Thomas Harkins

Thomas Harkins joined the HSRC in December of 2007.  He came to Miami from the Pan American Health Organization (WHO) in Washington, DC, where served as a Technical Officer in Family and Community Health for 4 years.  At PAHO, he collaborated on evaluating child survival interventions, with a special focus on creating and documenting synergies in clinic and community-based efforts.  His work focused on combining qualitative and quantitative methods in triangulating and documenting the results and impacts of public health interventions.  He also supported the expansion of new child health clinical protocols thought the Americas.  He has worked in nine countries in Latin America and has recently published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and presented posters at the American Public Health Association (APHA) and Global Health Council meetings describing project results in Central and South America. 

Mr. Harkins received his MPH from the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in 2003.  Before heading to New Orleans, Mr. Harkins worked as a Program Manager for Congreso de Latinos Unidos in his native Philadelphia.   He became interested in public health after serving as a rural health specialist with the US Peace Corps in Ecuador from 1996-1998 where he organized a network of community health promoters in remote forest communities on the Pacific Coast.  He created linkages between the promoters and Ministry of Health clinics and posts. Mr. Harkins also received a MA in Development Anthropology from Binghamton University in 1994, where he wrote a thesis on the economic history of land tenure, human migration and coca leaf cultivation in Bolivia.

Tom is a life-long fly-fisherman and looks forward to exploring and fishing Florida Bay and the Keys.