Chris Elias

President for Global Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Education

• Master of Public Health in health services, University of Washington
• Bachelor's degree in chemistry and sociology, Creighton University
• M.D., Creighton University
• Postgraduate training in internal medicine, University of California at San Francisco
• Honorary Doctor of Science degree, Creighton University

Career path

• Senior associate, country representative, associate for Women's Reproductive Health for the Population Council
• Medical coordinator, American Refugee Committee in Thailand
• Former president and CEO of PATH
• Current President for Global Development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
• Clinical professor, UW School of Public Health
• Affiliate investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Current work

Since 2000, Chris has held what he calls "arguably the best job in global health." He leads PATH, the Seattle-based international nonprofit organization whose approximately 1,000 staff members work in more than 70 countries to improve people's health through sustainable, culturally relevant methods.

PATH counts a long list of accomplishments around the world. In recent years, for example, the organization has helped to cut malaria incidence by more than half in places like Zambia, deployed a vaccine for meningitis in sub-Saharan Africa that costs just 50 cents a dose, and worked with the North Korean government to immunize all at-risk children under six with an affordable Japanese encephalitis vaccine. Under Chris's leadership, PATH won the world's largest humanitarian award—the $1.5 million Conrad M. Hilton Humanitarian Prize—in 2009.

Outside of PATH, Chris serves on the boards of several organizations, including the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, the Global Health Council, InterAction, the Medicines for Malaria Venture, Landesa, and the Washington Biotechnology & Biomedical Association. He also co-chairs the steering committee for the newly formed Decade of Vaccines Collaboration, which works to extend the full benefits of immunization to all people, regardless of where they live. To honor his work with PATH, Chris received the Schwab Foundation's Social Entrepreneur of the Year award for the United States in 2005.

Global health beginnings

Chris went straight from college to medical school and his residency. Then he headed to the Thai-Cambodian border, where he intended to spend a few years working as a doctor in the refugee camps there. He ended up running a pediatric ward in a hospital with dirt floors and no electricity. He saw more patients in one month than he'd seen in a year back in the United States.

After less than a year of working there, "the sheer volume of illness and the monotony of pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, dengue, and malnutrition began to wear on me," Chris said. "I sensed that poverty, poor water and sanitation, the absence of human rights protection, and lack of meaningful livelihoods were much more powerful determinants of health and illness than what I could do in the clinic."

UW's advantage

Those observations abroad motivated Chris to return to the United States and learn more about public health. "Frankly, it was the first time I really knew why I was going to school," he said.

In graduate school, Chris focused on health care behaviors of chronically homeless older men in Seattle. He was a fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, which provides physicians with funding for graduate-level study and research.

The UW's program prepared Chris to make contributions to the world of public health and inspired him to keep learning, he said. He recalled "spirited debates with faculty and fellow students, the joy of discovering new ideas, and the awakening of a sense of purpose" as highlights of his time on campus.

And he couldn't stay away for long: Today, Chris serves as a clinical professor in the UW School of Public Health, focusing on global health and development. He also received the 2010 School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award.

Advice to graduate students

1. Pace yourself. "Remember that you can't help anyone else unless you take care of yourself. Balance won't come every day in a hectic, hyper-connected world, but you'll need it for the long term."
2. Expect to be surprised. "Entrepreneurs have always loved surprises, as they create the space for game-changing impact. Look for the weak signals and be ready to seize new initiative."
3. Follow your passion. "I discovered back on the Thai-Cambodian border that if I could feel good, even when I worked hard and sometimes failed, that was a sure sign of passion. It was what brought me to the University of Washington and it has guided my choices for the past 20 years."

Photo courtesy of PATH