James Orbinski

James Orbinski"is Associate Professor of Medicine and Political Science at the University of Toronto and a research scientist and clinician at St. Michael‘s Hospital at the University of Toronto. He has worked in the field extensively for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), including as Head of Mission in Kigali during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Orbinski was elected MSF’s international president from 1998 to 2001. He launched its Access to Essential Medicines Campaign in 1999, and in that same year accepted the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to MSF for its pioneering approach to medical humanitarianism, and most especially for its approach to witnessing.

"From 2001 to 2004 Orbinski co-chaired MSF' s Neglected Diseases Working Group, which created and launched the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi). The DNDi is a global not-for-profit drug development organization that develops medicines and other health technologies for diseases largely neglected by profit driven research and development companies.

"Orbinski is also a founder and Board Chair of Dignitas International, a hybrid academic nongovernmental organization launched to research community-based care, prevention and treatment for people living with HIV in the developing world. "


 * Advisory Board, Incentives for Global Health
 * Special Adviser to the Stephen Lewis Foundation
 * Faculty, Munk School of Global Affairs