Felicia Marie Knaul

Felicia Marie Knaul (PhD, Harvard University, Economics), is the Director of the University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, which focuses on research on social and economic development, the humanities and the arts. She is also a full professor at UM’s Miller School of Medicine. As the First Lady of the University of Miami, Dr. Knaul is actively engaged with faculty, staff, and students to promote increased social justice and gender equity. The daughter of a Holocaust survivor, she also works at the university and globally to raise awareness and prevent genocide.

Dr. Knaul maintains a strong program of research and advocacy in Latin America and the Caribbean, especially in Mexico and focused on access to health care and equity. As a result of her breast cancer experience, in 2008 she founded Tómatelo a Pecho, a Mexico-based non-profit agency that promotes research, advocacy, awareness, and early detection in Latin America. She also leads a team of researchers based at the Mexican Health Foundation. Dr. Knaul is the author of more than 190 published research papers and 3 books and her work has been featured in several leading magazines and newspapers. She and her husband, Dr. Julio Frenk, have two children, Hannah Sofia (20 and studying chemistry pre-med at UM) and Mariana Havivah (12). Her mother Marie and brother Jonathan live in Canada.