Dr. Paul Farmer will be the keynote speaker at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health's commencement, to be held on Saturday, May 14. He will also speak at a special dean's symposium in honor of graduating students on Friday, May 13, from 4-6 p.m. at 22 Warren Hall on the UC Berkeley campus.

Dr. Farmer is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School; attending physician in infectious diseases and chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston; and medical director of the Clinique Bon Sauveur hospital in rural Haiti.

Dr. Farmer has dedicated his life to treating some of the world's poorest populations. He is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international charity organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He has worked in infectious disease control in the Americas for nearly two decades, and is a recognized authority on tuberculosis treatment and control.

Along with colleagues, Dr. Farmer pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies for infectious diseases, including HIV/AIDS and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, in resource-poor settings. He has written extensively about health and human rights, and about the role of social inequalities in the distribution and outcomes of readily treatable diseases.