Emily Wang, MD, MAS

Co-Founder & Director of Research
New Haven, CT

Emily Wang, MD, MAS is a physician, researcher, and nationally recognized expert on the health impacts of incarceration. Her commitment to studying and eliminating health care access inequities began when she was a medical student volunteering in domestic and international prisons. In 2006, during her residency at UCSF, she co-founded with Dr. Clemens Hong the flagship TCN program at Southeast Health Center—this program, and the innovative model of enhanced primary care for returning community members that Dr. Wang co-created, have flourished into the Transitions Clinic Network.   In 2008, Dr. Wang joined the Yale School of Medicine, where she is a professor of general medicine and public health. She went on to become the founding director of the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice, a collaboration between Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School. She leads the Center's research program, the Health Justice Lab, which receives National Institutes of Health funding to investigate how incarceration influences chronic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and opioid use disorder. SEICHE and the Transitions Clinic Network collaborate closely on research, analysis, and evaluation. Dr. Wang’s pioneering research has demonstrated the evidence-based efficacy of the patient-centered TCN Model of care, as well as the importance of participatory approaches to partner with impacted individuals with lived experience. This research has been instrumental in growing the network nationally.   Dr. Wang received her BA from Harvard University, MD from Duke University School of Medicine, and MAS from the University of California at San Francisco. She co-chaired the National Academy of Sciences’ consensus report on “Decarcerating Correctional Facilities During COVID-19” and serves on the World Health Organization’s Health in Prisons Programme Steering Committee. She has been named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.