Available to book
Ashwin Vasan
Transform mental health systems and advance health equity with Ashwin Vasan, public health leadership speaker. Vasan equips healthcare and policy leaders to tackle mental illness, social determinants of health, and marginalized population care, backed by his tenure as NYC Health Commissioner and Columbia University faculty.
Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD, works at the intersection of public health, mental illness, and social equity, bringing both clinical practice and systems-level leadership to some of America's most complex health challenges.
A physician and academic, Vasan serves as Assistant Professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. He previously served as the 44th Commissioner of Health for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and as President and CEO of Fountain House, a national nonprofit focused on serious mental illness. His work has been covered by The New York Times, BBC News, and Forbes.
Vasan's career spans frontline clinical work, municipal government, and global health. At the NYC Department of Health, he built the first municipal program addressing the overlap of clinical care and social welfare for marginalized populations. Earlier work with Partners In Health and the World Health Organization focused on expanding HIV/AIDS treatment access across multiple countries.
Audiences working in healthcare, policy, or community leadership will come away with a grounded understanding of how mental health systems fail the most vulnerable, practical frameworks for building programs that centre lived experience, and evidence-based approaches to reducing health inequity at scale.
Few speakers can move between a patient exam room, a city health department, and a global policy table. Vasan does, and that range is exactly what makes his perspective worth hearing.
Vasan's led NYC's entire health department, run a national mental health nonprofit, and still practises clinically, so he understands both system design and what actually works at the bedside. His frameworks around health equity and mental health integration are built from real municipal-scale implementation, not theory. Book if you're navigating clinical-social care models or building programmes for underserved populations.
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frequently asked questions
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Ashwin Vasan draws on a career spanning frontline clinical work, municipal government, and global health policy to present evidence-based frameworks for addressing mental health inequity, grounding each in direct programme-building experience from roles at the NYC Department of Health, Fountain House, and the World Health Organization.
Ashwin Vasan speaks on mental health systems, health equity, and social impact at the intersection of clinical practice and public policy. He served as the 44th Commissioner of Health for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and holds faculty positions at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.
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No. PepTalk represents 15,000+ speakers, hosts, comedians and entertainers, some booked directly and others through their agents and agencies worldwide. The process is the same for all of them: PepTalk checks availability, negotiates the fee and manages the contract and logistics.
Book a speaker three to six months before your event. Allow 12 months for large conferences, peak-season dates or a specific in-demand name. PepTalk also fills last-minute and replacement bookings, often within days, so get in touch as soon as you have a date, even at short notice.
