Thomas F. Burke MD ’84

Thomas F. Burke MD ’84, FACEP, FRSM is director of the Global Health Innovations Laboratory in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also practices as an attending physician. In addition, he is an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As an internationally distinguished alum who has harnessed his UMass Amherst experience to effect transformational advances within the public sector and the field of medicine, Burke is the recipient of the 2022 UMass Alumni Honors Distinguished Leader Award. After graduating cum laude from UMass Amherst in 1984 and receiving his medical degree from Albany Medical College in 1989, Burke completed his residency in emergency medicine at Madigan Army Medical Center Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord). He then spent seven and a half years in the U.S. Army, during which he was deployed with the light infantry and the Second Ranger Battalion. He was also a tactical physician for the FBI Hostage Rescue Team at the hostage incidents in Waco, Texas, and at Ruby Ridge in Idaho. In 1998, he launched and directed a non-governmental organization he created to help physician leaders around the world develop their own emergency systems. In 2012, Burke incorporated that experience when he traveled to Benghazi, Libya, in preparation for a 10-year cooperative effort between Mass General Hospital and Benghazi Medical Center to develop an emergency care infrastructure.

Burke’s innovative research experience spans 25 years. Over that time, he pioneered several award-winning scientific advances and translated them into policy and practice. Since 2004, the majority of his work has focused on maternal, newborn, and infant survival. For the past 10 years, Burke has led a research program focused on postpartum hemorrhaging, and he currently co-chairs the International Federation of OBGYNs’ working group on postpartum hemorrhages. He has authored over 140 scientific manuscripts and is often invited to speak at leading universities and other high-profile forums around the globe. Burke is a senior faculty member at the Harvard University Center for African Studies and an active member of the Harvard Medical School Committee on Admissions. On June 3, 2019, in a joint U.K. and India government ceremony in the House of Lords in Parliament (London), he was bestowed the title “Lord of the Planet in Medical Sciences.” He has also opened several film festivals and has been profiled for his work by the BBC, NPR, FOX Television, ABC, CBS, the Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Seattle Times, and The Boston Globe, among other news outlets. Burke is also senior advisor to Harvard College’s COVID-19 Taskforce on Domestic Violence and Global Alliance for Medical Innovation.