Joia Mukherjee MD, MPH is the Chief Medical Officer for Partners In Health (PIH), an international medical charity dedicated to providing a preferential option for the poor in healthcare. She is an internist, paediatrician, public health and infectious disease specialist and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mukherjee has been Chief Medical Officer of PIH since 2000, supporting PIH’s efforts to provide high quality, comprehensive health care to the poorest and most vulnerable in partnership with local communities and health officials. In this pursuit, PIH operates in Haiti, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Peru, Mexico, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Navajo Nation. Dr. Mukherjee’s clinical focus in resource-poor settings has been HIV/AIDS, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, mental health and most recently, Ebola. She is involved in the direct implementation of health programs and disease specific initiatives across PIH’s 10 focus countries, as well as research and the generation of new knowledge in these arenas.  In 2014, Dr. Mukherjee was one of the lead strategists in launching PIH’s efforts to fight Ebola and strengthen health systems in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

As an innovator, teacher, and mentor, she has been involved in leveraging the the clinical implementation experience of Partners In Health to develop the field of Global Health Delivery at Harvard Medical School. As such she teaches healthcare professionals and emerging leaders in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at  Harvard Medical School where she has developed an now runs the Masters of Medical Science program in Global Health Delivery—a program to build research capacity among global health professionals from all over the world.  She also teaches Global Health Delivery, social medicine, infectious disease and human rights to medical students, residents and fellows at a wide variety of US and international institutions.

Dr. Mukherjee’s academic work and field experience include expanding HIV and TB services through the public sector and linking such programs to the revitalization of primary health care. Her scholarly work is focused upon generating a body of evidence to inform the development of health care delivery systems that can effectively address the burden of disease in resource poor settings. Dr. Mukherjee serves on the board of directors for Last Mile Health (Liberia), Village Health Works (Burundi) and Project Muso (Mali). She advises many other grassroots organizations in their efforts to deliver health care with a human rights approach to the poorest of the poor. In addition, Dr. Mukherjee consults for the World Health Organization and other international agencies on health systems strengthening, human resources for health, the treatment for HIV, Hepatitis C and the control of drug resistant tuberculosis.