Esther Tahrir, MPH

Esther Tahrir, MPH, is founder and director of Global Health Leaders and GOJoven International at the Public Health Institute. She also directs and advises multiple global youth engagement and adolescent health projects at PHI that benefit Latin America, Africa and Asia, including PHI’s Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA). Since joining PHI in 2000, Tahrir helped establish the Mesoamerican Health Initiative and PHI's global health strategy.

Tahrir is a public health education specialist focused on strengthening public health leadership globally. She has more than 20 years of experience working in public and reproductive health, supporting leadership development and fellowship programs in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Her professional interests include providing training and development opportunities to emerging and senior-level leaders from developing countries working in public, reproductive, women's health and non-communicable disease prevention and care. She works to build cross-sectoral competencies in business and public health to enable health leaders to create innovative public private partnerships.

Tahrir received her BA with honors in community studies from the University of California (UC) at Santa Cruz. She received her master's degree in public health from UC Berkeley, where she was appointed to the Faculty Council, was student elect to the school’s Strategic Planning Committee and was awarded the Henrik L. Blum Award for Distinguished Social Action.