Project HOPE Appoints Dr. Thomas Kenyon New President and CEO

CDC’s Global Health Chief Will Lead HOPE’s Health and Humanitarian Mission

The Project HOPE Board of Directors announced today the selection of Thomas A. Kenyon, M.D., M.P.H., as the new President and CEO of the international health and humanitarian organization effective October 1, 2015.

Dr. Kenyon joins Project HOPE after more than two decades with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most recently as Director of its Center for Global Health. He was a key member of the U.S. government team that coordinated the White House’s mobilization against Ebola, one of the most devastating public health emergencies in recent years.  He is also a veteran of the worldwide fight against HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Kenyon has represented the CDC across U.S. government agencies, the White House, Ministries of Health, the World Health Organization and other multilateral organizations, philanthropic foundations and the private sector. He was the Principal Deputy Global AIDS Coordinator and Chief Medical Officer for PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) at the U.S. Department of State. He also has first-hand knowledge of Project HOPE’s mission, having served as a Director for Project HOPE in Swaziland from 1987-1992 and as a Consultant Pediatrician for a HOPE program in Grenada, West Indies for two years in the mid1980s.  His public health expertise will also be valuable to Health Affairs, the nation’s leading health policy journal, which is published by Project HOPE.

“Dr. Kenyon is one of the world’s most accomplished and respected experts in public health,” said Richard T. Clark, Chairman of the Project HOPE Board. “He has been a leader in tackling some of the severest health crises of our time and has a deep understanding of how to run a global organization, working with a wide range of people of varying cultures and needs.

“Tom’s positive leadership at the CDC, combined with his earlier exemplary work for our cause, make him uniquely well-qualified to guide HOPE into the future, addressing both the challenges and opportunities we face.  Indeed, for many reasons we believe he is the ideal person to forge an even stronger record of humanitarian service for HOPE, building on our solid foundation of dedicated people, medical capabilities and strong partnerships with governments, corporations, foundations and individual donors,” Mr. Clark added.

Dr. Kenyon said, “I feel honored and privileged to return to and lead Project HOPE, a trusted foundation with a long history of success. Together with HOPE’s dedicated leadership team, talented staff, selfless volunteers and many invaluable partners, I will be committed to ensuring it remains a unique and vital force in global health, while constantly evolving to meet urgent needs where our skills and resources can have the most impact on human lives. I look forward with great enthusiasm to joining my colleagues at HOPE in pursuit of our shared and critical mission.”

Dr. Kenyon holds a Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Indiana University and a Master’s in Public Health with a focus on international health from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He completed medical school at the University of Missouri-Columbia and subsequently completed a three-year residency in pediatrics at the University of Arizona Health Services Center in Tucson.

Dr. Kenyon succeeds Dr. John P. Howe, III, who led the organization for 14 years until his retirement in March.  During this time, Project HOPE trained thousands of health care workers in the developing world, and expanded its presence worldwide through partnerships with health ministries of foreign governments, USAID, the U.S. Department of State and many private companies and donors.

The NGO is active in women’s and children’s health, infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases, health systems strengthening, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and publishes the health policy journal Health Affairs. Project HOPE has responded to most of the world’s natural disasters since the Indonesian tsunami in 2004, providing medical volunteers and hundreds of millions of dollars in donated medicines and supplies to communities in need and recruiting medical volunteers for the U.S. Navy’s annual humanitarian missions from Latin America to the South Pacific.

About Project HOPE

Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health crises with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now conducts land-based medical training and health education in more than 30 countries. Visit our website projecthope.organd follow us on Twitter @projecthopeorg.