As a kid growing up in Weekiwatchee, Florida, Paul E. Farmer says he knew he wanted to be a doctor.

Now he is Assistant Professor of Medical Anthropology in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and has co-founded an organization that brings health care services to poor communities in Haiti, Peru, Mexico, and the United States.

Outside of the classroom, he treats patients with infectious diseases and teaches students in infectious disease clinical rotations.

Last week, he and his wife, Didi Bartrand, a medical anthropologist from Haiti, moved into Eliot House. They are expecting a baby girl in January.

Spending seven months of the year working in Haiti and Peru, Farmer says the move is "a good way to be a part of the [Harvard] community."

Farmer, whose younger brother is the professional wrestler Cobra on World Championship Wrestling, says that he balances his work with action films.

Farmer says that he sees himself as a doctor first and a teacher and researcher second.

"A number of students are happy with these rankings," he says. "They would prefer me to rank the struggles of the destitute sick over problems of students. They respect that."

Farmer says that he is impassioned by his work in Haiti and Peru.

"The inequalities [in health care] one encounters going from rural Haiti to Harvard are shocking and that leads to a sense of indignation which is helpful," he says. "It fuels passion for work."

In response to what he saw, Farmer co-founded Partners in Health (PIH) in 1987 while still a Harvard Medical School student.

According to its mission statement, PIH's goal is "to make a 'preferential option for the poor in health care' by working with community-based organizations on projects designed to improve the health and well-being of people struggling against poverty."

PIH has established partnerships with sister organizations in Haiti, Peru, Mexico and the United States.

In Haiti, PIH and Haitian coworkers built a hospital in rural Cange. It serves more than 30,000 patients a year and is the premier medical facility in Haiti's central plateau, according to a PIH release.

In Peru, PIH is helping to combat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis and the myth that it cannot be treated in poor communities. Farmer reports that rates of these strains of TB are going down with long-term consistent use of drugs.