J. Stephen Morrison

J. Stephen Morrison is a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C., where he founded and directs its Global Health Policy Center. A political scientist, he has built over the past two decades a highly dynamic and impactful program that concentrates on the geopolitical and national security dimensions of U.S. leadership in international health, with a special emphasis upon the centrality of bipartisanship and multilateral institutions, partnerships with private industry, foundations, advocates and the faith community, and long-term strategic planning and commitments.

Through a series of high-level commissions that he has created and directed, Morrison has spearheaded work that has shaped concrete decisions in Congress and the administration on HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, reproductive health and gender equality, immunizations, and health security, including pandemic preparedness, acceleration of technological innovations, and coping with anti-science and a polluted digital world. The ongoing CSIS Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security is addressing the consequences of Covid-19 and the future of U.S. leadership in building better capacities, at home and abroad, against future pandemic threats.

For several years, Morrison has led global health security fora at the annual Munich Security Conference. He has also directed and produced documentary films, most notably The New Barbarianism, an award-winning examination of the surge of violence against the health sector, with original footage from Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan. He is currently completing a five-part docuseries, The Pandemic Paradox: HIV on the Edge, a critical look at sustaining progress against this 40-year old pandemic, in the midst now of Covid-19. In 2020, his podcast series, Coronavirus Crisis Update, featured more than 70 episodes with a highly diverse array of prominent leaders.