Nils Daulaire

Nils Daulaire (born 1948) is an American physician and the former Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Daulaire has been at HHS since 2010, and became Assistant Secretary in December 2012. He also served as the U.S. Representative on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Executive Board, a post he was nominated to by President Barack Obama.

Nils Daulaire is the son of Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire, multiple award-winning writers and illustrators of children's books.

Daulaire received a bachelor's degree in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard College in 1970 where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Betta Kappa. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard Medical School in 1976 with residency in training at the University of Colorado. He earned a Masters of Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health in 1978.

Nils Daulaire began his career working for 20 years in primary health programs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America where he carried out field research on child survival. During his two decades conducting fieldwork in maternal and child health, he spent five years in residence in Nepal where he served as senior advisor to the Ministry of Health. He also served in Mali as a technical advisor on primary health. He has worked extensively in Haiti, Bangladesh, and other low-income countries.

Daulaire has directed multiple pioneering child health research projects, especially in the areas of community based management of childhood pneumonia and Vitamin A supplementation.

From 1993 to 1998, Daulaire served as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy and Senior International Health Advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). At USAID, he oversaw an integrated global strategy that encompassed programs totaling more than $1 billion annually. He was responsible for health, population, girls’ education, and other social sector programs.

From 1998 until his appointment at HHS in 2010, Dr. Daulaire was the president and CEO of the Global Health Council, an international nonprofit membership organization that represents global health service providers and policy advocates. While there, he promoted public health causes in developing countries.

Daulaire has testified before the United States Congress on numerous occasions, represented the United States at five WHO annual assemblies and has been the lead U.S. negotiator at a number of international meetings on health including:

• The Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (1994)
• The Beijing World Conference of Women (1995)
• The Rome World Food Summit (1996)

Daulaire has provided technical assistance to more than 20 countries encompassing all regions of the world, and he speaks seven languages.

Academia and accreditation

Daulaire is board certified in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

He has been Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington, Professor of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, Senior Visiting Scholar on Global Health Security at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and is currently a visiting instructor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Daulaire has been elected to membership in both the Institute of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations.

Daulaire is married to Mary Taylor. They have two children.