Ashwin Vasan

Operating Partner at Commonweal Ventures and Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at Yale University

Ashwin Vasan, Operating Partner at Commonweal Ventures and Senior Fellow in Health Policy and Global Affairs at Yale University

Ashwin Vasan is a physician, epidemiologist, and public health leader who believes everyone deserves a fair shot at health. With more than two decades of clinical and public health experience, he brings a unique combination of frontline patient care, executive leadership, and policy expertise, translating complex health systems into practical solutions across the United States, sub-Saharan Africa, India, and beyond.

Vasan served as New York City's 44th health commissioner from 2021 to 2024, leading one of the world's largest municipal health agencies and overseeing the health of 8.5 million New Yorkers. He guided the city through successive COVID-19 variants, the mpox outbreak, and a growing mental health crisis, while advancing prevention, health equity, and affordability. Under his leadership, New York City reached its highest-ever life expectancy of 83.2 years, launched HealthyNYC—the city's first long-term prevention agenda—achieved a historic 28 percent decrease in overdose deaths, created NYC TeenSpace, a digital mental health platform now serving more than 50,000 young people, and spearheaded the reduction of $2 billion in medical debt.

Earlier in his career, Vasan served as CEO of Fountain House and spent more than a decade with Partners In Health and the World Health Organization on global HIV/AIDS and health systems initiatives.

Today, he serves as an operating partner at Commonweal Ventures, a senior fellow in health policy and global affairs at Yale University, and serves on the boards of the Child Mind Institute, OneMind, and Inseparable. A Chicago native with roots in Chennai, India, he lives in New York City with his wife and three children.