The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is honored to officially welcome Raj Panjabi, MD, MPH as the new U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator. Dr. Panjabi was appointed by President Joe Biden and sworn in on February 1, 2021. Dr. Panjabi brings a wealth of expertise in global health and social entrepreneurship, as well as extensive on-the-ground experience working to reshape inequitable health systems in rural communities in many parts of the world. He also has first-hand experience with malaria having had it as a child and, alongside community and other frontline health workers, having cared for patients with severe malaria in rural Africa.
Dr. Panjabi grew up in Liberia and fled Liberia’s civil war with his family when he was nine years old, becoming a refugee in the United States. He returned to Liberia as a medical student and then in 2007 co-founded Last Mile Health, where he served as CEO until joining PMI. Prior to joining PMI, Dr. Panjabi was also Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and advisor for the World Health Organization’s Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.
Dr. Panjabi is a recognized thought leader and social entrepreneur passionate about building rural health systems and ending epidemics. TIME magazine named him one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and 50 Most Influential People in Healthcare. He has also been listed as one of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune and is a recipient of the $1 million TED Prize.
He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, and trained in Internal Medicine and Primary Care as a Resident and Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He received his Masters of Public Health in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Read More