Dr. Eleanor (Ellie) Emery is an internist with the department of internal medicine at Northern Navajo Medical Center and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her work includes clinical, advocacy, and research efforts focused on improving access to high-quality, trauma-informed care for underserved communities. She has expertise in conducting forensic medical evaluations for people seeking asylum in the United States and is a member of the Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network.
While in medical school, she served as the executive director of the Weill Cornell Center for Human Rights before going on to found the Massachusetts General Hospital Asylum Clinic and the Los Angeles Human Rights Initiative at UCLA. Dr. Emery has spoken on asylum and detention in multiple forums and trains other clinicians to conduct forensic medical evaluations. She currently serves as the program director of asylum medicine education at the Cambridge Health Alliance’s Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy, and, in this capacity, is leading a national initiative, in partnership with PHR and others, to create a virtual asylum medicine curriculum that is peer-reviewed, promotes sharing of expertise across institutions, and employs best practices in medical education.