Public health celebrity

While finishing my dinner at Heaven, I saw the muzungu guy walk up to another table and start a conversation. I tired to eavesdrop, but they were too far away for my efforts to be effective. However, I did overhear "public health stuff," and when he was leaving that table I heard him say his name was Josh. Right away I remembered his picture from the New York Times. When he stopped by to talk to me I asked him if he was Josh Ruxin, and he said yes.

Josh is the founder and director of the Access Project in Rwanda, an initiative of the Center for Global Health and Economic Development at Columbia University. He's a frequent contributor to several publications (including this one--this information comes from his bio on the Access Project's website: theaccessproject.com), such as the New York Times and the Huffington Post, and he's been featured in the Washington Post, Forbes, Time, Seed magazine, CNN, and CNN International's "Inside Africa." He has taught public health at the Mailman School of Public Health and is the founder and director of the Neglected Tropical Disease Control Project. He has also done extensive work with the Millenium Villages Project in Rwanda.

I know of Josh through some blog posts he wrote in association with Nicholas Kristof's blog in the NYT. I believe Josh has another blog now. He mentioned that Nick had visited Rwanda 3 weeks before and had sat right where I was sitting. Now that I have connections at the NYT, you can say you knew me back when I was a humble Writer-Editor at NIOSH. (Oh yeah, I'm still a humble Writer-Editor at NIOSH...)

Best of all, Josh and his wife created Heaven in Rwanda (heavenrwanda.com), the lovely restaurant in which I was enjoying delicious food and interesting company.

Location:Kigali