William R. Brieger is a Public Health Education Specialist with a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) in International Health from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and a Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He served as a professor in both the Health Systems and the Social and Behavioral Interventions Programs of the Department of International Health at The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health from 2002-2024 and was an Adjunct Associate Professor from 1994-2002. He also worked as JHPIEGO’s Senior Malaria Specialist from 2007-2020.
Dr. Brieger conducted teaching, research, and public health consultation in the African Regional Health Education Center (current Department of Health Promotion and Education) at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria, from 1976 to 2002. He is internationally renowned for his expertise in the social and behavioral aspects of disease control and prevention, with special emphasis on formative research, primary health care/community systems development, training/continuing education, behavior change program design and evaluation, and community participation.
A particular focus of his work has been training village health workers, peer educators, community directed distributors (for onchocerciasis and other NTDs), and other community resource persons to take an active role in health education and health service delivery. He has served as a consultant in developing community participation, health education and health systems strengthening interventions with organizations such as US CDC, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, US Peace Corps, the JHU Center for Communications Programs and various USAID implementing partners. He has been a member of several scientific working groups, most recently serving on the WHO African Region’s Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group. He has pioneered online teaching since 1996 and delivers courses and programs to graduate level programs at JHU and through Coursera.
Dr. Brieger has published more than 180 scientific articles focusing on the social and cultural aspects of disease control, health systems development, training of community health workers, community systems strengthening and community participation strategies.