United States President Joe Biden has appointed Indian-origin Dr Raj Panjabi to lead his Malaria Initiative.
“After being sworn in this morning, I’m honoured to share that I’ve been appointed by Biden as the president’s Malaria Coordinator to lead the US president’s Malaria Initiative," Panjabi said on twitter. “I’m grateful for this chance to serve,” he added.
Born in Liberia, Panjabi and his family fled the county during its civil war and arrived in the United States as refugees in the 1990s.
“My family and I arrived in America 30 years ago after fleeing civil war in Liberia. A community of Americans rallied around my family to help us build back our lives. It’s an honor to serve the country that helped build back my own life as part of the Biden-Harris Administration."
“In the face of unprecedented crises, I am humbled by the challenges our country and our world face to build back better. But as I have learned in America: we are not defined by the conditions we face, we are defined by how we respond,” Panjabi said in a series of tweets.
As a doctor and public health professional who has cared for patients alongside the staff of the President’s Malaria Initiative and its partners USAID and Center for Disease Control, Panjabi said: “I’ve been inspired by how they’ve responded to fight malaria, one of the oldest and deadliest pandemics, and saved lives around the world.”
He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, trained in internal medicine and primary care at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and received a masters degree in public health in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins. He has served as a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School.
