Timothy  Holtz

Timothy H. Holtz, MD, MPH, FACP, FACPM, is an adjunct associate professor of global health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, and has taught courses in TB and health and human rights in the past. Between 2004–2009 he also taught an elective in human rights and social medicine for medical students. A graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Iowa Medical School, Dr. Holtz trained in primary care medicine at Harvard University/Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge MA, after which he worked with the Tibetan Government-in-exile in the Indian Himalaya while on a Health and Human Rights fellowship from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is board certified in internal medicine as well as preventive medicine, and was elected as a Fellow in the American College of Physicians in 2003, and a Fellow in the American College of Preventive Medicine in 2015.

While completing his preventive medicine residency he was intensely involved with the response to the World Trade Center Disaster and anthrax attacks in 2001. From 2002–2009 Dr. Holtz worked in southern Africa, Eastern Europe, and South America on multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) control and TB/HIV program capacity building. Dr. Holtz was part of a team of scientists to recognize the emerging threat of resistance to second-line anti-TB drugs, and his analysis established the evidence base for the working definition and acronym for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR TB). He has worked with several governments in sub-Saharan Africa to evaluate the extent of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the continent, and formulate policies to address TB and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Holtz has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, and from 2006–2009 was a representative to the STOP TB Partnership’s Green Light Committee (GLC). The GLC provides access to preferentially priced second-line drugs for MDR/XDR TB treatment to national TB programs while ensuring rational use through mandatory program review and monitoring.

Dr. Holtz is currently working in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to increase access to HIV care and treatment, improve HIV testing yield, and decrease stigma and discrimination – as India has the 3rd largest number of PLHIV. Previously, from 2012-2016 he was the chief site investigator for clinical prevention research activities on HIV and STDs in Thailand with the Emory-CDC Clinical Trials Unit, including clinical trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV using antiretroviral medications among people who inject drugs and high-risk men who have sex with men.

He is a founding member of Doctors for Global Health (DGH), a non-governmental organization that runs health and human rights programs in Central America, South America, and Africa, and served on its board from 1997–2003. The core principles of DGH are firmly rooted in social justice and human rights, delivering quality medical care and fostering social rights among impoverished and marginalized communities. Along with Drs. Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Yogan Pillay, Dr. Holtz is a co-editor of the 3rd (2009) and 4th (2017) editions of the Oxford University Press’ Textbook of International Health: Global Health in a Dynamic World. His medical memoir of working in India with Tibetan refugees, entitled “A Doctor in Little Lhasa: One Year in Dharamsala with the Tibetans in Exile” was published in 2009. He has received multiple awards for his public health service, from the American Public Health Association, and from his alma mater University of Iowa College of Medicine.