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Stamford, Conn. – March 2, 2015 – AmeriCares, the Stamford-based emergency response and global health organization, has welcomed Dr. E. Anne Peterson, MD, MPH, as its new senior vice president of global programs.
In her new role, Dr. Peterson oversees all of AmeriCares health programs, including the delivery of more than $500 million in medical aid and relief supplies annually in response to devastating disasters and the everyday emergencies caused by chronic poverty. She directs AmeriCares Emergency Response team, oversees programs improving health care in under-resourced settings and guides AmeriCares work with the uninsured in the United States.
Dr. Peterson brings to AmeriCares decades of experience in both domestic and international health policy, clinical care, administration and disaster response. A decisive voice in global health policy, she was appointed assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Global Health Bureau by President George W. Bush. From 2001 to 2005, Dr. Peterson had oversight of all of USAID’s programs in maternal and child health, AIDS, family planning, neglected tropical diseases and health systems. She helped guide the U.S. government’s international health policies, including PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), and served on a number of international boards of directors such as the Global Fund (GFATM), GAVI, Stop TB, and the Child Survival Partnership.
A former director of World Vision International’s global health center and executive health policy and advocacy advisor, Dr. Peterson led efforts to refocus health programs for the world’s largest international NGO. She also spent nearly six years in Sub-Saharan Africa working on community development, public health training and AIDS prevention programs in Kenya and Zimbabwe. She has worked as a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization in Haiti and Brazil.
Dr. Peterson also served as Health Commissioner for the State of Virginia, where she led the state’s response to 9/11 and anthrax threats. In the aftermath of the Southeast Asia tsunami she served as a liaison between the U.S. Department of Defense, the United Nations and NGOs in Indonesia. She has also performed health assessments and disaster response work in Afghanistan and West Africa, where she recently worked on the Ebola outbreak.
“My life’s mission has been to improve global health in the most challenging settings. Working with AmeriCares, I can improve health care for disaster survivors and families in crisis,” Dr. Peterson said. “My hope is to better prepare public health practitioners so they can address the next major health emergency.”
Most recently, she served as public health program director for the Ponce School of Medicine & Health Services in Puerto Rico and as a research professor at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Peterson earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Washington and her medical degree from Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minn. She completed her master’s degree in public health and preventive medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta.
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