A Conversation with Ophelia Dahl: Accompaniment in the Time of Covid, A Comprehensive Public Health Approach

The Andrew B. Weiss, M.D., 2022 Lecture on Medicine and Medical Ethics

This event is open to the general public. No tickets are required.

Members of the public are required to show proof of full vaccination including a booster, if eligible. Williams students, faculty, and staff only need to show Williams IDs at the door. All patrons are required to wear a mask.

Ophelia Dahl co-founded Partners In Health (PIH), a global health non-profit dedicated to delivering high-quality care to the poor. PIH, which began in Haiti’s rural Central Plateau, now serves millions of patients in ten countries on four continents around the world.  PIH’s community-based model has helped to redefine what’s possible in health care delivery in settings of poverty, proving that HIV, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and other diseases that stalk the poor can be effectively treated in communities from Peru to Rwanda to West Africa. Ms. Dahl led PIH as Executive Director for 16 years, and now chairs its Board of Directors. She continues to write, teach, and speak about the health and rights of the poor, moral imagination, and accompaniment.

Ms. Dahl also helps to lead the Roald Dahl Literary Estate, which manages the works of her late father, the writer Roald Dahl. She is a Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab, and a Trustee of Wellesley College, her alma mater. Ms. Dahl, who received an honorary degree from Williams College in 2019, is also a recipient of the Union Theological Seminary’s Union Medal and, together with her PIH colleagues, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

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Sponsored by the Oakley Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, the Andrew B. Weiss, M.D., Lecture on Medicine and Medical Ethics was endowed by the late Andrew B. Weiss ’61 and his wife Madge Weiss.