Departments:

Community and Global Health

Degrees:

DrPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

MPH, University of Illinois at Chicago

Biography

Benjamín Puertas Donoso was born in Quito - Ecuador. Dr. Puertas completed his studies in Medicine and Surgery at the Central University of Ecuador and subsequently completed a master’s degree in Public Health at the University of Illinois in Chicago (1991) and a Doctorate in Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2015) in the United States.

Dr. Puertas has served as regional director of health in Malawi and Mozambique with the American Refugee Committee (USA) and Medicins Sans Frontieres (France). He was the founding director of the master’s in public health and later the founding dean of the School of Public Health of San Francisco University of Quito. In 2008 he was advisor to the ministerial office and in 2009 leaded the health reform process in Ecuador.

He was a PAHO Health Systems and Services Advisor in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and served as a Sub Regional Advisor of Human Resources for Health for Central America and Dominican Republic, based in El Salvador. Currently, he is the Advisor of Human Resources for Health for the Caribbean, based in Barbados.

Among its publications are ten books and book chapters, as well as several scientific publications in international health journals.

On April 25, 2014, Dr. Benjamín Puertas received the “Jacob Koomen Award”, recognition that the University of North Carolina gives each year to a public health professional who has stood out for his work in favor of populations unprotected.