Dr. Louise Ivers is the executive director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Global Health, an associate professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a practicing infectious diseases physician and works on the design, implementation, and evaluation of large-scale public health programs in resource-limited settings, with the goal of achieving health equity.

Dr. Ivers has spent her career providing care to the rural and urban poor, as well as in patient-oriented research seeking practical solutions to barriers to care. She has worked on healthcare delivery in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa. She was based in Haiti for almost a decade, where she designed and implemented HIV and TB programs for the poorest people. She was present when a major earthquake occurred in 2010 and led a major humanitarian response to that disaster. When a cholera outbreak occurred in Haiti some months later, she also led a huge coordinated response to the epidemic, innovating on ways to approach the control and prevention of the disease. From 2015-2017 she was a member of the executive leadership team at Partners In Health, responsible for global strategic implementation.

Dr. Ivers has published research articles on HIV/AIDS, TB, food insecurity, and cholera treatment and prevention. She is involved in global policy and advocacy work to improve health equity. She has served as an advisor to the WHO and the Haitian Ministry of Health, and is a delegate to the Global Task Force for Cholera Control at WHO. She has collaborated with the U.S. government; the E.U.; multilateral, non-governmental organizations; and private industry partners. She mentors Haitian, American, and Irish physicians and students in global health implementation and research. She is the editor of a textbook on food insecurity and public health, and over 60 peer-reviewed published papers and chapters on global health issues.

Dr. Ivers was born in Dublin and is a graduate of University College Dublin, Ireland, where she received her professional medical degree and a research doctorate in medicine. She completed residency in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Harvard Infectious Diseases program. Dr. Ivers earned a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. ♦