Joanna Rubinstein, DDS, PhD

Director, Global Health Initiatives

As Director for Global Health and Science Initiatives of the UN Millennium Project, Joanna Rubinstein coordinates international partnerships with the private sector, academic institutions and research funding bodies. She also leads the “Quick Wins” initiatives as well as fundraising efforts for the Millennium Project. Moreover, she represents the Millennium Project internationally and leads cross-country initiatives.

Rubinstein comes to the Earth Institute from the Columbia University Medical Center, where she supervised the medical center's graduate and post-doctoral programs and organized a wide variety of institutional and international initiatives.

Among Rubinstein's “outward-looking” initiatives, she has exploited 15 years of experience as a practicing scientist and senior administrator in Europe to organize joint scientific meetings, faculty and student exchanges, business and training collaborations and strategic partnerships between the universities, medical centers and pharmaceutical companies across the U.S., Asia and Europe.

Rubinstein came to Columbia University from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where she was the Director for Research and Postgraduate Education.

Prior to her appointment at the Karolinska, Rubinstein was a director at Sweden's Medical Research Council with responsibility for the peer review process. And before that, she was a cell biologist at the Karolinska, authoring nearly 60 papers. Rubinstein holds a D.D.S. and a Ph.D. in cell biology from the Karolinska.