Dr. Nirav Shah

The son of immigrants from India, NIRAV SHAH is the Director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Previously, he served as the Director of the Illinois Department of Health.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Shah served as the Chief Economist of the Ministry of Health of Cambodia, during his tenure as a Henry Luce Scholar. In Cambodia, he worked on a variety of public health programs aimed at reducing corruption in the health care system. In particular, he designed a system that reduced the number of administrative steps required to transfer funds from the central Ministry to rural hospitals, thereby reducing opportunities for corruption and graft. Dr. Shah completed both his medical and law degrees at University of Chicago. After graduating from college, he studied economics at Oxford University.