Bill Brieger

William Brieger is a Professor in the Health Systems Program of the Department of International Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and also serves as JHPIEGO’s Senior Malaria Specialist. William is a Certified Health Education Specialist and has a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) in international health from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Bill taught at the African Regional Health Education Center at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, from 1976 to 2002. He is internationally renowned for his expertise in the social and behavioral aspects of tropical disease control and prevention, with special emphasis on malaria, onchocerciasis and guinea-worm.

From 1976-2002 he was based at the African Regional health Education Center in the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He continued to work on projects in Nigeria and other African Countries through Jhpiego and other USAID grantees. My major research focus developed from my time in Nigeria and includes learning about the social, cultural and behavioral aspects of health and illness, especially in tropical contexts with an emphasis on programs designed around primary health care, community participation and health education. He endeavored to learn about health and health care from the community’s perspective in order to develop communication bridges between consumers and providers, to learn appropriate community participation mechanisms and to strengthen community capacity during intervention research. His teaching brings these experiences to the learners through online courses at JHU as well as Coursera.

Some projects include 1) community directed malaria control in Nigeria and Burkina Faso, 2) Strategies to eradicate guinea worm and 3) factors associated with annual compliance with ivermectin treatment for the control of onchocerciasis. He has served on various technical advisory committees dealing with child health and tropical diseases. He has provided technical assistance on malaria programs through various USAID Implementing Partners in the areas of malaria elimination, social and behavioral change, training and capacity building, and a health systems approach to assessing and planning malaria programs.