Atul Gawande

Gawande was born on 5 November 1965 in Brooklyn, New York City, to Marathi Indian immigrants to the United States, both doctors. His family soon moved to Athens, Ohio, where he and his sister grew up, and he graduated from Athens High School in 1983.

Gawande earned a bachelor's degree in biology and political science from Stanford University in 1987. As a Rhodes Scholar, he earned an M.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1989. He graduated with a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School in 1995, and earned a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1999. He completed his general surgical residency training, again at the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, in 2003.

Gawande founded the Lifebox charity with Pauline Philip. He chaired the non-profit from its foundation in 2011 until 2022. Lifebox provides training and equipment for safer surgery.

In 2018, he was named the CEO for the new, Boston-based company, Haven Healthcare, formed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. He stepped down from the position in May 2020, remaining as executive chairman while the organization sought a new CEO. In January 2021, Haven announced that it was to cease operations. According to CNBC, sources associated with the company claimed that "while the firm came up with ideas, each of the three founding companies executed their own projects separately with their own employees, obviating the need for the joint venture to begin with."

In 2020, he was named a member of President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board.

In 2021, President Biden nominated Gawande for the post of Assistant Administrator of U.S. AID for the Bureau of Global Health. Hearings were held on Gawande's nomination in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 29, 2021. Florida Senator Marco Rubio delayed Gawande's committee vote in October 2021, claiming, "Atul Gawande's defense of infanticide is disqualifying... President Biden should withdraw Gawande's nomination and replace him with someone who is committed to upholding the agency's mission of saving lives." Senator Rubio's statement may stem from a 1998 article Gawande wrote defending partial-birth abortion as not significantly worse, morally speaking, than other late abortions. On November 3, 2021, the committee favorably reported Gawande's nomination to the Senate floor. The entire Senate confirmed Gawande on December 17, 2021, by a vote of 48–31.

Gawande stepped down from his post at USAID in January 2025. Working there since his appointment by President Biden, Gawande was featured in a New Yorker documentary, outlining the world wide consequences of the dismantling of USAID.

As an undergraduate, Gawande was a volunteer for Gary Hart's campaign for the presidency of the United States. After graduating, he joined Al Gore's 1988 presidential campaign. He worked as a health-care researcher for Representative Jim Cooper (D-TN), who was author of a "managed competition" health care proposal for the Conservative Democratic Forum. Gawande entered medical school in 1990, leaving after two years to become Bill Clinton's healthcare lieutenant during the 1992 campaign.