Christopher Elias
President, PATH
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 has 19 offices in 13 countries and currently works in more than 100 countries in the areas of reproductive health; vaccines and immunization; HIV, AIDS, and tuberculosis; and children’s health and nutrition. PATH’s 2005 budget is $99 million, which is provided by foundations, the U.S. government, other governments, multilateral agencies, corporations, and individuals. 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 and then as a medical coordinator for the American Refugee Committee at the Thai-Cambodian border.
