Potential candidate to lead Chicago health department apologizes for lying about having Harvard PhD

A progressive who may be in line to lead Chicago’s Department of Public Health was forced to issue an apology for publicly “misrepresenting” himself as holding a Ph.D. from Harvard. 

“I am writing to publicly apologize for misrepresenting the completion of a PhD on my personal website for a period in Summer 2021,” Eric Reinhart said in a statement posted to his account on X Sunday evening. He added in his post that he is “deeply sorry and embarrassed” by the incident. 

Reinhart is a political anthropologist of public health and law, as well as a psychoanalyst and physician, according to his biography on the “Scholars at Harvard” website that was reviewed by Fox News Digital earlier this week. Reinhart’s apology letter does not specify Harvard as the school where he claimed to attain the Ph.D., but the Harvard scholars website and a Harvard Gazette report from 2021 show he was working on a Ph.D. in anthropology at the esteemed university. 

A handful of media publications and academic conferences have heralded Reinhart as holding both an M.D. and Ph.D., but over the weekend, social media commenters began questioning if Reinhart actually earned a Ph.D. 

By Sunday evening, he issued the lengthy apology and clarified that he had not yet earned the degree, citing delays from the pandemic and beginning his medical residency. 

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Eric Reinhart issued a public apology over “misrepresenting” himself as holding a Ph.D.

“After nearly a decade of working towards it, I expected to complete my then-already-delayed PhD before I began a medical residency,” he continued in his apology statement. Reinhart is listed on Northwestern Medicine’s website as a current medical resident of psychiatry. 

“This delay was a source of frustration for me and arose because, in Spring 2020, I abruptly shifted my focus to applied pandemic-related research on Covid outbreaks in jails rather than complete the final section of my dissertation as planned. In anticipation of completing the degree in Summer 2021, during a period before I had any substantial public presence and in which I did not anticipate that any public interest in me would later arise, I revised my personal site and Twitter bio, using ambiguous language on the personal site along with a header that indicated I had gained the PhD.”

Reinhart has been floated by local Chicago media as a potential replacement to Dr. Alison Arwady, who had led Chicago’s Department Of Public Health since 2015, including during the pandemic. Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson fired the top doctor from the position last Friday, according to the Chicago-Sun Times. 

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson announces the city’s public safety plan in advance of Memorial Day weekend Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

The political anthropologist has meanwhile been an outspoken supporter of Johnson, including during his mayoral campaign, when he celebrated that Chicago was slated to have its “first progressive city hall since 1987” amid a rise in poll numbers for Johnson. 

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Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, gives an update on the Chicago Public Schools reopening plan at City Hall in Chicago on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Reinhart has championed abolishing prisons as a “public health and safety necessity,” and defunding police by reallocating public funds to other initiatives such as healthcare and schools. 

The Chicago Tribune has characterized Reinhart as a “progressive-minded physician” who could take the commissioner role at the city’s Department of Public Health.

Reinhart said in his public apology, however, that he has “not––to my knowledge––been under formal consideration for CDPH Commissioner by the Mayor’s Office at any point in time.”

He has “been actively engaged for several months in efforts to recruit others who I believe would be more effective in the position,” he wrote. “I continue to believe that this moment represents a critical opportunity for the reconstruction of effective public health systems under a historically progressive administration in the wake of the undeniable failure of the status quo of public health policy in Chicago and across the United States.”

Johnson’s office did not respond to requests for comment on Reinhart’s apology or media claims he was in the running to lead the health department. 

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Various bios for Reinhart show he was listed as holding both an M.D. and Ph.D., including on his writeup touting speakers for the Los Angeles Global Health Conference that was held earlier this year. 

“Although I do not believe any of the above is directly related to instances over the last several months in which––to my knowledge––one journalist, one student conference, and an online AMA panel have incorrectly ascribed a PhD to me, including in the latter two cases after I had sent requested bios/credentials in which I did not include any claim of holding a PhD (the first instance didn’t include request for a bio/identifiers),” Reinhart wrote. 

Harvard banners hang outside Memorial Church on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. (Photo by Michael Fein/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“I want to acknowledge that my revision to my website and Twitter bio in Summer 2021 in anticipation of completing the degree was wrong and represents a lapse in judgment,” he continued. 

On Monday, his X bio stated “PhD pending.” A review of his X account Wednesday morning showed he no longer had a biography on the social media account. Additionally, his biography on the Scholars At Harvard page can no longer be accessed by the public, Fox News Digital found. 

In addition to social media accounts accusing Reinhart of “lying” about having a Ph.D., some accounts also charged Reinhart falsely claimed he led a justice reform group at the World Bank. 

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“I have also now learned of a new accusation that I have falsely claimed a role at the World Bank Research Group. This is not true. The accusation is that I claimed to be the Lead of the Data and Evidence for Justice Reform (DE JURE) program. I have never claimed that,” Reinhart wrote in the apology letter. 

Reinhart said that he was instructed by the “actual head” of the program to identify himself as the “Lead Health Researcher/Lead Health and Justice Systems Researcher” at the World Bank’s DE JURE program. 

After the publication of a recent article touting Reinhart’s background, higher-ups at the World Bank informed Reinhart’s supervisor that “‘Lead Researcher’ is a title reserved for salaried staff employees of the Bank and not people on consultant-based research contracts like my own,” Reinhart explained in the letter. 

The World Bank building is seen on April 5, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

“I was subsequently instructed to change my title to a Principal Investigator, as that was compatible with my specific contracted role, and I did as instructed. I have since maintained a collaborative relationship with DE JURE and have never misrepresented my role there nor my degree status to them,” he wrote.

Reinhart’s supervisor, identified as Daniel Chen, posted on X that he told Reinhart to use the title “Lead Health Researcher.”

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“I’m DE JURE Lead and Eric’s supervisor at WB Research Group. I told him to use the title of Lead Health Researcher. WB officials later informed me the more appropriate title for his contract type was Principal Investigator. He then changed his title upon my request,” Chen posted Sunday. “He never misrepresented his WB title nor did he ever claim to be Lead of DE JURE. Additionally, Eric made clear to me and WB that he did not yet have his PhD and all of his paperwork and publications at the WB reflected that.”

Fall colors blanket the ground of the skyline of Chicago with Lake Michigan in the foreground in downtown Chicago Oct. 16, 2022. (Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua via Getty Images)

After Chen’s post, however, the World Bank’s director of Development Impact Evaluation, which oversees the DE JURE program, said Chen also does not work at the World Bank. 

“Daniel Chen is not employed by the World Bank, he is not the DE JURE lead, and does not lead any of our projects or programs,” the World Banks’ Arianna Legovini posted. 

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Chen then followed-up to clarify that he is no longer employed by World Bank, and his social media comments coming to Reinhart’s defense were in relation “to the period in question regarding Eric’s status there, when I was his direct supervisor.”

When contacted by Fox News Digital regarding Reinhart’s and Chen’s employment statuses, Legovini directed the reporter to the World Bank’s media team. The World Bank media team said they had “nothing to add on this matter.”

Harvard additionally told Fox News Digital it had no comment on Reinhart and his apology letter. 

Reinhart and Chen did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for additional comment on the matter. 

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“I believe that truthfulness and accuracy are important for effectively advancing our goals of rebuilding public care systems and that accountability is appropriate and essential for effective solidarity-building,” Reinhart wrote as he wrapped up the public apology.