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.
Farmer resides in Kigali, Rwanda. 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 In May 2009, Farmer was nominated to head the U.S. Agency for International Development, but the nomination was withdrawn. 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.
^ Gil, Gideon (2009-05-21). "Paul Farmer gets high-level Harvard Medical job". Boston.com. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
^ Boston Globe, May 15, 2009, http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/15/health_pioneer_may_get_obama_post/
^ "Paul Farmer out for USAID? | The Cable". Thecable.foreignpolicy.com. Retrieved 2011-03-17.
^ "Haiti: UN envoy Bill Clinton appoints prominent US doctor as deputy". Un.org. 2009-08-11. Retrieved 2011-03-17.Continue Reading »
