|
|
Volume No. 1 Issue No. 55 - Thursday February 05, 2004 |
Dr. Carissa F. Etienne: Assistant Director, Pan American Health Organization by Thomson Fontaine
In June, 2003, Dominica�s Dr. Carissa F. Etienne was named the Pan American Health Organization's (PAHO) new assistant director at their Headquarters in Washington, DC. She oversees the organization's programs for Disease Prevention and Control, Family and Community Health, Sustainable Development and Environmental Health, and Technology and Health Services Delivery-PAHO's core programs for providing technical cooperation to its member countries.
This appointment marked the culmination of a long and distinguished service in medicine and public health in Dominica. Dr. Etienne was born in Dominica and attended the Convent High School before moving to the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in Jamaica where she was trained as a general practitioner and graduated with an MBBS in 1976.
In 1977, she began her career in Dominica with the Ministry of Health as a medical officer at the Princess Margaret Hospital. A few years later she became heavily involved in the planning and implementation of primary health care, which focused on decentralizing the Nation�s health services and bringing medical care to the various villages.
Dr. Etienne then moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she received the master's degree in 1982 in community health in developing countries. Back in Dominica, she was appointed medical director at Princess Margaret Hospital in 1986 and served in that capacity until 1989, when she was appointed director of primary health care services and named disaster coordinator for the Ministry of Health, and its representative on the National Emergency Preparedness Organization.
During the 1990s, she had a thriving private practice, and held several key positions in the Ministry of Health, including chief medical officer, designated national epidemiologist, chairman of the National AIDS Committee and coordinator of the National AIDS Program. In the latter capacity she was the government's lead advisor on strategies for the prevention, control and management of HIV/AIDS, and was responsible for implementing programs in this area as well as mobilizing and managing funds from donor agencies.
|
|
|