Where We Work
See our interactive map
Dr. Roy Jacobstein
Dr. Roy Jacobstein, pediatrician and renowned public health physician, has joined IntraHealth International as senior medical advisor to president and CEO Pape Gaye. Based in IntraHealth's North Carolina headquarters, Dr. Jacobstein will work closely with IntraHealth’s global leadership team on strategies and programming to advance family planning and sexual health services in communities around the world.
Dr. Jacobstein’s stellar contributions to reproductive health, family planning, child health, and public health services in low-resource settings span over 30 years—from Washington DC, to Indo-Chinese refugee camps, to countries across Africa and Asia.
He served as an expert technical advisor at the World Health Organization (WHO), where he has been a key contributor to developing and updating WHO’s central guidance documents, Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use and Family Planning: A Global Handbook for Providers.
He also participated in the WHO deliberations that considered the evidence of a possible association between hormonal contraception and HIV acquisition, and issued guidance related to the issue.
Dr. Jacobstein presented at the most recent conferences of the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition, the International Confederation of Midwives, and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. His many widely cited peer-reviewed papers focus on a range of technical and programmatic topics, including unmet need for family planning, hormonal implants, vasectomy, contraceptive security, and fostering provider behavior-change in medical settings.
Before joining IntraHealth, Dr. Jacobstein served for over a decade as chief of the Communication, Management, and Training Division in the Office of Population at the U.S. Agency for International Development, as well as EngenderHealth’s medical director and clinical director of the ACQUIRE and RESPOND Projects.
"I've long admired IntraHealth for its dynamism, its global influence, its commitment to the health worker—whom we often take for granted—and for its commitment to strengthening health systems," Dr. Jacobstein says. "Yet it's fair and accurate to remind ourselves that 'no provider, no program.' And 'no health system, no program.' We're seeing this now with the Ebola crisis, and we've seen it over the years in family planning."
"We are very happy to welcome Dr. Jacobstein to the president’s office here at IntraHealth," Pape Gaye says. "I look forward to working closely with him as we broaden our impact and make family planning available to all those who need it. As we know, family planning is one of the smartest investments a country can make in its own future—both for the health of its people and for its level of development."