Paul Emerson

Dr. Paul Emerson is ITI’s Director, responsible for the overall success of ITI’s trachoma elimination efforts with program partner Pfizer to achieve the global elimination of blinding trachoma. Dr. Emerson has twenty years of experience working in Africa to eliminate trachoma, malaria, and other Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). He makes strong use of data to plan and focus program delivery, and emphasizes operational research with academic partners to overcome barriers to scale-up and service delivery. He has supported partner Ministries of Health and NGOs in strategy, program development, training, implementation, monitoring, and impact assessment.
Prior to joining ITI, Dr. Emerson worked at The Carter Center where he was Director of the Trachoma Control Program and co-Director for The Carter Center’s malaria program. Dr. Emerson integrated trachoma program delivery with malaria control in Ethiopia, with Guinea worm eradication in South Sudan, and with lymphatic filariasis in Nigeria. The Carter Center is a close partner of ITI and while Dr. Emerson was there the Carter Center became the first NGO to support the distribution of over 100 million doses of Zithromax®.
Dr. Emerson holds a doctorate in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from the University of Durham, an MSc in Applied Parasitology and Medical Entomology from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, a Post Graduate Certificate of Education from Bath Spa University, and a BSc. in Zoology from the University of Nottingham.
In 2012, Dr. Emerson received the Trachoma Gold Medal: For ‘Les service exceptionnels rendus dans la lutte contre le Trachome’ [Exceptional services bestowed in the battle against trachoma] awarded by the International Organization Against Trachoma and the French League Against Trachoma.