Case 10.1: Global Health Care
Case Synopsis and Analysis
This case study portrays Paul Farmer, founder and head of Partners in Health (PIH), a
nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing health care to impoverished individuals across
the globe. Paul went to Haiti after graduating college and discovered his calling: to be a
doctor for poor people. He created Partners in Health in 1987 and began building schools and
clinics in Haiti to prevent disease through treatment and education. He did this while
attending medical school at Harvard University. After completing his medical degree, he
became a fellow with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston but remained in Haiti
during most of his fellowship. Eventually, he helped spearhead programs to assist with
tuberculosis, AIDS, and other diseases in Africa, Peru, and even the United States. By 2009,
PIH had grown to 11,000 employees working in 11 countries. Paul continues to travel the
world, monitoring these programs, raising money for PIH, and leading the Department of
Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard.
This case study portrays a servant leader who works tirelessly to achieve his vision. Students
will be inspired by Dr. Farmer’s story.
Learning Objectives:
• Students should be able to apply the servant leader behaviors to a leader.
• Students should begin to understand some of the strengths of being a servant
leader.
Answers to Questions in the Text:
1. Would you characterize Paul Farmer as a servant leader? Explain your answer.
Greenleaf has written that servant leadership “begins when leaders commit
themselves to putting their followers first, being honest with them, and treating them
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publications, 2021
2. Putting others first is the essence of servant leadership. In what way does Paul Farmer
put others first?
3. Another characteristic of a servant leader is getting followers to serve. Who are Paul
Farmer’s followers, and how did they become servants to his vision?
Paul has followers working in his organization. His vision is compelling; he is a
4. What role do you think Paul Farmer’s childhood had in his development as a servant
leader?
Northouse, Leadership 9e
SAGE Publications, 2021
Potential Teaching Approaches:
Below is a way to structure a class based on Servant Leadership and Case Study 10.1:
• Hold a lecture on servant leadership.
Exercises for This Case Study:
1. The professor should show a video about Paul Farmer and/or the Partners in Health
2. Paul Farmer had a strong vision for himself and his work. The professor could discuss
that and work with students to create their own mission for giving and serving.
Students could create their own mission/vision statements through free online
mission-building programs, or the professor could ask some targeted questions to help
students develop missions. Potential questions could include:
• How do you want to be remembered when you die?
• What cause is important to your heart? Cancer, education, equal rights . . .
• How can you make a difference in the world?
3. In small groups, after watching the video listed above, students should discuss and
outline tangible ways they can help to support the PIH organization. Groups can also
discuss their own goals for making a difference—what are they? How can they enlist