Malaria Control Program Staff

Frank O. Richards Jr., M.D., Director, Malaria Control Program, River Blindness Program, Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program, and Schistosomiasis Control Program
An expert in parasitic and tropical diseases from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Richards has worked extensively in Latin America and Africa. He directs the River Blindness Program and the Center's schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis programs in Nigeria. He also supervises the Center's new malaria control initiative in Ethiopia. Dr. Richards holds faculty appointments at the Emory Rollins School of Public Health (Global Health), the Emory School of Medicine, and Scripps Research Institute in San Diego and is on staff at two Atlanta hospitals – Grady Memorial and Egleston Children's Hospital.

Dr. Richards' career has focused on issues of global health, most of them dedicated to disease control and eradication in the Americas and Africa. He worked on schistosomiasis control in Egypt, Guinea worm eradication in Cameroon, lymphatic filariasis in Haiti and Nigeria, and malaria control in Guatemala. Dr. Richards' particular expertise is in onchocerciasis (river blindness) and the delivery of Mectizan® tablets (donated by Merck & Co.) through mass drug administration programs. He has been involved in the Guatemalan Mectizan distribution program since 1987 and in the Nigerian Mectizan distribution program since 1992. He participated in the launching and operations of two major regional river blindness programs: The Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (launched in 1992), which reaches six countries in the Americas, and the African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (launched in 1996), reaching 18 countries in Africa.Read full bio >


Paul Emerson, Ph.D., Co-Director, Malaria Control Program;  Director, Trachoma Control Program
Dr. Emerson joined The Carter Center as director for the Trachoma Control Program in November 2004.   He has spent nearly a decade devoted to operational research and program evaluation in support of the global effort to control trachoma. Dr. Emerson was named co-director of the Malaria Control Program in 2006 and oversees the program's integration with trachoma control activities in Ethiopia.

Before joining The Carter Center, Dr. Emerson was a research fellow at the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. There he was the principal investigator for evaluations of Helen Keller International and World Vision trachoma control programs in Morocco, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nepal, Vietnam, Tanzania, and Ethiopia in addition to leading operational research in The Gambia and lecturing.

Previously, as principal investigator, Dr. Emerson led the United Kingdom Medical Research Council in The Gambia in conducting the first rigorous study establishing the importance of flies in trachoma transmission and the impact of latrines on trachoma control. He also has led a project to write a practical toolbox for trachoma program managers to implement the "F" and "E" components of the SAFE strategy for trachoma control: Surgery; Antibiotic treatment; Facial cleanliness/hygiene promotion; and Environmental improvement.Read full bio >

Gregory Noland, Ph.D., Epidemiologist, Malaria Control Program
Dr. Gregory Noland joined The Carter Center in June 2011. As program epidemiologist, Dr. Noland provides scientific support to the Center's Malaria Control Program. Dr. Noland has more than a decade of basic and applied research experience in malaria and other parasitic diseases.

Prior to joining The Carter Center, Dr. Noland was a project manager and postdoctoral fellow for a University of Minnesota malaria research program in Kisumu, Kenya, in partnership with the Kenya Medical Research Institute. While in Kisumu, Dr. Noland managed operations of a more than 40-person staff on a multimillion dollar research program to examine the epidemiology of malaria transmission and immunity in western Kenya. Prior to that, from 1998 to 2001, he was a guest researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Parasitic Diseases.

Dr. Noland received a doctoral degree in molecular microbiology and immunology in 2007 from Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health, where his thesis evaluated the impact of intestinal helminth infection on malaria disease progression, transmission, and vaccine response. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Davidson College and currently is pursuing a Master of Public Health degree in global epidemiology from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

Amy Patterson, Ph.D., M.H.S., Assistant Director, Malaria Control Program
Dr. Patterson is responsible for providing support to the Carter Center malaria control programs in Ethiopia and Nigeria. She applies her background in social and behavioral sciences to the improvement of malaria behavior change communication strategies as well as the development of protocols and data collection tools for the evaluation of Carter Center malaria control activities in these countries.

Dr. Patterson comes to The Carter Center with more than five years of research experience in the field of child health, with a focus on malaria in Mali. She directed an operational research project for the President's Malaria Initiative in Mali from 2008-2009 and has been a guest researcher in the malaria branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 2007. Her interests include: social and cultural determinants of health, health communications, mixed methods research designs, and program evaluation. Dr. Patterson has taught courses on research methods, grant writing, and behavioral science at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health and courses on child health and malaria in Emory's undergraduate minor in global health, culture, and society.

She received a bachelor's degree from Williams College with a double major in English and biology, and a Master of Health Sciences degree from the International Health Department of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, with a concentration on social and behavioral interventions. Dr. Patterson received her Ph.D. from the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for her dissertation research in Mali, which focused on social, cultural and health systems influences on the effectiveness of bed net distribution activities and malaria communications.

Lauri Hudson-Davis, Administrative Assistant, River Blindness, Guinea Worm, Lymphatic Filariasis, Schistosomiasis, and Malaria Programs
Ms. Hudson-Davis acts as a liaison between program staff, field offices, and consultants.  She coordinates annual program meetings and other events, compiles and edits program reports, and provides support to travelers.  She also takes on special projects and occasionally visits programs in the field to collect data on program performance.  Ms. Hudson-Davis graduated cum laude from Centenary College New Jersey in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science degree in business management.