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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}{{Use Indian English|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Unni Karunakara
| honorific_suffix =
| birth_place = [[Alappuzha]], [[Kerala]], India
| alma_mater = [[Kasturba Medical College]]<br>[[Johns Hopkins University]]<br>[[Yale University]]
| organization = [[Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative]]
| known_for = International President of [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] (2010 to 2013)
}}
{{Short description|Humanitarian doctor}}

'''Unni Karunakara''' is an Indian-born public health physician, an academic, and was the international president of [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] (MSF) from 2010 to 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-09-22 |title=International Presidents |url=https://www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/international-president |access-date=2022-01-21 |website=[[Médecins Sans Frontières]] |language=en}}</ref><ref>Fox, Renée C.. Doctors Without Borders: Humanitarian Quests, Impossible Dreams of Médecins Sans Frontières. United States: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.</ref>

Karunakara has worked in humanitarian emergencies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and held leadership roles at MSF headquarters in the Netherlands and Switzerland. He has held fellowships and has been faculty at universities in Africa, Asia, and Europe. After his three years leading MSF, he cycled 5,637 kilometres to raise funds to pay back his salary.

He has served on the board of directors of MSF Netherlands, MSF India, and the [[Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative]].

== Early life and education ==
Karunakara was born in [[Alappuzha]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Pedalling For a Noble Cause|url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2014/feb/05/Pedalling-For-a-Noble-Cause-572321.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121141906/https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/2014/feb/05/Pedalling-For-a-Noble-Cause-572321.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 January 2022|access-date=2022-01-21|website=The New Indian Express}}</ref> He has a degree in medicine from [[Kasturba Medical College]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Unni Karunakara|url=https://www.weforum.org/people/unni-karunakara/|access-date=2022-01-21|website=World Economic Forum|language=en}}</ref> and degrees in [[public health]] from [[Johns Hopkins University]] and [[Yale University]].<ref name=":2" />

== Career ==
[[File:Soldier questiones Unni Karunakara at the Refugee Run, Davos (5397254689).jpg|thumb|Karunakara (left), 2011]]
Karunakara has held research and academic fellowships at universities in Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe, including as a senior fellow at [[Jackson Institute for Global Affairs]] from 2014 to 2017.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Unni Karunakara – Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs|url=https://jackson.yale.edu/person/unni-karunakara/|access-date=2022-01-21|language=en-US}}</ref> His research focussed on forced migration, and healthcare for people in humanitarian crises.<ref name=":0" /> He was the deputy director of Health at [[Columbia University|Columbia University's]] [[The Earth Institute]], [[Millennium Villages Project]], and the assistant clinical professor at the [[Mailman School of Public Health]].<ref name=":0" /> As of 2020, he was a visiting faculty at [[Tsinghua University|Tshinghua University]], and a Shinhan Distinguished visiting professor at [[Yonsei University]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-08-10|title='The Evaluator' Episode 1: COVID-19 and Developing Countries|url=https://ieu.greenclimate.fund/podcast/evaluator-episode-1-covid-19-and-developing-countries|access-date=2022-01-21|website=Independent Evaluation Unit {{!}} Green Climate Fund|language=en}}</ref>

Karunakara joined [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] in 1995 where he managed a [[tuberculosis]] program in Ethiopia, before working in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a medical coordinator.<ref name=":0" /> In 2002,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Unni Karunakara|url=https://web.uri.edu/hc/2012-event/unni-karunakara/|access-date=2022-01-21|language=en-US}}</ref> he moved to MSF's Amsterdam headquarters to work as the medical director before leading the [[Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines]] from 2005 until 2007.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Unni Karunakara {{!}} Yale University - Academia.edu|url=https://yale.academia.edu/UnniKarunakara|access-date=2022-01-21|website=yale.academia.edu}}</ref> While at MSF, Karunakara led a process to reform the governing International Statutes as part of a wider reform of the organization's governance.<ref>Médecins Sans Frontières, Evolution of an International Movement: Associative History 1971-2011. N.p.: Médecins Sans Frontières, 2019.</ref> Over 112 days in 2014, Karunakara cycled 5,673 kilometres from [[Srinagar]] to [[Thiruvananthapuram]] to raise funds to pay his salary back to MSF.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Katiyar |first=Arun |date=2014-03-26 |title=Zen and the art of bicycling |url=https://www.livemint.com/news/business-of-life/zen-and-the-art-of-bicycling-1540584732017.html |access-date=2022-01-21 |website=mint |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Pope |first=Conor |title=Breaking borders mending lives |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/breaking-borders-mending-lives-1.1838579 |access-date=2022-01-21 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref> He raised $120,000.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-11-13 |title=Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam {{!}} Verve Magazine |url=https://www.vervemagazine.in/arts-and-culture/parmesh-shahani-vasudhaiva-kutumbakam |access-date=2022-01-21 |website=www.vervemagazine.in |language=en-US}}</ref>

Karunakara served on the board of directors of MSF Netherlands, MSF India, and the [[Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative]] from 2010 to 2013.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Dr Unni Karunakara|url=https://www.msfindia.in/dr-unni-karunakara/|access-date=2022-01-21|website=Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF)/Doctors Without Borders|language=en-US}}</ref>

== References ==
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{{Portal bar|Biography|India|United States|Medicine}}

== External links ==

* [https://twitter.com/unnikarunakara?lang=en Unni Karunakara] - [[Twitter]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Karunakara, Unni}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Yonsei University]]
[[Category:People from Alappuzha]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]

Unni Karunakara - Revision history

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