Biography
Dr. Elias is president of PATH, an international, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization based in Seattle, Washington.
PATH creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions that enable communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health. By collaborating with diverse public- and private-sector partners, PATH helps provide appropriate health technologies and vital strategies that change the way people think and act. As president, Dr. Elias is responsible for PATH’s strategic, programmatic, financial, and management operations. PATH currently works in more than 100 countries in the areas of health technologies, maternal and child health, reproductive health, vaccines and immunization, and emerging and epidemic diseases. PATH’s 2007 budget is $168 million, which is provided by foundations, the U.S. government, other governments, multilateral agencies, corporations, and individuals. Dr. Elias serves on the boards of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, Ibis Reproductive Health, and the Washington Biomedical and Biotechnology Association, among others. He is also a member of the Policy Advisory Committee for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative and the Advisory Committee for the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Dr. Elias was honored as the Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year for the United States in 2005, and he remains an active member of the Schwab Foundation community. Prior to joining PATH, Dr. Elias was a Senior Associate in the International Programs Division of the Population Council. For six years, he served as the Country Representative in Thailand, where he managed reproductive health programs throughout Southeast Asia. In his earlier position with the Population Council in New York, Dr. Elias established and co-directed the Council’s public-sector research and development program for woman-controlled HIV prevention technology. Dr. Elias earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Creighton University in Nebraska; completed post-graduate training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco; and received a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Washington, where he was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. He spent two years in Thailand working with refugee assistance programs, first as a physician supervising a large pediatric ward in a refugee encampment. |
