30 Facts About Paul Farmer

Paul Edward Farmer was an American medical anthropologist and physician.

Paul Farmer was the co-founder and chief strategist of Partners In Health, an international non-profit organization that since 1987 has provided direct health care services and undertaken research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty.

Paul Farmer was professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Paul Farmer wrote extensively on Health and Human Rights, the role of social inequalities in the distribution and outcome of infectious diseases, and global health.

Paul Farmer was known as "the man who would cure the world", as described in the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder.

Paul Farmer was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, and raised in Weeki Wachee, Florida.

Paul Farmer had first lived in Alabama for some of his childhood years.

One summer, Paul Farmer's family worked with Haitian migrant workers and picked citrus fruit, which was Paul Farmer's first encounter of many with Haitian people.

Paul Farmer was the brother of former professional wrestler Jeff Farmer.

Paul Farmer was a graduate of Hernando High School in Brooksville, Florida, where he was elected president of his senior class.

Paul Farmer then came across the work of Rudolf Virchow, the 19th century German physician and scientist that developed public health medicine, who inspired Farmer's career trajectory.

Paul Farmer's passions were further shaped by the political atmosphere around him at the time with civil war and revolution breaking out in Central America, and the rise of liberation theology which the Catholic clergy used to defy authoritarianism in the region.

Paul Farmer later became involved with migrant labor camps near campus, and came into contact with Sister Juliana DeWolf.

Paul Farmer was working with the United Farm Workers, seeking to ameliorate the living circumstances of the laborers harvesting tobacco.

Paul Farmer became interested in Haiti and began learning Creole, interviewing Haitian migrant workers, and reading about Haiti's history.

Paul Farmer ended up writing and co-writing more than 100 scholarly papers and several books.

Paul Farmer completed an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in 1993 and an infectious disease fellowship in 1996.

Paul Farmer was board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease.

In May 2009, Paul Farmer was named Chair of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, succeeding Jim Yong Kim, his longtime friend and colleague.

In December 2012, Paul Farmer was appointed the United Nations Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti.

In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Farmer worked with PIH to develop a contact-tracing program in Massachusetts.

Paul Farmer was on the Board of PIVOT, a recently formed healthcare and research organization operating in Madagascar.

Paul Farmer was a member of the Advisory Board of Incentives for Global Health, the NGO focused on developing the Health Impact Fund.

Paul Farmer served on the Global Advisory Council of GlobeMed, a student-driven global health organization that works through a partnership model.

Paul Farmer served 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.

Paul Farmer was on the Board of Trustees for EqualHealth, which builds critical consciousness towards health equity.

Paul Farmer was married to Didi Bertrand Paul Farmer, a Haitian medical anthropologist and community health specialist who has led several initiatives at Partners in Health.

Paul Farmer died in his sleep from an acute cardiac event in Butaro, Rwanda, on February 21,2022, at the age of 62.

Paul Farmer had been involved in medical education at Butaro District Hospital and the Butaro campus of the University of Global Health Equity, which accepted its first class of medical students in 2019.

Paul Farmer was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, from which he was awarded the 2018 Public Welfare Medal.