Pandemic Center
Senior Adviser Wilmot James smiles at camera, while posing inside a campus building.

Wilmot James, Ph.D.

Senior Adviser to the Brown Pandemic Center, Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Brown University School of Public Health; Director of the Africa Initiative
wilmot_james@brown.edu
Research Profile
Africa Intiative
Project Coast

Biography

Dr. James, an internationally recognized thought leader in biosecurity, global health, and pandemic preparedness, is a Senior Adviser to the Pandemic Center and a Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice.

Dr. James has served as a Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health in South Africa, and most recently held positions at Columbia University as Senior Research Scholar at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy and as Chair of the Center for Pandemic Research in the College of Arts and Sciences. Wilmot serves as an advisor to the G7-led Global Partnership's Signature Initiative to Mitigate Biological Threats in Africa and on the boards of BEACON, Resolve to Save Lives and the Mirror Biology Dialogue Fund. Dr. James will use his extensive experience to address public health and national security challenges in his role as senior advisor to the Pandemic Center.

Dr. James serves as the new director of the Watson School’s Africa Initiative. James focus on the initiative highlights African contributions to global affairs and on the continent’s future and untapped potential.

Recent News

Think Global Health

Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine: Tracking Outbreaks Amid Conflict

In 2024, poliovirus was detected in Gaza's wastewater before a paralytic case was confirmed, and the World Health Organization (WHO) found continued environmental circulation into the following year. By the end of 2025, however, no further detections had been reported, suggesting that a targeted vaccination campaign during a brief ceasefire may have interrupted transmission. The episode shows why epidemic intelligence in damaged urban environments cannot depend on clinics alone: wastewater and other environmental signals can reveal transmission when routine care and reporting have been disrupted. Damage to health facilities and water and sanitation systems further weakens the capacity to prevent, detect, and contain outbreaks.

---
Read Article
Brown Daily Herald

Inaugural PROV/DOC festival platforms local filmmakers’ documentaries

This past weekend, “CLIMATE-CULTURE-COMMUNITY” was the central theme behind the Brown Political Review’s inaugural documentary film festival PROV/DOC. The two-day festival showcased documentaries from student, faculty and local filmmakers that spotlighted underreported issues, according to Julianna Muzyczyszyn ’27, BPR’s co-editor-in-chief.
---
Read Article
Brown Daily Herald

Wilmot James brings new perspective to role as director of Watson School’s Africa Initiative

Before Wilmot James — professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice — took the helm of the Africa Initiative at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs this year, he had on a number of different roles. From penning a speech for Nelson Mandela to serving in the South African Parliament, James brings wide-ranging knowledge of African health security to his new role on College Hill.
Read Article
Brown Political Review

Listening to Shadows

From apartheid to the front lines of global health, Listening to Shadows is the gripping true story of one man’s fight for freedom, truth, and survival.
At a moment when democracy and truth are under siege across the globe, Listening to Shadows tells the extraordinary story of South African Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Health Wilmot James, who rose from the power struggles in South Africa to the front lines of global health leadership.
---
Read Article
Daily Maverick

How apartheid biological weapons programme emerged from the dust of World War 2

The second of six parts on the apartheid-era biological programmes that went by the benign name of Project Coast – a covert endeavour representing some of the worst practices in building and dismantling a biological weapons capability responsibly. Profound lessons can be learnt about how to – and how not to – govern high-consequence projects.
Read Article