Director / Direction Generale de Protection Civile, Haiti

Dr. Jerry CHANDLER was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1973. He graduated from the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy with a pharmacy degree in 1997. He received his Medical Doctor degree from the University of Notre Dame d’Haïti. Medicine, in 2005, and the specialty degree in Surgery of the State University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Haiti in 2009. In 2009, he joined the National Alliance of Directors of the States and Territories of Haiti (NASTAD Haiti), as Haiti HIVAIDS Program Manager, and in 2010 he became the HMIS consultant. In December 2010, he was appointed at the Office of Occupational Accident Insurance, Sickness and Maternity (OFATMA), a government-run health insurance program that deals with occupational emergencies, where he was Director of the Emergency Unit. There his work focused mainly on setting up and developing the medical emergency department (management and training of staff of the OFATMA ambulance fleet, implementation and operation of emergency rooms) for the OFATMA affiliated hospitals in Port au Prince, Cap Haitian and Les Cayes. He has also developed a medical disaster unit that has been deployed several times in disaster situations nationwide. In the meantime, he attended the distance learning course for Global Health Management and Leadership at the University of Washington (UW). He was also trained as a Disaster Medical Specialist at Texas A & M University where he received a FEMA certification. He is a member of the Haiti Firefighters Volunteer Association (ASPOVH) and Chief Medical Officer of the only Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) group in Haiti. He was Director of Operations and Medical Director of Haiti Air Ambulance, the first air medical operation in Haiti from March 2014 to October 2016. He was also advisor of the office of the First Lady of Haiti for Health and Medical Emergency matters. Since May 2017, he has been appointed Director of the Directorate of Civil Protection, which is the Government Office for Emergency and Disaster Management. The Directorate was transformed by decree in autonomous body and Dr Chandler got promoted to the rank of Director General of the institution.