FOUNDING BOARD CHAIR

Jim Wilentz, MD, FACC, Interventional Cardiologist, is Board Chair and co-founder of Haiti Cardiac Alliance, and Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Wilentz volunteered in the General Hospital in Port au Prince just after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 and saw the immense need for cardiac care in the country unrelated to the earthquake. This began a quest to create a systemic approach to cardiac care in the country concentrating on the children and young adults who could most benefit. Haiti Cardiac Alliance was created in 2013 to address this glaring need. Dr. Wilentz has published on the HCA experience as well as a study of Heart Failure in Haiti in the American Heart Journal. His NY Times OpEd “In Haiti, a Lesson for U.S. Health Care” in 2010 dealt with private-public collaboration in healthcare – a concept we are still wrestling with in the US and working to achieve in Haiti.

 

FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Owen Robinson co-founded Haiti Cardiac Alliance with Dr. Wilentz in 2013 in response to a growing waiting list of children and young adults in the country of Haiti who had little or no access to cardiac treatment. Before starting HCA in 2013, he worked in a range of global health management and strategy roles with Partners In Health and Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and prior to that was a strategy consultant and project leader on global health issues with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Owen has an undergraduate degree as well as a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University.