Humanitarian Logistics: The Challenges of the Relief Effort in Haiti

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Speakers
Jarrod Goentzel, Executive Director, MIT Supply Chain Management Program And Research Director for Humanitarian Logistics

Kathryn Kempton, Director of Procurement, Partners in Health 

Time

Thursday, September 23, 2010 5:30 PM Registration and Networking 6:15 PM Dinner 7:00 PM Presentation 8:15 PM Questions and Answers 8:30 PM Adjourn

Learn About
Partners In Health (PIH) is a Boston based NGO that is known for demonstrating that “allegedly untreatable” diseases can in fact be treated in impoverished settings. Featured in Tracy Kidder's best-selling book Mountains Beyond Mountains, PIH is focused on addressing the root causes of poverty by engaging the community and working with the public sector to strengthen health systems and improve the country’s health infrastructure. PIH has been providing health care in the rural Central Plateau of Haiti, north of Port au Prince, since the mid-1980s. Having outgrown its initial supply chain configuration, PIH began working with the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics in 2009 to effectively scale up operations. The January 2010 earthquake added further stress to the PIH supply chain with the rapid ramp-up of clinics in four spontaneous settlement camps in and around Port au Prince. This session provides an overview of the PIH supply chain: pre- and post-earthquake. We will discuss a model developed by MIT that dramatically improves demand forecasting and provides simulation capabilities. Results from the model demonstrate that changes in inventory management approaches can drastically reduce warehouse space requirements for PIH while reducing the cost of emergency procurement. We close with an overview of healthcare supply chains in other resource-constrained areas of the world and with an update on the situation in Haiti.

About our Speakers
Jarrod Goentzel is Executive Director of the MIT Supply Chain Management Program, a 9-month professional master's degree. He is also Research Director for the Humanitarian Logistics and the Renewable Energy Delivery projects at the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. Previously, Dr. Goentzel directed the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program, leading MIT’s role in developing novel education, research, and outreach programs with the Zaragoza Logistics Center in Spain. He received a Ph.D. from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech. Since 2004, Dr. Goentzel has worked with humanitarian and global health organizations such as World Food Programme, Oxfam, Red Cross, Save the Children, Partners In Health, John Snow Inc. and USAID to develop supply chains that effectively meet needs.

Kathryn Kempton is the Director of Procurement at Partners In Health. She has worked at PIH for 12 years and has overseen the growth of the procurement efforts to serve PIH’s expansion within Haiti, as well as the implementation of health projects in three African countries. Ms. Kempton has extensive experience managing essential drug programs in resource-poor settings, both from the programs’ inception and through periods of rapid expansion. She has worked closely with the World Health Organization to address issues of access to drugs for the treatment of multi drug-resistant tuberculosis, and has also collaborated with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria on the provision of generic anti-retroviral drugs for HIV+ patients. Ms. Kempton holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Boston University.

Registration Fee
Non-members are always welcome. The registration fee is $40 if prepaid by Monday, September 20. Payments after this date or at the door (walk-ins) are $45. The prepaid fee is $20 for the unemployed and $15 for full-time students. Limited availability of reduced pricing.

Questions on registration: Call Francois Charvet at 314-629-3722
Questions on event content: Call Mark Sotir at 508-337-4999 

Register online
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