A 2012 course instructor, Julio Frenk was appointed the sixth president of the University of Miami in August of 2015 and holds academic appointments as professor of Public Health Sciences at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and as professor of Health Sector Management and Policy at the Business School.

Prior to joining the University of Miami, he was the dean for nearly seven years of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School. Frenk served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million previously uninsured Mexicans.

He was the founding director-general of the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. He also served as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy at the World Health Organization and senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, among other leadership positions. He holds a Medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master’s degree in Public Health and a joint Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan. He has received honorary degrees from ten universities.