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Paul Farmer

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This article is about the physician. For the former British educationalist, now local councillor, see Paul S. Farmer.

Paul Farmer
Born (1959-10-26) October 26, 1959 (age 65)
North Adams, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Other namesDoktè Paul
Alma materDuke University (BA)
Harvard University (MD, PhD)
AwardsConrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize
MacArthur Genius Grant
Scientific career
FieldsInternal Medicine
Infectious Disease
Medical Anthropology
InstitutionsHarvard University
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Paul Edward Farmer (born October 26, 1959) is an American anthropologist and physician who is best known for his humanitarian work providing suitable health care to rural and under-resourced areas in developing countries, beginning in Haiti. Co-founder of an international social justice and health organization, Partners In Health (PIH), he is known as "the man who would cure the world," as described in the book, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.

Farmer is currently the Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University, formerly the Presley Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and an attending physician and Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

In May 2009 he was named chairman of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, succeeding Jim Yong Kim, his longtime friend and collaborator. Kim was appointed as of 2012 President of the World Bank. On December 17, 2010, Harvard University's President, Drew Gilpin Faust, and the President and Fellows of Harvard College, named Farmer as a University Professor, the highest honor that the University can bestow on one of its faculty members.[1]

Farmer resides in Kigali, Rwanda as of 2008.[2][3] He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease. He is editor-in-chief of Health and Human Rights Journal. In May 2009, Farmer was nominated to head the U.S. Agency for International Development,[4] but the nomination was withdrawn.[5] In August 2009, Farmer was named United Nations Deputy Special Envoy to Haiti (serving under former US President Bill Clinton, in his capacity as Special Envoy), to assist in improving the economic and social conditions of the Caribbean nation.[6]

Personal life and education

Farmer was born in North Adams, Massachusetts and raised in Weeki Wachee, Florida. He is a graduate of Hernando High School in Brooksville, Florida, where he was elected president of his senior class.[7] He attended Duke University as a Benjamin N. Duke Scholar,[8][9] graduating summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in medical anthropology.[7][10] He attended Harvard University, earning an MD and a PhD in medical anthropology.[10]

He and his wife Didi have two daughters, Catherine and Elizabeth, and one son, Sebastian.

On June 11, 2014, Farmer endorsed fellow physician Don Berwick for Governor of Massachusetts.[11]

International work

In 1987, Farmer, along with Ophelia Dahl, Jim Yong Kim, Thomas J. White and Todd McCormack, co-founded Partners In Health. PIH began in Cange in the Central Plateau of Haiti. It has developed into a worldwide health organization with a model for providing health care. The PIH hospital in Haiti provides free treatment to patients. PIH helps patients living in poverty to obtain effective drugs to treat tuberculosis and AIDS.

In addition to his hospital in Haiti, Farmer oversees projects in Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi and Peru. His approach has its basis in ethnographic analysis and real world practicality.[12]

Author Tracy Kidder wrote Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, which describes Farmer's work in Haiti, Peru, and Russia. It also covers his efforts to balance clinical and academic responsibilities with having a family. The book explores the interactions and conflicts that Farmer faced in continuing to work to secure healthcare for the poor in Haiti. The book won several awards.

Farmer is on the board of the Aristide Foundation for democracy; he is a co-founder and Board Member of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti.[13] He is on the Board of PIVOT, a recently-formed healthcare and research organization operating in Madagascar ([3]). He is a member of the Advisory Board of Incentives for Global Health, the NGO focused on developing the Health Impact Fund.[citation needed] He also serves on the Global Advisory Council of GlobeMed, a student-driven global health organization that works through a partnership model.[14] Farmer also serves on the Advisory Board of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, an international student-driven advocacy organization that works on issues of medicine development and affordability.[15]

He was appointed as United Nations Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti on December 28, 2012.[16]

In October 2009, Farmer gave a lecture titled "Development: Creating Sustainable Justice" at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series.

Farmer is a board member of Kageno Worldwide, Inc., a community development agency that has worked in Kenya and Rwanda.

Awards

Farmer has won honors including:[17]

Publications

  • AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 1993, 2006 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-08343-1
  • The Uses of Haiti, Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1994, 2003, 2005 edition: ISBN 978-1-56751-242-7
  • ¿Haití para qué?, Hondarribia, Spain: HIRU Argitaletxea, 1994
  • Sida en Haїti: La Victime accusée, Paris: Editions Karthala, 1996
  • Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999, revised 2001 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-22913-6
  • Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003, 2005 edition: ISBN 978-0-520-24326-2
  • Global Health in Times of Violence, co-edited with Barbara Rylko-Bauer and Linda Whiteford, School for Advanced Research Press, 2009 edition: ISBN 978-1-934691-14-4
  • Women, Poverty & AIDS: Sex, Drugs and Structural Violence (Series in Health and Social Justice), with coauthor Margaret Connors, Common Courage Press; Reprint edition (September 1996), ISBN 978-1-56751-074-4
  • Partner to the Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader. Ed. Haun Saussy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0520257139
  • "Who removed Aristide?", London Review of Books, ISSN 0260-9592, April 15, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-11-19.
  • Haiti After the Earthquake, Public Affairs July 12, 2011 ISBN 978-1-58648-973-1
  • To Repair the World: Paul Farmer Speaks to the Next Generation, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0520275973
  • In the Company of the Poor: conversations between Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez. Ed. Michael Griffin and Jennie Weiss Block. Orbis Books, 2013: ISBN 978-1626980501

References

  1. ^ Gil, Gideon (May 21, 2009). "Paul Farmer gets high-level Harvard Medical job". Boston.com. Retrieved June 2, 2009.
  2. ^ English, Bella (April 13, 2008). "In Rwanda, visionary doctor is moving mountains again". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 13, 2008.
  3. ^ Remnick, David (September 18, 2006). "The Wanderer: Bill Clinton's quest to save the world, reclaim his legacy—and elect his wife". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 29, 2007.
  4. ^ Boston Globe, May 15, 2009, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/15/health_pioneer_may_get_obama_post/
  5. ^ "Paul Farmer out for USAID? | The Cable". Thecable.foreignpolicy.com. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  6. ^ "Haiti: UN envoy Bill Clinton appoints prominent US doctor as deputy". Un.org. August 11, 2009. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  7. ^ a b "Paul Farmer Biography - Academy of Achievement". Achievement.org. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  8. ^ http://bnduke.duke.edu/author/p-farmer/
  9. ^ http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/01/15/paul-farmer-chosen-dukes-2015-commencement-speaker#.VLhaPIrF_3r
  10. ^ a b Paul Farmer, MD, PhD. Harvard University Department of Global Health and Medicine. Retrieved July 22, 2011.
  11. ^ Robert Rizzuto (June 12, 2014). "Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse throws support behind Martha Coakley for governor of Massachusetts". MassLive Politics. Retrieved August 13, 2014.
  12. ^ "Paul Farmer, MD, PhD". The Jay Weiss Center for Social Medicine and Health Equity, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. Archived from the original on July 21, 2007. Retrieved July 1, 2007.
  13. ^ [1] Archived 2008-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ [globemed.org/about/global-advisory-council/]
  15. ^ [2]
  16. ^ "Secretary-General Appoints Paul Farmer of United States Special Adviser for Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti". UN Press Release. Retrieved December 28, 2012.
  17. ^ "Paul Farmer wins $100,000 Austin College award". White Coat Notes. Boston.com. February 28, 2007. Retrieved July 1, 2007.
  18. ^ "www.macfound.org". September 2010.
  19. ^ "The Heinz Awards, Paul Farmer profile".
  20. ^ "Global Exchange Human Rights Awards Ceremony to be Held on May 12 in San Francisco" May 4, 2005
  21. ^ "Wofford College - Paul Farmer to speak, receive honorary degree March 27". Wofford.edu. Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  22. ^ http://www.jeffersonawards.org/pastwinners/national
  23. ^ http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/28/the_fp_top_100_global_thinkers?page=0,49#thinker89
  24. ^ University Of South Florida. "USF to Honor Humanitarian Paul Farmer". USF News. Retrieved June 21, 2012.

Bibliography

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