https://csd.columbia.edu/people/sonia-ehrlich-sachs

Sonia Ehrlich Sachs

Research Scholar

Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, MD, MPH is a pediatrician, an endocrinologist and public health specialist. Since 2005 she has been leading efforts at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, to design and implement low-cost primary health systems in low-income rural Africa and India. Dr. Sachs is also the Director of the One Million CHW Campaign, advocating for professionalized Community Health Workers.

Sonia Ehrlich Sachs, MD, MPH is a pediatrician, an endocrinologist and public health specialist. She received a BA from Harvard University, an MD from the University of Maryland Medical School, and an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Sachs practiced medicine for over 20 years, 14 of which she spent at the Harvard University Health Services in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Since 2005 she has been leading efforts at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, to design and implement low-cost primary health systems in low-income rural Africa and India. Her focus is on systems delivery, primarily for maternal and child health, at local to national scales. Dr. Sachs coordinated the health sector for the Millennium Villages Project, overseeing all health-related interventions and research. The Millennium Villages Project was an integrated rural development initiative in ten sub-Saharan African countries designed to help poor rural communities accelerate reaching the Millennium Development Goals using a science-based, community led approach of integrated interventions that increase food production, access to health care, education, water, infrastructure and business development.

Dr. Sachs was involved in the EI health team advisory to Haiti, India and Nigeria. She is also the Director of the One Million CHW Campaign advocating for professionalized Community Health Workers, a cadre that is paid, supervised and supported by use of information, communication technology. Sachs and her team currently advise the government of Ghana on the national scale up of Community Health Workers, including the national scale up of mHealth and Telemedicine.

Selected Publications

• Early detection of maternal deaths in Senegal through household-based death notification integrating verbal and social autopsy: a community-level case study, 2015-12

• The Millennium Villages Project: A protocol for the final evaluation, 2015-03

• HIV affected households in Western Kenya experience greater food insecurity, 2013-10

• Nutritional Status of Under-Five Children in HIV-Affected Households in Western Kenya, 2011-06-16

• Risk factors for non-communicable diseases among older adults in rural Africa, 2011-05

• Millennium Global Village-Net: Bringing together Millennium Villages throughout sub-Saharan Africa, 2009-09-21

• Incorporating a Rapid-Impact Package for Neglected Tropical Diseases with Programs for HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, 2006-01-31