Geraldine Pierre Haile was born and raised in Miami, Florida, the daughter of Caribbean immigrants. At a young age, she became passionate about health care access as a matter of social justice, and has since dedicated her life to the elimination of health care disparities. Geraldine graduated from Miami Central Senior High School as Valedictorian of her 2004 class, receiving the Ron Brown, Coca Cola, and Gates Millennium scholarships in recognition of outstanding academic achievement. Geraldine then attended the University of Virginia, where she double majored in Economics and African and African-American Studies, and minored in Global Public Health. While at UVa, she started Project: Youth Uplift, an organization devoted to providing mentorship and academic support to at-risk students in middle schools across Charlottesville. Geraldine also worked with the Institute of Human Virology in Baltimore, Maryland and in Abuja, Nigeria, educating communities about HIV/AIDS and conducting research on the cost-effectiveness of several outreach efforts. Upon graduation in 2008, Geraldine entered the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and completed her Masters of Science in Public Health in Health Policy and Management in 2010. Geraldine’s thesis evaluated racial and ethnic disparities in psychotropic drug use and expenditures among older Americans. While at UNC-Chapel Hill, Geraldine worked as a research assistant at the Institute on Aging’s Center for Aging and Diversity.
In 2014, Geraldine completed her PhD in Health Policy and Management, concentrating in Health Services Research, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her dissertation assessed medical home readiness among health centers around the country. During her time at Hopkins, Geraldine also worked with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield of Maryland, the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions, as well as the Reinvestment Fund. Geraldine currently works as an independent health researcher and remains actively involved in community projects devoted to improving health care access and delivery. She has worked on projects related to HIV/AIDS, clean water, and education in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Haiti. In her free time, Geraldine enjoys traveling, scrapbooking and spending time with friends and family.