Ira came to international public health work via a life-transforming two years as a middle-aged Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala and Belize, where he designed and implemented projects to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS. Prior to this, he had long careers directing educational programs for at-risk youth and teaching college English and Literature. He returned to grad school at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, where he earned an MPH in International Health; his thesis work, funded by the Gates Foundation, examined the HIV dissemination risk of Mexican truckers in the Yucatan. He then worked for a year in Alaska for the Alaska Center for Rural Health, doing research on inequities in health care provision in rural Alaska, and then joined the team at Curamericas Global, initiating two new projects in Liberia and Haiti, before becoming Program Manager for Latin America, supporting CGI’s Guatemala project in partnership with Curamericas Guatemala. View Ira’s résumé.

Ira believes passionately in equity and social justice, and is a great supporter of CGI’s signature methodology, CBIO, since it has the capacity to empower marginalized communities to improve their own health. Ira also has a Master’s Degree in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz and is a formally trained mediator. His avocational passions are playing guitar, photography and photojournalism, hiking, and bird-watching.