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In This Issue:
Paul Farmer
Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, was named chief of the Division of Global Health Equity beginning July 1. He will succeed Jim Yong Kim, MD, PhD, who is leaving BWH to become president of Dartmouth College.
“We thank Dr. Kim for his commitment during his years at BWH, and we warmly welcome Dr. Farmer to his new role,” said Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Medicine.
Farmer, who serves as associate chief of the division and a founding director of Partners In Health, has dedicated his life’s work to preventing and treating diseases that disproportionately afflict the poor. Along with his colleagues at BWH, in the Program in Infectious Disease and Social Change at Harvard Medical School, and in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho and Malawi, Farmer has pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies for AIDS and tuberculosis. He and his colleagues are also leaders in strengthening health systems in resource-poor settings. Farmer is an active faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Harvard College.
Farmer helped found the country’s first residency in medicine and global health equity at BWH, enabling the next generations of physicians to train in the clinical, social and administrative factors that affect health care in poor settings. Also, he is actively engaged in teaching in Africa and Latin America.
Farmer received a bachelor degree from Duke University, and MD and PhD degrees from Harvard. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors, including the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Award for Humanitarian Contributions to the Health of Humankind, the Duke University Humanitarian Award and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius award” in recognition of his work. The author of several books about the anthropology of infectious disease, Farmer was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences earlier this year.
Howard Hiatt, MD, will continue as division co-chief. “I am grateful to Dr. Hiatt for his insightful and selfless ongoing contribution to the division and to the division faculty for its remarkable work,” Loscalzo said.