Paul Emerson, PhD, is Director of the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI). In this role, Dr. Emerson is responsible for the overall success of ITI’s trachoma elimination efforts with program partner Pfizer to achieve the global elimination of blinding trachoma by the year 2020.

Prior to joining The Task Force, Dr. Emerson was the Director for the Trachoma Control program at The Carter Center, where he provided oversight to program activities in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, South Sudan, Sudan, and Ethiopia. Dr. Emerson also served as the Co-director of the Malaria Control Program at The Carter Center.

Prior to joining The Carter Center, Dr. Emerson was Research Fellow and Lecturer of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Durham, where he was the grant holder and principal investigator leading a small team on multi-country evaluations of trachoma control programs. He has also worked for the Medical Research Council Laboratories in The Gambia, the Ministry of Education in Botswana, and the Ministry of Education in Kenya.

Currently, Dr. Emerson also serves as the Interim Director of The Task Force’s Children Without Worms program.

Additionally, Dr. Emerson has held the title of Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University since 2009.

Dr. Emerson holds a doctorate in biological and biomedical sciences from the University of Durham and a master of science in applied parasitology and medical entomology from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.