Dr. The Honourable Rufus Ewing
Dr. The Honourable Rufus W Ewing, Executive Chairman of Hamilton Education Foundation and Hamilton University School of Medicine, Former PAHO Country Program Advisor (Caribbean) and Former Minister of Health and Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Dr. The Honourable Rufus W Ewing, Executive Chairman of Hamilton Education Foundation and Hamilton University School of Medicine, Former PAHO Country Program Advisor (Caribbean) and Former Minister of Health and Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Dr. Rufus Washington Ewing was born in the Turks and Caicos Islands, where he completed his primary and secondary education before moving to Barbados in 1986 to attend the Barbados Community College to complete his A-Levels. In 1988 Dr. Ewing was admitted to the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona Campus to pursue medicine. The opportunity to study medicine in Jamaica was particularly special for Dr. Ewing as it was the place where he spent a few of his early childhood impressionable years with his aunt Nurse Joyce Beswick at the Slipe Pen Road Comprehensive Clinic, which inspired him to pursue his career in medicine.
Dr. Ewing completed his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery Degree (MBBS) followed by a Doctor of Medicine degree in General Surgery at UWI Mona and returned home to the Turks and Caicos Islands in 2001 and was appointed as a consultant General Surgeon and Deputy Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Ewing obtained a Master of Public Health degree at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and was appointed to several leadership roles including Chief Medical Officer and Director of Health Services in the Ministry of Health in The Turks and Caicos Islands. During his tenure as a senior healthcare administrator, he played a pivotal role in the evolution of healthcare in the islands from a cluster of small primary health polyclinics to state-of-the-art hospital facilities and access to quality and innovative healthcare through the implementation of the National Health Insurance Program.
In 2012 Dr. Ewing successfully contested the leadership of one of the major political parties and later that year was elected as Premier of the Turks and Caicos Islands and served as Minister of Health and Human Services and Minister of Tourism.
Dr. Ewing completed a 4-year term in political office and later joined the Pan American Health Organization as an International PAHO Consultant and an Advisor for Health Systems and Services, supporting Caribbean Ministries in the strengthening of their health systems.
Dr. Ewing served as PAHO Country Program Advisor for the Caribbean based at PAHO Headquarters in Washington DC, and as Advisor for Health Systems and Services in the Office of the PAHO/WHO Representation for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Countries.
Dr. Ewing also serves as an Honorary Associate Lecturer in Surgery at the University of the West Indies, Director of the Omnicare Medical Centers in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Chairman of the Board of Medinco Group, Chairman of the Board of the Youth HELP Foundation Inc, in Florida and Virginia, and Chairman of the Board of Hamilton Education Foundation Ltd, the developers of the Hamilton University School of Medicine in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
