Mushtaque Chowdhury

Dr. Ahmed Mushtaque Raza Chowdhury is the former vice chair of BRAC, one of the largest development organizations in the world. Previously, he was BRAC’s executive director, founding director of the Research and Evaluation Division, and founding dean of the BRAC University James P. Grant School of Public Health.

Dr. Chowdhury is a professor of population and family health at Columbia University and, until recently, was a visiting scholar at the University of Notre Dame. He was also a senior advisor and acting managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation and a research fellow at Harvard University.

Dr. Chowdhury is a founder of two civil society watchdogs: Bangladesh Education Watch and Bangladesh Health Watch. He serves on the boards and committees of 10 organizations.

Dr. Chowdhury has published six books and almost 200 articles in national and international journals. One of his books received the 2018 University Press Ltd (UPL) Award in the category of “Outstanding Impact.” His biography, written by Matilal Deb Roy, was published in 2024 (UPL).

Dr. Chowdhury has a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA (Honors) in statistics from the University of Dhaka.