36 Facts About Raj Panjabi

Raj Panjabi was born on February 3,1981 and is an American physician, entrepreneur, professor and former White House official.

Dr Raj Panjabi was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2016, one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care in 2018, received the 2017 TED Prize, and was listed as one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune in 2015 and in 2017.

Raj Panjabi is the co-founder and former CEO of Last Mile Health and has served as Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, visiting faculty at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and Advisor to former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, co-chair of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Raj Panjabi's grandparents were refugees from Sind Province following the Partition of India in 1947, resettling in Mumbai and Indore.

Raj Panjabi graduated with a bachelor's degree and MD from the University of North Carolina School at Chapel Hill and received a Masters of Public Health in epidemiology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Raj Panjabi was a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and trained in internal medicine and primary care at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Raj Panjabi oversaw implementation of the US Global COVID-19 Response and Recovery Framework, and co-organized the 2022 Presidential Global COVID-19 Summit.

Raj Panjabi helped oversee implementation of the President's 2022 Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation, which directed federal agencies to drive research and development, streamline regulation, grow manufacturing, and expand markets for biotechnology products, including by leveraging artificial intelligence and synthetic biology.

Internationally, Dr Raj Panjabi oversaw White House implementation of the 2022 US Global Health Security and International Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response Act, which authorized $5 billion, expanding US health investments in over 50 countries across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.

Raj Panjabi co-developed the President's COVID-19 and health security initiatives with the G7, G20, European Union, ASEAN, Quad, CARICOM, and African Union, including efforts to organize Presidential Summits, launch the Pandemic Fund at the World Bank, negotiate the Pandemic Accord at the World Health Organization, and uphold the United Nations' Biological Weapons Convention.

Raj Panjabi was appointed by President Biden as the head of the US President's Malaria Initiative.

Raj Panjabi was the first Asian American and first person born in Africa, where malaria remains endemic, to serve in the role.

Raj Panjabi oversaw efforts to help launch the world's first malaria vaccine, create a new strategy to help save 4 million more lives and prevent 1 billion more malaria cases, and approximately $800 million of annual investment in diagnostics, treatments, disease surveillance and health systems to protect 700 million people across 30 countries in Africa and Asia.

Raj Panjabi served as technical advisor to former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in her role as co-chair of the WHO Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Raj Panjabi is the co-founder and former CEO of Last Mile Health, an enterprise leveraging digital technology to train thousands of healthcare providers serving millions of people.

Raj Panjabi co-founded this organisation in 2007 with a small team of Liberian civil war survivors and American health workers and $6,000 he had received as a wedding gift.

Raj Panjabi delivered testimony at the US Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy session, "A Progress Report of the West Africa Ebola Epidemic", arguing investments in rural community health workers can help make health systems responsive to Ebola and future epidemics.

Raj Panjabi served as health advisor to the Africa Union Africa Against Ebola Trust.

Raj Panjabi has served as co-chair of the COVID Response Fund at Echoing Green, a venture philanthropy investing in social entrepreneurs addressing the most pressing social challenges facing marginalized communities across America.

Raj Panjabi trained and worked as a clinical provider in community health systems in rural Alaska, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

Raj Panjabi has cared for outpatients on Medicaid and Medicare in federally qualified health centers pioneering value-based care and inpatients at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospitals.

Raj Panjabi worked as a physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Chelsea Community Health Center in Chelsea, Massachusetts, the COVID-19 epicenter in Massachusetts, where he cared for patients with COVID and urgent care needs.

Raj Panjabi has chaired the Community Health Worker Exemplars in Global Health study with Gates Ventures and the Gates Foundation, investigating lessons learned from exemplar community health systems in Brazil, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Liberia.

Raj Panjabi was a co-author of the report Strengthening Primary Health Care through Community Health Workers: Investment Case and Financing Recommendations.

Raj Panjabi has lectured at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Business School.

Raj Panjabi has delivered hundreds of speeches and presentations, including award-winning TED Talks.

Raj Panjabi gave additional TED talks in 2018 and 2019 on the power of investing in community and frontline health workers.

Raj Panjabi spoke on a panel hosted by The Elders in celebration of Nelson Mandela's 100th birthday in South Africa, with Former Irish President, Mary Robinson, and Former Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Raj Panjabi spoke at the TIME 100 Health Summit on Closing the Healthcare Gap.

Raj Panjabi highlighted the role of investing in rural community health workers at the TIME-Fortune Global Forum hosted by Pope Francis in 2016.

Raj Panjabi delivered the commencement addresses at the graduations of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2023, University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2023, and Harvard Medical School in 2015, titled "The Power of Selfless Acts".

Raj Panjabi has served on numerous boards, councils and commissions across the public, private and social sectors.

Raj Panjabi was a Gavi Champion, member of the International Advisory Group for Frontlines First at the Global Financing Facility of the World Bank Group, advisor to the Community Health Roadmap, and a member of the Community Health Worker Hub at the World Health Organization [WHO], where he served on the External Review Group for the WHO's guidelines on health policy and system support to optimize community health worker programs.

Raj Panjabi has served as advisor to the World Health Organization's Ambassador for Health Workforce.

Raj Panjabi was named one of the World's 50 Greatest Leaders by Fortune in 2015 and 2017, listed as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by TIME in 2016 with a tribute from President Bill Clinton, one of TIME's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care in 2018, and received the 2017 TED Prize.

Raj Panjabi was recognized by Bill Gates in his "Heroes in the Field" series.