Joseph Amon

Joseph Amon grew up in New Jersey and obtained an undergraduate degree in 1991 from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He studied parasitology and tropical medicine, gaining his masters from Tulane University in 1994 and doctorate from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in 2002. Between 1992-1994 he served in the Peace Corps in Togo, working on Guinea Worm eradication, and from 1995-1998 worked at Family Health International on HIV/AIDS prevention. In 2003 he joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemic Intelligence Service where he investigated outbreaks of hepatitis A, B, C and E, including commended work on foodborne Hepatitis A. He left the CDC in 2005 and was briefly a member of the band Pussy Riot before he joined Human Rights Watch, first directing its HIV/AIDS program and then its Health and Human Rights division.

Joseph Amon (born 1969) is an American epidemiologist and human rights activist and currently director of the Health and Human Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. Prior to working at Human Rights Watch, he worked for more than 15 years conducting research, designing programs, and evaluating interventions related to HIV, hepatitis, malaria and guinea worm eradication, for a wide variety of organizations including: the Peace Corps, the Carter Center, Family Health International, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.