Dr. David Canning is Richard Saltonstall Professor of Population Sciences, Deputy Director of the Program on the Global Demography of Aging, and a Professor of Economics and International Health. Dr. Canning serves as Co-Investigator and Research Lead for the WIE project. 

Dr. Canning has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. His research focuses on the causes and consequences of the demographic transition, particularity the role of family planning to improve birth timing and spacing leading to better maternal and child health outcomes. He is Principal Investigator on an intervention study on the effects of  improving access to post-partum family planning in Malawi, and co-Principal Investigator, along with Iqbal Shah, of a study on Institutionalizing Immediate Postpartum IUD services in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania (PPIUD Study).