, advocacy, and awareness to reduce the burden of breast cancer and now focused on women’s health broadly. Knaul chronicled her cancer journey, published as Tómatelo a Pecho (Grupo Santillana, 2009) and Beauty without the Breast (Harvard University Press/ Harvard Global Equity Initiative 2013). She lectures globally on the challenge of cancer, both as a patient advocate and as a health systems researcher.
A citizen of Canada and the United Kingdom, and resident of the USA and Mexico, Knaul and her husband, Dr. Julio Frenk, have two children, Sofia Hannah and Mariana Havivah.
Speaking At
