About Gunisha Kaur, MD, MA
Dr. Kaur is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, the Founding Director of the Human Rights Impact Lab, and Co-Medical Director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights.
Dr. Kaur has dedicated her career as a physician-scientist to advancing the health of forcibly displaced individuals such as refugees and asylum seekers. She has used her extensive background in neuroscience research as an analytical framework to pioneer the study of human rights through scientific methodology. Her research has been supported by several funders including the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research, the National Academy of Medicine, and Cornell University.
Dr. Kaur's academic writing on forcibly displaced populations has been published by the highest impact medical journals including The New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. She has translated her medical and scientific expertise in mainstream outlets including TIME, CNN, and NBC News. A dynamic speaker, Dr. Kaur has given over 100 national and international keynote presentations and talks, including with global leaders, at the United Nations, and for the U.S. Government.
Dr. Kaur is a member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, a Faculty Fellow at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and a Stephen M. Kellen Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2022, she was selected by the National Academy of Medicine as an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine. Dr. Kaur earned her B.S. from Cornell University in 2006, graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College in 2010, and completed her Anesthesiology Residency training at Weill Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2014. She earned a Master's Degree in Medical Anthropology from Harvard University in 2015.