Louise Ivers

Dr. Louise Ivers is the Executive Director of the MGH Center for Global Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She is a practicing infectious diseases physician at MGH where she is currently the Interim Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases. She 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 engaged in patient-oriented investigation that offer solutions to barriers to healthcare. She has worked on healthcare delivery in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa. She was based in Haiti and served as Clinical Director and then Chief of Mission for Partners In Health, Haiti from 2003 until 2012 while then a faculty member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, designed and implemented HIV/TB programs, and led responses to the major earthquake in Haiti in 2010, and a subsequent cholera epidemic. From 2015-2017 she was a member of the executive leadership team at Partners In Health, responsible for global strategic implementation.

In addition to expanding access to healthcare for the poor, Dr. Ivers has contributed to published research articles on HIV/AIDS, food insecurity, and cholera treatment and prevention. She is an independently-funded investigator focused on the barriers to the delivery of healthcare, the impact of food insecurity on public health, and comprehensive ways to eliminate cholera. Dr. Ivers is also 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 U.S. government, EU, 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 50 peer-reviewed published papers and chapters on global health issues.

Dr. Ivers is a graduate of University College Dublin, Ireland where she received both her professional medical degrees, and a research doctorate in medicine. She completed residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the combined 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 School of Public Health.