Tim Leshan, MPA

Tim Leshan leads the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health’s (ASPPH) public affairs and advocacy efforts. This includes internal and external communications, advocacy for academic public health, global affairs, and fundraising. ASPPH is the leading voice for academic public health, with members from around the US and the globe. Tim takes a proactive approach that has resulted in the development of reports on gun violence prevention, the impact ASPPH members made during the COVID pandemic, and achieving funding increases for key federal public health programs. 

Prior to coming to ASPPH, Tim was the Vice Provost for Research Government Affairs and Strategic Partnerships for Northeastern University’s global research network. He served as the university’s liaison to lawmakers and regulators, including research-funding agencies from which Northeastern faculty receive grants. This included identifying large funding opportunities and developing teams to pursue such funding. He also worked with Northeastern’s global campus network in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom, to enable research funding. Tim assisted the university’s internal constituencies — colleges, institutes, centers, faculty, students, and staff — to facilitate their relationships with policymakers. That included public policy development and advocating on the university's behalf on significant research issues. Tim represented the university on The Science Coalition, the New England Council, the Coalition for National Science Funding (CNSF), the Adhoc Group for Medical Research, and the Coalition for National Security Research Funding (CNSF). 

Tim joined Northeastern in 2010 from Brown University, where he was Director of Government Relations and Community Affairs. While at Brown, Tim worked to enhance the university’s interactions with elected officials, grow federal funding, developed public-private partnerships, and strengthened faculty’s interactions with funding agencies. 

Before Brown, Tim served as Branch Chief and Senior Policy Analyst in the Policy and Program Analysis Branch of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health. He served as the liaison to Capitol Hill and other agencies. The Human Genome project was completed during his tenure. Tim also served as the Director of Public Policy for the American Society for Cell Biology, where he co-founded The Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR), which advocates for federal funding for stem cell research. He has also worked for Duke University and the John F. Kennedy School of Government. 

Tim graduated from Vassar College and received a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.