Paul Farmer (1959-2022) was a founding director and chief strategist of Partners In Health, the Boston-based non-profit, social justice organization dedicated to providing quality, modern healthcare to impoverished regions around the world. A physician, anthropologist, and activist, he was also a Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University as well as chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. Among his numerous awards and honors is the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Berggruen Prize.

The author of Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History, Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, and Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor, Farmer, along with his fellow Partners In Health cofounders Jim Yong Kim and Ophelia Dahl, were featured in the documentary about their organization, Bending the Arc.